A new era officially dawned this weekend for the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, as Darko Butorac led the first concerts of his first season as artistic director for the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. Ghosts of the past were vanquished, unexpected disasters were sidestepped with ease and the trumpets of fate blew loud indeed, boldly heralding the news: Our hometown orchestra has never sounded better.
Performing a difficult program of music, the orchestra rose to every challenge in Saturday's concert - both those written on the page, and those that seemed to come out of nowhere. From the first hushed notes of Manuel de Falla's sultry “Ritual Fire Dance,” to the crashing final chords of Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikowsky's Fifth Symphony, the musicians of the orchestra played with a unity and fire that was at times breathtaking, and that set a new standard for what we can hopefully expect in the future. Prior to the concert, Butorac was introduced by Missoula Symphony Association Board President Jim Valeo and MSO executive director John Driscoll, along with a special guest in attendance, Henry Fogel. Fogel, the president of the American Symphony Orchestra League, had come to see Butorac conduct his first concert of the season after the MSO's exhaustive, two-year search for a new music director. It wasn't Fogel's first time seeing Butorac conduct, however; and he assured the Missoula audience, “For however many years (Butorac) remains here, I can tell you: You are in for the ride of your lives.” For at least this first concert, Fogel's words proved sage - perhaps even more than he intended. The concert was quite an emotional rollercoaster, one that threatened more than once to fall clean off the tracks, but that ended up a memorable thriller.
In Butorac's audition concert with the MSO last year, he demonstrated an ability to elicit a remarkably intense hush from the orchestra; his near-inaudible interpretation of Jean Sibelius' “Valse Triste” was a spellbinder. On Saturday, Butorac demonstrated that same ability right out of the box with the first, whispering strains of de Falla's miniature masterpiece. Under his baton, the piece was less fire dance than smoldering sway; but the slow interpretation worked, thanks in no small part to the focus and balance that the orchestra maintained throughout.
The second piece on the concert was Ludwig Van Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, with the solo part shredded by guest soloist Edmund Battersby. There is no way to mince words here, alas: Battersby's performance was awful. Pedal-happy and finger-tied, Battersby presented a vision of the colorfully regal concerto that was blurry and monochromatic. Shifting tempos schizophrenically and without rhyme or reason, Battersby led the orchestra on something of a fox chase throughout. This is difficult music for an orchestra to perform without an unpredictable soloist confusing matters; yet the MSO played along as if nothing were amiss, contributing - among other things - a beautifully taut, patiently paced string serenade in the middle movement. That short passage was far better than anything Battersby mustered at the keyboard. The performance was, in a strange way, a great display of the magic that seems to be developing between our new conductor and the orchestra: They played better than the guest soloist, a guy who once was referred to as “a pianist of uncommon refinement” by the New York Times.
After intermission, the MSO took the stage again for a performance of Tchaikowsky's masterpiece, which happened to be the first piece that Butorac ever conducted - when he was a student in high school. Before commencing the music, Butorac offered heartfelt appreciation for being brought to Missoula for this job, and joked about Tchaikowsky's musical exploration of themes of fate in the Fifth Symphony.“Of course he was obsessed with fate,” noted Butorac, “because he's from Russia, and things generally don't go well in Russia.” Things sure went well in Missoula though, from the moment Butorac tapped his downbeat into the expectant air. Performing the mysterious melody that haunts the opening movement of the symphony, principal clarinetist Maxine Ramey set a dark, warm mood as the strings murmured their accompaniment almost imperceptibly in the background. The rapt quietude gradually brightened and expanded, but Butorac kept the players reined in until just the right moment to let loose. And let loose they did, with several explosive climaxes over the course of the extended first movement.
The second movement of the piece is one of the most famous slow movements in the entire orchestral repertoire, thanks in large part to the glorious, extended French horn solo that begins the movement. (John Denver stole part of the melody for his popular love ode, “Annie's Song.”) It is not an easy part to play, much less play with subtlety of phrasing. But MSO principal horn player Vicki Johnson more than measured up to the task, imbuing the melody with a sense of longing and reverie. So it went throughout the rest of the music. The third movement's tricky, fast runs, which bounce between sections of the orchestra, were all handled deftly. The fourth movement, with its seemingly endless series of climaxes separated by brief ebbs, was given plenty of shape, with Butorac stabbing out the climaxes and massaging the transitions into a coherent form. It all ultimately exploded in a coda that raced breathlessly yet with seeming ease to the final climax - a climax that was only slightly louder than the thunderous standing ovation that followed. I, for one, can hardly wait to hear what comes next.
http://missoulian.com/articles/2007/09/25/news/local/znews04.txt