Symphony gets year off to great start

Special to The Columbian Soloist Dawn Weiss joins the Vancouver Symphony at Skyview High School in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Symphony kick-started the New Year with terrific performances of works by Carl Nielsen and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The orchestra, under the baton of artistic director and conductor Salvador Brotons, took things up a notch with incisive, unified playing that made this concert one of the best I’ve heard by this ensemble. Guest artist Dawn Weiss also delivered a finely honed performance in Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, and the big Shostakovich Symphony No. 10, drove relentlessly to its final, triumphant conclusion.

Nielsen fashioned his Flute Concerto as a quirky dialog between the soloist and the orchestra. Most of the time, the soloist leads the way, and Weiss used a nice palate of colors to make her passages inviting and engaging. The conversation was often congenial yet darting as Weiss deftly handled passages that scampered about. She also phrased the brief lyrical themes with grace and kept the mood playful and vivid.

The orchestra more than held up its own end of the conversation, parrying with the soloist in a polite manner. Of course, the banter between soloist and orchestra had its ups and downs and near the end of the piece, the bass trombone, played with gusto by Douglas Peebles, tried to get the upper hand. Overall, the orchestra showed excellent intonation throughout the piece and made the piece a delight with its crisp and clean playing.

After intermission, the orchestra plunged without hesitation into the demanding Symphony No. 10 by Shostakovich. From the get-go, every section of the orchestra showed that it understood the music, where it was heading, and how to get there. Each section of the orchestra had extended passages in which it had to play with a unified sound and with just the right tone.

The menacing sound from the cellos and basses got the entire piece off to a superb start as the audience could almost feel the presence of Stalin, the vilified subject of this work. The violins sounded better than ever, and the violas also played with outstanding results. Praise should be extended to the brass and to the woodwind sections as well.

Highlights of this performance included the fine playing of Igor Shakham, principal clarinet, Allen Stromquist, principal horn, and Margaret McShea, principal bassoon. Brotons did a remarkable job, conducting this hourlong work from memory, and his baton-work seemed to inspire the orchestra to a higher level of music-making. As a result, the ending was visceral and triumphant, and the audience responded with enthusiasm.

The beginning of the concert suffered from a long delay due to a scheduling conflict with a wrestling tournament that caused a logjam in the parking lot and a “wardrobe malfunction” that was mentioned from the stage by the orchestra’s president, Celia Gesting. Nevertheless, novice guest conductor Glenda Michael, who won the opportunity to lead the orchestra as a result of the orchestra’s annual gala, directed the ensemble in a robust reading of Johann Strauss Sr’s “Radetzky March.”