By
Bryce Christensen
A half century ago, the
great American composer Aaron Copland recognized in Tanglewood and the music
festival it hosts a critically important venue where “talented young musicians
. . . gather.” When such young
musicians come together in such a setting, Copland believed, “their very
presence . . . [can] act as a stimulus” to great music. As the audience who gathered at the
Heritage Center on April 18th can attest, the Orchestra of Southern
Utah’s Roy L. Halversen Young Artist Concert has developed
into a Tanglewood-like opportunity for promising young musicians in this
area. Named for an outstanding
teacher whose decades of selfless service inspired hundreds of aspiring young
musicians at Southern Utah University and in the surrounding community, the
Halversen Concert—like Tanglewood and its festival—gives rising young stars a
chance to showcase and develop their talents. Without
question, the four young guest soloists and the young guest conductor who
performed at this year’s Halversen concert created a potent stimulus to musical
excellence.
During the evening’s
first number—Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2— the stimulus of young
talent was most visible in on the conductor’s podium, where the
twenty-two-year-old guest conductor Zheng Guo showed how remarkably well a
young hand can wield the baton in eliciting a masterful performance of a
difficult classical piece. From
the stirring opening trumpet notes to the kinetic conclusion of this
richly-textured piece, Guo was in complete command, handling the quieter,
reflective passages with tender sensitivity, but rendering Liszt’s kinetic
eruptions with energy and passion.
Under Guo’s poised direction, OSU musicians melded their gifts in an
irresistible interplay of winds, brass, strings, and percussion. Particularly notable in this interplay
were the memorable solos by trumpeter Adam Lambert, trombonist Michelle
Lambert, clarinetist Sarah Solberg, and violinist LuAnne Brown—solos that stood
out like shining gems embedded in an arabesque work of jewelry. Although not a
soloist, OSU’s conductor and director Xun Sun did his part in this selection
and in the evening’s final number by taking a seat in the violin section, as a
hand that normally swings the baton skillfully applied a bowstring under the
direction of a talented young guest.
For the second number, Summer by Vivaldi, Sun took
his accustomed place on the conductor’s podium, where he again manifested the
consummate musicianship that has now captivated Cedar City listeners for a
decade. But during this enchanting
number, the limelight belonged not to Sun but to violinist Kristen Nielsen, one
of four young soloists selected for this year’s Halversen’s Concert through
competitive auditions. Playing
with the aplomb and self-possession of a seasoned virtuoso, Nielsen segued
effortlessly from the languid opening notes of this Vivaldi masterpiece to the
frenetic tempestuousness of the stormy later passages. Though Nielsen unfolded much of her
solo work against the broad backdrop of a tapestry spun out by the entire
orchestra, she played some especially beautiful passages in tightly
choreographed back-and-forth duets with her sister, Julie Davis, playing the
cello.
In the concert’s third
number the aria “Quando m’ en vo’” [“Musetta’s Waltz”] from Puccini’s La Bohème, the
spotlight shifted to soprano Rylee Dalton. From the moment she first opened her mouth, Dalton poured
forth a stream of pure gold. With
impressive vocal gifts, Dalton made the famous aria luminous with the irrepressible
desires of a beautiful and flirtatious woman, provoking the attention of all,
but seeking the devotion of one.
Dalton displayed the marvelous richness of her voice to particularly
good effect in the soaring conclusion of this number, as she effortlessly
ascended her seemingly unbounded range.
The mood
shifted markedly when cellist Michael Wager took over as soloist for the First
Movement of Elgar’s Cello
Concerto, a
melancholy and brooding number.
With nuanced deftness of expression, Wager conveyed this dark
composition’s deeply moving strain of pathos, a pathos born of Elgar’s deep
distress over the carnage of World War I.
His performance poignantly complemented by the orchestra, Wager carried
listeners from a subdued and reflective grief to a sense of mourning mounting
to surprisingly majestic dignity.
The shadows of elegy
gave way to the brilliance of celebration in Sibelius’ technically demanding Violin
Concerto, as
violinist Hillary Dalton took the stage as the last of the evening featured
youth soloists. Listeners could
only marvel at the way Dalton performed the most daunting passages—passages
requiring rapid movement through complex phrasings—not only with flawless
technique but also with evident relish.
This was clearly a musician who positively enjoyed meeting musical
challenges! Though Dalton’s
success in meeting such challenges was most obvious in the numerous feverishly
dynamic sections of this number, her success was also evident in the more muted
and pensive sections, sections Dalton rendered with liquid delicacy.
Though the parade of the
Halversen soloists ended with the Intermission, the evening’s final number--
The Moldau
by Smetana—reminded listeners that OSU need not bring in a young guest
conductor from China to find a strikingly-gifted musician to take the podium
whenever Master Sun wishes to employ his abilities in the violin section. OSU Assistant Conductor Gerald Rheault
indeed handled the baton for this last number with singular mastery, leading
the orchestra in an artfully modulated performance of a many-hued musical
evocation of the heart-stirring beauties of central Europe. Named for a river that cuts through
what was once Czechoslovakia, this Romantic treasure sparkles again and again
as it transports listeners from Bavarian springs where the river originates,
through valleys where it swells in volume and strength, and finally broadens
into regal breadth on the plains near Prague. Thanks to the interpretive deftness evinced by Rheault and
the OSU musicians under his direction, listeners felt the natural growth of a
brook augmented by tributaries, the turbulent cascades of a river fighting its
way through a rocky gorge, the placid serenity of a mature river. They also felt the echoes of human
activities along the swelling river’s banks—the clamorous excitement of a hunt,
the communal joy of a wedding, the proud glories of an aristocrat’s
castle.
As the emphatic last
note of the Smetana number died away, listeners realized that another wonderful
concert, another wonderful concert season, had ended. But because of the way the Halversen concert—Southern Utah’s
own little evocation of Tanglewood---fosters youthful talent, these listeners
had every reason to hope that excellent music will continue to be a culturally
enriching part of Cedar City for decades to come!
