UTAH SYMPHONY, Abravanel Hall, Friday, additional performance today, 8 p.m., 355-2787.
Utahns who celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend in the usual way — stuffing themselves with turkey and all the fixings — were able to continue the celebration last night with the Utah Symphony. Serving up an evening of Irish tunes and Thanksgiving-themed fare, conductor Scott O'Neil led the Utah Symphony and Utah Symphony Chorus in an Irish-flavored, post-Thanksgiving feast featuring singer Heidi Talbot.
The evening began with the "Thanksgiving Overture," followed with two pieces by Copland: "Grover's Corner" and "Threshing Machines," and continued with "Autumn" from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons."
Associate Concertmaster Gerald Elias was the featured soloist for "Autumn" and gave a vivid performance of the piece. He sharply delineated between the various moods and textures by emphasizing the percussive elements of some of the brisker sections and the more muted, lyrical character of others. It was nice to hear one of the more infrequently featured violinists have a chance to share his talents with the audience.
Guest singer Heidi Talbot then took the stage for a rendition of "Amazing Grace," backed by the orchestra and choir. While Talbot seems like a lovely person, and she certainly had a lovely voice, the context in which she was placed didn't seem ideal for the program. Talbot has a somewhat straight, simple, breathy, folklike voice and a clearly Irish accent and Irish style to her singing (most evident with the narrow vibrato). On this opening piece, she didn't look or sound terribly comfortable; she tried to push ahead of everybody else on the tempo and sounded a little weak on some of the high notes.
The fact that she was followed by the orchestra and choir on a full-sounding, majestic performance of "Thanks Be to God," from Mendelssohn's Elijah, made her sound quite out of place — in style and in sound. In the second half, however, when she was given a chance to sing several Irish tunes in a row, she seemed to come out and do better, sound better and make more sense in context of the program order. (She did sound like the choir/orchestra/soloist arrangement of "Old Irish Blessing" was a bit difficult for her voice, though.)
The choir did an excellent job on their songs. In the second half, they were featured in a stirring performance of "America, the Beautiful," and the Wilberg arrangement of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com