An orchestra's associate conductor must be able to lead a wide range of concerts. A very wide range. Everything from the sacred to the profane, the sublime to the ridiculous.
For proof, just ask Bruce Hangen.Hangen, the Utah Symphony's popular and well-respected acting associate conductor, will make his final appearances with the symphony this week. And talk about radical programming.
On Tuesday, May 18, he'll conduct Yo-Yo Ma and Joseph Silverstein in Brahms' Double Concerto.
After that, he and the orchestra will be flung into a maelstrom of musical madness when the Flying Karamazov Brothers show up for two concerts on Friday and Saturday, May 21 and 22 (see related story on Page E3).
But that doesn't faze Hangen. If anything, he relishes this variety. "I enjoy a good mix of different types of music," he said in an interview with the Deseret News. "I find it stimulating, actually. It gives me a chance to go from one extreme to another."
Nor is all this diversity new to him. Hangen has been doing this for a large part of his career. "I just did a concert (in the East) with music by Debussy, Ravel and others, and my next concert is with the Boston Pops in a Duke Ellington program."
Hangen says he is looking forward to working with Ma and Silverstein. "The last time I did the Double Concerto was with Joey (Silverstein) when I was still the music director of the Portland (Maine) Symphony. And Joey was still the concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. So that was a long time ago."
The upcoming concert will also mark the first time Hangen will share the stage with Ma. The maestro explains that the great cello virtuoso was to have appeared with him and the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony back in the 1980s. But Ma had to bow out at the last moment because his wife was in the hospital, giving birth to their first child. Naturally, that took precedence over the concert.
"I ran into Yo-Yo a couple of weeks after the concert," Hangen said, "and he said to me, 'I owe you one, Bruce.' Well, it's taken us this long to finally get together."
For this concert, Ma will also play the Haydn Cello Concerto in D major. The third work on the program is Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Haydn." "(The Variations) ties everything together," Hangen said. "And it isn't such a curtain-raiser that it'll take anything away from the Haydn."
Nor will it overshadow the Brahms concerto, one of the German composer's most subtle and introspective works. "This is the last orchestral piece he wrote. It has a very mature musical language, and there is a lot of inward-looking music in it. It definitely isn't a gangbuster piece for the audience."
Reflecting on his two-year stint as the Utah Symphony's associate conductor, Hangen explains that his contract was originally only for a year. "But Keith (Lockhart) didn't want to start a search for a new associate conductor right away, so I agreed to stay on for another year."
According to Hangen, there have been many positive things about his association with the Utah Symphony, both musically and on a more personal level. "I had a great time with the Utah Symphony. Every time I come to Utah, it feels like I'm coming home. I'm comfortable with the musicians, and we still get along, even after two years."
And although nothing is in the works for Hangen to return to Utah in the future, the conductor is quick to point out that things can change very fast. "In this business, things change overnight, so one never knows.
"But there is nothing wrong with having a certain hiatus. It makes the homecoming that much more special. And my experience has shown that good things like this tend to get repeated."
Tickets for the Yo-Yo Ma concert, which starts at 8 p.m. in Abravanel Hall, are priced from $19 to $46. They can be purchased by calling ArtTix at 355-ARTS (2787) or 1-888-451-ARTS. They can also be obtained in person at the ArtTix outlets in Abravanel Hall or in the Capitol Theatre.
Utah Symphony subscribers and anyone interested in group discounts should call 533-NOTE (6683).