Even though January’s Colorado Symphony Orchestra lineup was graced with two standout guest-conducting appearances, it was good — as always — to have music director Jeffrey Kahane back on the podium Friday evening.
In addition to promoting contemporary works as part of the orchestra’s diversified offerings, he has made a point of programming historical works by familiar composers that have never been performed by the ensemble or at least not for some time.
Many of these pieces are veritable gems, but they get unfairly overlooked because orchestras typically fall back on tried-and-true stalwarts that will theoretically boost ticket sales, or, in some cases, because they just fall through the cracks somehow.
For this past weekend’s pair of concerts, Kahane chose three light, appealing and, for the most part, compact works that have not been performed by the orchestra for as long as 31 years in one case.
The evening opened with Franz Schubert’s delightfully effervescent Symphony No. 3 in D major, D. 200, written when the composer was 18 years old and suffused with youthful exuberance.
Kahane and the orchestra brought an appropriately direct, clean approach to this work, playing with buoyancy, rhythmic clarity and suitably snappy tempos.
In a fascinating contrast, the orchestra then shifted to the opposite end of the career arc, performing Richard Strauss’ Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, which debuted in 1946, three years before his death at age 85. A mainstay of the solo oboe repertoire, it is a beautiful if unassuming piece, with long, singing lines.
The symphony did not have to bring in some outside artist to tackle the solo part, because it happens to have a well-regarded soloist right in its midst — Peter Cooper, principal oboist since 1993.
Cooper has performed with a range of major orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and he recorded this work in 2001 with the respected Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London.
Here, the oboist delivered an unflappable, technically secure performance, with a lovely, full tone. He was at his best in the slow second movement, playing with expressiveness and depth. Put simply, it was a first-rate outing.
On the second half, Kahane and the orchestra returned to the stage with a surprise. The maestro has developed an arrangement of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4 in G major, Op. 61, “Mozartiana,” for piano and orchestra.
The suite is essentially an orchestration of four Mozart works, including three virtually unknown ones for keyboard. In what is an intriguing idea, Kahane has inserted elements of those original pieces back into the piece.
For the most part, it works. If the transitions between the piano and orchestra are too blocky in the first two movements, the fourth, the longest and most involved, is pleasingly well integrated.
Kahane performed the solos with characteristic brio, and the overall performance lived up to the rest of the evening.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
