The New York Philharmonic, back for its ninth residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, is easily the classical music series’ biggest draw.
Not only does its annual Colorado visit always come right at the height of the summer tourist season, the venerable ensemble has the highest profile of the three major orchestras the festival presents.
But the most important reason is the dependable quality of the Philharmonic’s playing. Even though their time in Colorado is something of a vacation for the musicians and their families, they do not neglect their musical responsibilities.
The orchestra’s latest visit to Vail began this past weekend with three consecutively sold-out concerts — the audiences filling the 1,260 seats in the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater and carpeting the grassy knoll behind.
Because Bravo! audiences typically include a sizable contingent who are not classical devotees, the visiting orchestras, including the Philharmonic, have tended to stick to mainstream repertoire. And for the most part, that is the case this summer.
A surprise Sunday evening was the inclusion of a concert version of the super-familiar second act of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s holiday ballet, “The Nutcracker.” Orchestras do occasionally perform this work, but it seemed a bit out of place outdoors in the mountains in the summer.
That said, it was impossible to quarrel with this evocative version, suffused with a level of nuance, color and brio that virtually no ballet pit orchestra anywhere could match. There were many notable individual performances, including those of principal harpist Nancy Allen and piccolo player Mindy Kaufman.
And music director Alan Gilbert, showing a few balletic moves of his own on the podium and obviously enjoying himself, injected added excitement with some lively tempos that probably would have been too fast for dancers but heightened the energy level.
Also offering something of a surprise in this setting was the Philharmonic’s presentation Saturday evening of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp major. It, too, is an orchestral mainstay but it is hardly easy listening.
The five-movement piece lasts for more than 70 minutes, and, as is often the case with Mahler, it is an ambitious achievement that takes on the big metaphysical issues of life and death.
On one hand, this work, which ultimately ends on an affirmative note, could hardly be better suited to Vail’s uplifting surroundings. But the open-air stage does not provide the best acoustics for its intimate moments, and the ambient noise, everything from the distant roar of Interstate 70 traffic to the occasional crash of an overturned wine bottle, can prove distracting.
That said, the Gilbert and the orchestra were at their best here. This was a complex, intense interpretation that took listeners on the kind of epic emotional and sonic journey that this symphony can be at its best, and their hushed, transporting take on the slow fourth movement carried it into a rarefied dimension.
Although not an especially distinctive interpreter, violinist Augustin Hadelich opened Saturday’s program with an earnest, ebullient version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, “Turkish,” that obviously won over the crowd.
And young Russian pianist Alexander Romanovsky made his Vail debut Sunday with an engaging take on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” Op. 43.
The philharmonic’s residency runs through Friday, with the overall festival concluding Aug. 3.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC.
Classical music. Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail. The internationally recognized orchestra continues its annual residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with three more concerts. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Ludovic Morlot, conductor, Gil Shaham, violinist; 6 p.m. Thursday, Bramwell Tovey, conductor, Kirill Gerstein, pianist, and 6 p.m. Friday, Tovey, conductor, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, pianist. $24-$85. 877-812-5700 or
