Skrowaczewski ignites the Utah Symphony with his passion

UTAH SYMPHONY, STANISLAW SKROWACZEWSKI, CONDUCTOR, Abravanel Hall, Nov. 19

When he was 85 legendary conductor Pierre Monteux was approached by the London Symphony Orchestra, which wanted him as its new music director. Monteux said he would accept the offer under one condition: that he be given a 25-year contract with an option to renew for an additional 25 years. The LSO agreed and Monteux led the orchestra for a number of years, until his death in 1964 at age 89.

One can imagine the same scenario playing out with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who turned 87 last month. No orchestra in its right mind could refuse the Polish-born conductor a long-term contract. His musicality and innate interpretative talents would benefit any ensemble. He is among the last of a long line of great conductors and a worthy successor to some of the profession's legends, Monteux included.

Skrowaczewski was in Salt Lake City over the weekend directing the Utah Symphony in a profound performance of Anton Bruckner's vast Symphony No. 9. Walking onstage he may look like a frail ,elderly gentleman, but looks are deceiving. Once Skrowaczewski steps onto the podium he ignites the orchestra with his passion. With age his conducting has become less vigorous and bold, but with his minimal gestures he nevertheless imparts to the orchestra that fiery passion he has for the music. He shows the musicians and audience that one doesn't need to have choreographed moves on the podium when one has the kind of deep understanding for the music that Skrowaczewski certainly has. And with an orchestra of talented players at his fingertips, the result of this collaboration is magical.

Skrowaczewski is one of today's foremost interpreters of Bruckner's symphonies. He has recorded the Ninth three times now (with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony in Germany and most recently with Japan's Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), and he brought his perceptiveness and penetrating understanding of this work to his Utah Symphony performance.

The performance was remarkable in many ways, not the least of which was the fact that Skrowaczewski conducted the nearly hour-long symphony from memory. Without the aid of a score he still captured the nuances and brought out the finely woven interplay of the voices. His tempos in the outer movements tended towards the broad and expansive and that allowed him a much larger palette of expressions that penetrated the core of the music.