Friday’s Colorado Symphony concert had everything going for it — an insightful conductor, cohesive program and first-rate soloist. It all added up to a particularly satisfying musical evening.
The well-conceived program provided an ideal mix of contrasts — works from three different centuries, each conjuring a distinctive emotional realm; and subtle resonances — two works with operatic ties, two in the key of D major.
Getting things off on the right foot was a nimble, suitably spirited performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Overture to “The Magic Flute,” K. 620, a delightful pastiche of the opera’s immediately familiar melodies.
Then came the evening’s centerpiece: Symphony No. 5 in D major by the undervalued English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
After hearing this deeply moving, exquisitely rendered interpretation, it seems impossible not to count this work among the great symphonies of the 20th century.
Written during World War II, it speaks to that traumatic period not with anger and tumult but rather a kind of resigned reflection.
Demonstrating his usual depth and incisiveness, guest conductor Peter Oundjian realized the work’s sometimes delicate, sometimes forceful intensity and evoked its ever-changing emotional topography with penetrating clarity.
There were many memorable moments, but none surpassed the choralelike, elegiac third movement.
This version revealed the full power of this music, which seems to transcend time and touch the soul. Mark it down as one of the high points of the season.
Nicely capping the evening, Elina Vähälä, winner of the 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, made her welcome debut with the symphony in Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77.
Her sparkling, tightly focused take on this chestnut left a strong impression. Offering more than just pretty, technically proficient playing, this young soloist showed herself to be a genuine interpreter with something to say.
She drew a big sound and a nuanced range of amber- tinged timbres from her 1678 Stradivarius. Let’s hope the symphony invites her back soon.
The concert will be repeated at 2:30 p.m. today.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
