Looking back over the past 12 months, music festivals turned out to be the big attention-getters of 2004. There were a few surprises along the way, to be sure, but topping the list of newsworthy items during the past year were three festivals.
The Park City International Music Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary during the summer. The oldest music festival in Utah — and one of the oldest in the country — the Park City festival has been a mainstay on the chamber-music scene for two decades. Co-directors Leslie and Russell Harlow have had a vision about what a chamber music festival ought to be, and they've managed to turn that vision into reality.
The Harlows have consistently offered their audiences the best in chamber music — both in terms of repertoire and guest artists. Their programs are a wonderful blend of standard literature and works that are now forgotten or infrequently played.
And the artists the Harlows bring to the mountain resort each year are among the country's finest chamber musicians, and they put as much passion and dedication into their playing as the Harlows. This successful marriage of music and musicians has proven its longevity.
An avid film buff, Leslie Harlow has for several years toyed with the idea of starting a new festival devoted to film music. This finally came to fruition in January with the inaugural season of the Park City Film Music Festival. An annual event that overlaps the final week of the Sundance Film Festival, Harlow's festival focuses on the impact music has on films, and it's one of the first of its kind in the United States. Starting with next year's festival (Jan. 20-30, 2005), Harlow will expand it to include seminars, workshops and concerts.
Another festival debuted this year. In July, Utah Symphony & Opera unveiled its new Deer Valley Music Festival. The festival can't avoid comparisons to the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Festival. There are some similarities, to be sure, as well as some differences.
But in order for it to succeed, DVMF will have to stand on its own merits and not be thought of as Tanglewood West. With the Deer Valley festival, US&O CEO Anne Ewers hopes to compete for a national audience with established festivals such as Aspen and Marlboro. Whether or not this will happen still remains to be seen, but Deer Valley certainly has the potential to do that.
DVMF, which combines concerts by the Utah Symphony and the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra with appearances by noted chamber ensembles, had an auspicious debut season. There is much to commend it. For the first season, US&O brought in conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, the Ahn Trio and eighth blackbird. The Muir Quartet, which has been in residency in the mountains above Park City since the 1980s, has now become an integral part of the festival.
DVMF still has some bugs to work out before it becomes the sought-after festival Ewers desires. For one thing, the quality of guest artists needs to be consistently high. It's not enough to bring in someone of Kahane's stature if he isn't followed by other conductors and soloists of the same caliber throughout the course of the four-week festival.
By the same token, the substitute players that US&O hires for the symphony's chamber orchestra during the summer need to be on the same artistic level as the organization's musicians and long-term substitute players. Otherwise the quality suffers. (That was made painfully obvious by the chamber orchestra's horrendous performance at the Aug. 4 concert in St. Mary's Catholic Church.) Before undertaking any cosmetic improvements or changes, US&O needs to address both of these issues and rectify them before the start of the next festival in July.
Among the year's unexpected turns was the surprising revelation that Ewers was under consideration to replace Joseph Volpe as the Metropolitan Opera's general manager when he retires next August. There is no question that Ewers would have been a qualified successor to Volpe, even with the huge differences in budgets and artistic and administrative staffs between US&O and the Met.
As it turned out, the Met's search committee surprised everyone by circumventing their acknowledged screening process and appointing Sony Classical president Peter Gelb. Had it instead been Ewers, it would have raised some pointed questions as to the long-term viability of a merged Utah Symphony/Utah Opera organization.
Another surprise, and a major disappointment, was the announcement that Pavel Kogan's contract as the Utah Symphony's principal guest conductor would not be renewed when it expired at the end of the 2003-04 season. Even though he returns for two concerts in the current season, his presence will be sorely missed. Kogan brought an electricity to his performances that few conductors who have stood on the podium in front of the Utah Symphony have been able to match.
On the other hand, symphony music director Keith Lockhart's contract was extended until the end of the 2007-08 season. In the past few years in particular, Lockhart has proven to be a valuable asset to the organization. He has the drawing power and charisma needed to bring in audiences to Abravanel Hall. And he has made sound programming choices that appeal to the general public's interest in the standard symphonic repertoire. But he has also, with increasing frequency, introduced 20th century — and newer — works into his concerts.
Last spring, the orchestra signed a multi-year, multi-CD contract with Dorian Records/Reference Recordings. The orchestra's first album in many years was recorded in April. The CD, the symphony's first with Lockhart, will be released locally in March.
Looking ahead, the Utah Symphony will be embarking in April on its first major European tour in 19 years, where it will be joined by the young German violinist Viviane Hagner and the venerable American pianist Leon Fleisher.
For far too long, the Utah Symphony has been the Beehive State's best-kept secret. With the CD and the tour, that, fortunately, is about to change.
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com