The Colorado Symphony took listeners on a rewarding musical journey to the British Isles during a concert Friday evening in Boettcher Concert Hall.
As a substitute for ailing music director Jeffrey Kahane, the orchestra had the good fortune to land Raymond Leppard. Not only does the veteran English-born conductor boast superb international credentials, he also has more than a little affinity for the evening’s music.
The concert opened appropriately enough with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on “Greensleeves,” one of the best known of all English folk songs.
Next came a focused, beautifully sculpted version of “The Walk to Paradise Garden” by Frederick Delius, an idiosyncratic late 19th-century and early 20th-century English romantic.
This short work is a prototypical example of his evocative, tightly structured music. It suggests a kind of utopian landscape with sweeping lines, shimmering harmonies and soaring French horns that can seem stunning to some ears and overwrought to others.
The first half climaxed with the evening’s centerpiece – Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, with the respected German-born cellist Johannes Moser as soloist.
If Moser did not put a wholly distinctive interpretative stamp on this sometimes high-spirited but often melancholic work, he delivered a technically sound, deeply felt performance with a dark-hued tone ideally suited to its moodiness.
There were many compelling moments. Moser, for example, drew maximum dramatic impact from the meditative pause and subsequent series of brooding notes before the concerto’s conclusion.
That said, it seemed clear in the end that this piece was not a natural fit for the cellist, a notion reinforced by his very different encore, arguably the highlight of his appearance – the Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello.
His memorable interpretation of this timeless, profound music was suitably direct, unaffected and gently graceful.
Putting his well-honed skills to excellent use, Leppard ended the evening with a sparkling version of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, “Scottish.”
The concert will be repeated at 2:30 p.m. today.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
