Conductor makes stunning debut

UTAH SYMPHONY, DAVID ANGUS, Abravanel Hall, Saturday

Without a soloist the spotlight at this weekend's Utah Symphony concert was clearly on guest conductor David Angus, who made a stunning debut in a program of Britten, Mahler and Bruckner.

With impressive credentials in both concert halls and opera houses primarily throughout Europe, Angus hopes to make inroads into the American musical scene, and given his amazing performance in Abravanel Hall Saturday, he is bound to make his wish come true.

At least, that's what should happen.

Angus is a wonderfully talented and musical conductor with remarkable interpretative skills who knows how to elicit a finely nuanced and well-crafted performance from his orchestra.

At Saturday's concert, the Utah Symphony responded wonderfully to his direction. It played with a shimmering brilliance that has too often been lacking of late. Simply stated, Angus knew how to bring out the best in his players.

And the audience was the beneficiary of this outstanding collaboration.

The evening opened with Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem. An early work, written when the composer was 26, it is one of his finest orchestral pieces, emotionally intense and abounding in rich textures and harmonies.

Angus gave a compelling reading that captured the emotional force of the work. He brought out the dark sinister overtones of the opening "Lacrymosa," the demonic fury of the "Dies irae" and the bright lyricism of the closing "Requiem aeternam" with a leanness of means that made it all the more striking.

The Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 followed next. Beautifully phrased and wonderfully articulated, Angus coaxed a seamless reading of the piece out of the string section, which played it with wonderfully lyrical expressiveness.

The evening ended with Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, easily the most popular of the composer's nine symphonies.

Throughout the work, Angus took Bruckners' tempo indications to heart. Consequently, this was one of the most expansive accounts of the work heard here. But rather than being bogged down under its own weight, Angus' choice of tempos allowed him to bring out all of the wonderful nuances of the score. His perceptive reading captured the sweeping lines and brought a seamless flow to the music.

The orchestra played the symphony radiantly. In particular, principal horn Bruce Giffor, principal flute Erich Graf and principal clarinet Tad Calcara must be mentioned, as well as the entire brass section. They showed once again, that they are one of the best in the business.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com