Europe hails Lockhart, symphony

It's not only in the Beehive State that the Utah Symphony gets applauded for its performances. Europe has recently been singing the orchestra's praises as well.

The Utah Symphony, with music director Keith Lockhart, is in Europe now in the orchestra's first tour to the other side of the Atlantic in 19 years.

The symphony played in 13 cities in Slovenia, Austria and Germany and returned to Salt Lake City on April 22 to perform concerts in Abravanel Hall next weekend.

"Well-trained musicians" and "transparent sound" are typical of the comments that have been coming in from Europe. Those phrases are from a review that ran in the Nurnberger Nachrichten on April 13, after the symphony played a concert with music by Copland, Mozart and Dvorak in Nuremberg, Germany, two days earlier.

The review further stated that "the maestro of the 'pops' offshoots from Cincinnati to Boston knows how one makes music an experience in all its details, vivid (and) vigorous. . . . The sounds of Bohemia's woods and fields also ring out over the plains and Rockies."

Lockhart has made a noticeably favorable impression on European critics. He's been referred to as a "hyperdynamic, athletic conductor" (Abendzeitung Nurnberg, April 13) and a "youthfully agile music director" (Nurnberger Zeitung, April 13).

The symphony played three different programs during the tour and was well-received, even though the musicians have a decidedly American bent with music that isn't frequently played by European orchestras.

Copland's score for the ballet "Appalachian Spring," Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story" and Barber's Violin Concerto (with the young German violinist Viviane Hagner) figured prominently in the symphony's programs.

Together with Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, and two relatively seldom-played works — Dvorak's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 (with the venerable American pianist Leon Fleisher) — Lockhart took a chance with the music. But his choices have resulted in some rave reviews.

The Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper summed up the European response: "Applause and cheers rang out, and the new and old worlds met in the encores as well."

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