What was to have been a Schubert/Strauss/Griffes program turned into a nearly all-Schubert evening Friday at Abravanel Hall when William Barnewitz, who was to have soloed in Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 2, called in sick.
Thus Friday's Utah Symphony audience heard not one Schubert symphony but two, a substitution guest conductor Andrew Litton explained "may not be exciting to you, but it's extremely exciting to us. Because this orchestra has played Schubert's Fifth Symphony and I've conducted it, but we've never had that experience together."Friday, moreover, it served as proloque to the same composer's Ninth Symphony - the "Great" C major - pairing what is perhaps the most delightful of his early symphonies with the greatest of his last. But even without rehearsal I'm not sure the former didn't come off better.
Certainly its Mozartean impulses were evident, only balanced with a graceful optimism that clearly bespoke the romantic era. Witness the charm of the opening movement, here light and lively but unhurried, and the heartiness of the minuet, with its semi-reflective trio. Here especially the nuance and dynamic control were remarkable, followed by a finale that, despite some raggedness at the outset, flowed quickly but naturally, with a natural weight to the climaxes.
That weight was even more welcome in the Ninth Symphony, which again lived up to its nickname, however accidental. For if in the Fifth Symphony the 19-year-old Schubert is clearly under the spell of Mozart, in the Ninth it is Beethoven, even to the point of recalling the theme of that composer's Ninth Symphony in the finale.
At the same time I liked the firm pacing Litton brought, Toscanini-style, to both the introduction and the second-movement Andante, both of which moved at a purposeful clip. This meant the first-movement Allegro took off logically from what had gone before, with the tension being maintained through most of what followed.
Yet amid the strength of the performance as a whole there was also a deeply felt lyric core, most pronounced in the softer pages of the second movement and the breathtaking relief of the climax, which here communicated an almost "Eroica"-like angst.
After which the Scherzo came across as robustly animated, with some wonderfully resilient string playing, and the finale made much of both its swirling ascents and broadly enunciated coda. Only here I wouldn't have minded even more exuberance, catching the white-hot inspiration of the writing, and a little more tension. Because frankly this is music that, on the right day, should lift you out of your chair.
Earlier the airy charm of the Fifth Symphony was preceded by the even airier charms of Griffes' "The White Peacock," a sterling example of early 20th-century American impressionism.
Litton and the orchestra made a persuasive case for it, too, from the beautifully textured woodwind solos to the passion at its center. In short the conductor found depth of feeling even in this evanescent opus, proving that at heart he is a romantic, however one classifies the two composers.