UTAH SYMPHONY with pianist CASSANDRIA BARLOW-MARTINDALE and conductor BUNDIT UNGRANGSEE Thursday, Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m. Abravanel Hall. One Performance Only.
For a local musician, making a solo debut with the Utah Symphony represents a sort of "coming out." The musician is presented to the Salt Lake audience, often on the way to bigger and better things.It would be hard to imagine a better first impression than the one pianist Cassandria Barlow-Martindale made Thursday night with her flawless, moving interpretation of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. Throughout the piece, she was poised, controlled and communicative, and she brought new ideas to one of the most performed piano concertos in the concert repertoire.
Martindale's pointed entrance had an understated crescendo that set the first movement's romantic swell in motion. Outlining the theme in thunking bass notes, she set up her sweetly cascading cadenza. Each phrase was a passionate struggle, finding rest only after exhausting all the emotional possibilities. While effusive, Martindale's playing never slipped into sentimentality.
Martindale's lush second movement had a hopeful ring many pianists overlook. With meticulous attention to each phrase, she built a castle of sound, reaching the apex in her severely passionate cadenza. The third movement displayed Martindale's sense of drama as well as her fearsome technical ability. Even the passages with a single melodic line were alive and captivating.
Conductor Bundit Ungrangsee and the orchestra provided a vibrant backdrop to complement Martindale's interpretation. They also shone in Rimsky Korsakov's exuberant "Capriccio Espagnole." The piece had a dizzy charm, and concert-master Ralph Matson played the difficult solo violin passages with passion and panache, giving the piece a gypsy flavor.
Ungrangsee's "piece de resistance" was Richard Strauss's tone poem "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks." The well-phrased beginning, with the famous horn solo, piqued the audience's interest, and for the most part, Ungrangsee did not disappoint. He had a special flair for setting up the huge parts, and the orchestra's articulation was superb. He also captured the humor and zaniness of the piece in a cartoon-esque fashion.
Still, Ungrangsee could have payed more attention to phrasing and rhythm in the less flashy passages and given the piece more cohesion.