Guest conductor refreshingly original, wonderfully musical

UTAH SYMPHONY, CELLIST NATALIE CLEIN, CONDUCTOR ARILD REMMEREIT, Abravanel Hall, Friday, additional performance today (355-2787)

The Utah Symphony's guest conductor this weekend, Arild Remmereit, is no mere time beater. His conducting style is completely different from most of the conductors who have appeared in Abravanel Hall. His gestures on the podium are very free and frequently look like he's trying to draw the sound out of the orchestra. It works, and he is a welcome change from the average.

Average is not the word one would use to describe Remmereit. He is a refreshingly original and wonderfully musical conductor — the kind that the Utah Symphony desperately needs.

The program with which Remmereit chose to make his debut with the Utah Symphony has the Brahms Third Symphony as the opening work. And this was the kind of Brahms interpretation that hasn't been heard here in some time.

Conducting without a score, Remmereit's account of the Third was beautifully lyrical and expressive. His tempos were consistently on the slow side allowing for wonderfully fluid lines, broad phrasings and seamless playing.

Natalie Clein is this weekend's soloist in the Elgar Cello Concerto. A performer of consummate musicality and impeccable technique, she gave a glowingly nuanced reading that didn't miss a thing. It was as if this concerto was written for her.

Her collaboration with Remmeit, with whom she has worked several times in the past, was sublime. They had the same approach to the work: they captured the dark, brooding quality of the music with effusive lyricism. It was a musical pairing without equal.

Clein and the orchestra also played an encore — a new arrangement for cello and orchestra of Piazzolla's lushly sensuous "Milonga."

The evening ended powerfully with the four dances from Ginastera's early ballet "Estancia."

Remmereit captured the raw, driving energy and jagged rhythms of the three fast dances ("The Land Workers," "The Cattlemen" and "Malambo," a piece that has achieved pop status) and the warm sensuality of the slow "Wheat Dance."

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com