UTAH SYMPHONY, Keith Lockhart conducting, with cellist Carter Brey, in Abravanel Hall, March 23. Additional performance March 24, 8 p.m. Tickets available through ArtTix at 355-ARTS (2787).

Benjamin Britten's music is all too seldom heard in concert halls in the United States today. And that's unfortunate, since Britten is one of the most significant and interesting composers of the second half of the 20th century. His works are characterized by a sophisticated blend of tonality and atonality in music that is intense yet melodic.

However, at least two pieces by Britten have found a permanent place in American halls: the so-called "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" and the work with which music director Keith Lockhart opened this weekend's Utah Symphony concerts — the "Four Sea Interludes," from Britten's 1945 opera "Peter Grimes."

The Utah Symphony played these interludes exceptionally well. Their performance was crisp and well-defined. And Lockhart's interpretation was colorful and full of passion.

Within the small repertoire of works for cello and orchestra, Elgar's Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, is one of the finest examples, and also one of the English composer's undisputed masterpieces. The work is dark and somber, yet wonderfully varied in its melodic makeup.

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It also takes an exceptional soloist to give a convincing performance of this concerto, and Carter Brey is just such a cellist. His tone is rich and mellow, and his sweeping phrases captured the many moods of this brooding work. Brey dazzled his audience Friday evening with his virtuosity in the "Allegro molto" section of the first movement, as well as casting his spell on everyone with his inordinately beautiful playing of the opening "Adagio" from the same movement.

The second movement "Adagio" was heavenly, and the finale was filled with an electricity that energized this magnificent music. Once again, the collaboration between soloist and conductor exhibited a dynamism that was exciting and invigorating.

Lockhart and the orchestra ended the evening with a striking performance of Rachmaninoff's emotionally charged "Symphonic Dances."


E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com

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