Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra starts season on joyful note

The Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra launched its 2012-13 season under guest conductor Andrew Grams, the first of nine guests scheduled to take the baton this season. Each is auditioning for the post of music director following the announced departure of David Itkin last spring. Among Grams' several conducting posts, perhaps the most prestigious is three years as assistant to - and protégé of - Franz Welser-Most, the celebrated music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Grams offered a few surprises, among them his appearance in a business suit rather than customary formal attire. A bigger surprise, however, was the insertion of an unscheduled program opener: Rossini's overture to "William Tell" (think "The Lone Ranger") at a breakneck pace. Most of the orchestra's musicians could probably have played this warhorse from memory, so Grams' disconcerting posturing and over the top gestures went far to impress the audience but didn't add much to the music. Fortunately he abandoned them for the remainder of the evening.

There followed Beethoven's "Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major" (the "Triple Concerto"), the least frequently performed of his seven well-known concerti. The work is unusual since most concertos of the Romantic era feature one soloist. Occasionally two are called for, but very rarely three. Visiting artists featured in this performance were pianist Navah Perlman, violinist Phillipe Quint and cellist Zuill Bailey. The three treated their roles as if playing chamber music, with subtlety and delicacy when called for balanced by explosive but controlled power and dazzling technique. The orchestra was well prepared, often wonderfully expressive but never dominating; Grams maintained laudable balance, interacting frequently with his soloists.

The program's second half was devoted to Modeste Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." The vividly descriptive work was originally conceived as a suite for piano. Maurice Ravel discovered it nearly 50 years after its composition and scored it for orchestra, in which form it has become a staple. This performance, however, was preceded by a well-done audio visual presentation using The Smith Center's drop-down screen on which were shown images of the graphic art related to each musical picture and portions of the applicable original piano manuscript. An unseen narrator provided thorough background information as piano snippets of each "picture" were heard. The effective teaching device added considerable - and necessary - context.

The premise is that the composer is strolling through an art gallery featuring works by his late close friend, Viktor Hartmann. The work begins with "Promenade," a theme that recurs in various forms and serves to tie segments together. Ten of the paintings and sketches each become inspiration for a segment of the composition. Given the broad range of subjects, styles and moods there may be no greater example of Ravel's genius as an orchestrator. Particularly notable were "The Old Castle," "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" and "Hut on Fowl's Legs."

Certain segments call for a solo instrument from within the orchestra. These are too often relentlessly exposed and one cannot fault players for not quite living up to expectation. There were occasional problems with orchestral balance, but given that the orchestra, the conductor and the hall were relatively new to each other this may be expected.

But all minor issues can be forgiven and forgotten based on the sheer joy and power of the closing segment, "The Great Gate at Kiev." Here the "Promenade" theme returns in a glorious and majestic iteration calling on the orchestra to go all out. They did, and the crowd was on its feet before the final chord died out.