{"id":11727,"date":"2023-04-22T14:05:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T18:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=11727"},"modified":"2023-04-25T14:07:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T18:07:37","slug":"review-tuur-premiere-achieves-liftoff-in-utah-symphonys-northern-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-tuur-premiere-achieves-liftoff-in-utah-symphonys-northern-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: T\u00fc\u00fcr premiere achieves liftoff in Utah Symphony\u2019s Northern program"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Utah Arts Review<\/a><\/p>\n

By Rick Mortensen<\/p>\n

Fresh on the heels of conducting a sublime performance of Bruckner\u2019s monumental Symphony No. 5, music director Thierry Fischer returned to the Utah Symphony to conduct another seminal fifth symphony, this one by Sibelius. The program also included Sibelius\u2019s Finlandia and the U.S. premiere of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven T\u00fc\u00fcr\u2019s Lux Stellarum. The composer\u2019s flute concerto featured the Utah Symphony artist-in-association Emmanuel Pahud.<\/p>\n

While the Sibelius is not as monumental in length as the Bruckner\u201430 minutes to the latter\u2019s 76\u2014it played to the conductor\u2019s strengths in a similar way, with Fischer carefully crafting each phrase, cut-off and textural flourish to create a stunning musical structure. However, it was the unique sonic world created by the T\u00fc\u00fcr that made the biggest splash.<\/p>\n

T\u00fc\u00fcr wrote Lux Stellarum (\u201cLight of the Stars\u201d) specifically for Pahud, who played the world premiere last May with the Berlin Philharmonic, where he serves as principal flutist. Watching Pahud\u2019s organic and charismatic performance Friday night, it was easy to see him as T\u00fc\u00fcr\u2019s muse. However, the piece does more than showcase the soloist\u2019s technical prowess and musicality; it also pushes the sonic boundaries of the flute and the orchestra, creating an engaging, mind-expanding experience for the listener.<\/p>\n

\u201cFading Stardust,\u201d the first of four contiguous movements, begins with twittering flurries in the flute punctuated by runs in the xylophone and harp. Muted trumpets and flutes playing harmonics enter, and an otherworldly orchestral backdrop slowly develops. While most concerti set up a friendly competition between orchestra and soloist, T\u00fc\u00fcr\u2019s orchestra serves as the flute\u2019s home base. After a series of cascading melodic figures that explore the limits of the instrument\u2019s range and tone, the flute returns to rest on a bed of warm, ethereal strings and winds.<\/p>\n

The other movements have similarly astronomical names\u2014\u201cDancing Asteroids,\u201d \u201cLitany of the Dying Stars,\u201d and \u201cFloating Galaxies\u201d\u2014but Lux Stellarum is more than a programmatic piece about the night sky. In his notes, T\u00fc\u00fcr said the piece is about \u201cthe inability of man to actually grasp the scope of the universe,\u201d and it achieves this by having the soloist wander through exotic orchestral colors and unexpected melodic and rhythmic turns. The percussion section plays a central role in the drama, with the timpanists and three percussionists staying busy throughout the piece playing instruments that include blocks, gongs, xylophones, bells, rain sticks, and hand-held wind chimes.<\/p>\n

Pahud displayed a wide variety of tones from sweetly melodic, to aggressive and percussive; the extended techniques he employed included whispers and popping sounds made by the soloist\u2019s lips on the mouthpiece. The solo flute was particularly intriguing when interacting melodically with the other flutes in the orchestra, which, except for the occasional use of harmonics, used more of a traditional technique.<\/p>\n

The mood of the piece ranges from cold and abstract to contemplative and dreamy to aggressive and terrifying. Fischer\u2019s attention to articulation, phrasing, and tempi accentuated the emotional sweep. While its tonality and harmonic language was in the abstract modernist tradition, Lux Stellarum remained engaging throughout its 25 minutes, prompting a raucous standing ovation and five curtain calls from the appreciative audience.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Utah Arts Review By Rick Mortensen Fresh on the heels of conducting a sublime performance of Bruckner\u2019s monumental Symphony No. 5, music director Thierry Fischer returned to the Utah Symphony to conduct another seminal fifth symphony, this one by Sibelius. The program also included Sibelius\u2019s Finlandia and the U.S. premiere of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3685,7248,4928,3686,3612],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11728,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727\/revisions\/11728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/10082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}