Guest conductor captures nuances

UTAH SYMPHONY, Abravanel Hall, Friday, additional performance today, 8 p.m., 355-2787

The parade of guest conductors who are potential music director candidates for the Utah Symphony continues this weekend with Pietari Inkinen making his Utah Symphony debut Friday in an interesting program that includes Mozart's Requiem.

Opening the concert were two French works: Messiaen's "Les Offrandes oubliees" and Debussy's cantata "La Damoiselle elue."

Messiaen's piece is his first major work. It's quite straightforward, rather bland in its orchestration, but with hints of how he would develop as a composer.

The orchestra played wonderfully. The piece was articulate and well executed, and Inkinen captured the nuances of the score.

Debussy's piece, scored for soprano, alto and women's chorus, is also an early piece. Joining the orchestra and the women of the Utah Symphony Chorus were soprano Maureen McKay and mezzo Cynthia Hanna.

The work is lushly romantic with only the faintest hints of impressionistic writing. It's effusively lyrical, which Inkinen brought out. His reading was also nicely nuanced, allowing him to capture the subtleties of the music.

McKay and Hanna sang well. Their lyrical voices brought fine expressiveness to their parts. The same was also true for the women's chorus — their singing was fluid and expressive.

Mozart's Requiem, in which tenor George Dyer and bass Derrick Parker joined McKay and Hanna, was another matter. While Inkinen did a fine job in the first half, the Requiem left much to be desired.

First off, playing it was the full complement of instruments and voices, which changes the character of the work completely. The Requiem loses its intimacy and appealing poignancy with a large orchestra. With Mozart, less is always better.

And Inkinen's treatment of the work was filled with theatricality and drama. The way Inkinen approached it showed that if picked as the new music director, the orchestra would have a Keith Lockhart clone, although a more musical one — at least in large scale works. And that's certainly not what the Utah Symphony needs.

There were some nice things about the Requiem, though. The "Tuba mirum" and "Hostias" were nicely done and the soloists sang the "Benedicamus" with fine expression.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com