SALT LAKE SYMPHONY, LAUREL ANN MAURER, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, University of Utah, Saturday.

Barbara Scowcroft has the musical Midas touch. It seems that whatever she does as a violinist or conductor sparkles.

This was clearly brought home once again this past Saturday, when Scowcroft made her conducting debut with the Salt Lake Symphony — the first woman, incidentally, to lead the orchestra in its 30-year history.

Scowcroft, a member of the Utah Symphony's first violin section, has been expanding her conducting engagements in recent years. Besides the Utah Youth Symphony, which she has directed since 1986, she is also a guest conductor at the American Festival for the Arts in Houston, Texas.

Scowcroft demonstrated her conducting talents to the fullest. Exuding a confidence on the podium that translated into dynamic leadership and compelling interpretive skills, she brought enthusiasm, vitality, and, above all, refined musicianship to her readings.

This was brought to the fore in Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C major, the "Great." Schubert's final foray into symphonic music, the Ninth is a monumental work, nearly an hour in length. In the development of the thematic material, in its scope and in its dynamic and expressive range, the composer is obviously indebted to Beethoven. Yet the Ninth is pure Schubert in its song like melodicism.

Both elements blend admirably in the work. Scowcroft captured the breadth and intensity, the almost operatic drama and the unpretentious lyricism of the symphony. Her interpretation was nuanced, insightful, compelling and infused with an electrifying energy.

The Salt Lake Symphony has never played better than it did in the Schubert.

Occasionally the brass section overpowered the rest of the orchestra but not enough to distract from the overall impact of Scowcroft's direction.

The symphony's principal flute, Laurel Ann Maurer, was Saturday's soloist, playing Dana Paul Perna's "songe de voix perdues" ("dream of the forgotten voices"), for flute and strings, in its American premiere. Perna has conjured up some resplendent sonorities that knowingly evoke impressionism. Maurer's beautiful tone and poetic playing brought a textured eloquence to the piece to Perna's overwhelmingly expressive and evocative piece.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com