Silverstein to close symphony season

By Edward Reichel
Deseret News
Published: Sunday, May 25, 2008 12:12 a.m. MDT
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For 15 seasons, Joseph Silverstein was the Utah Symphony's music director. And even now, a decade after he stepped down from the post, he still remembers his time in the Beehive State with fondness.

"My years in Salt Lake were rewarding for me," he said in a phone interview from his home in Stockbridge, Mass."I was with a great orchestra and we played in a great hall."

Silverstein will be returning to the podium in Abravanel Hall to close out the symphony's season this weekend. On tap is a wonderfully varied and dynamic program — Beethoven's "Egmont" Overture and Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 will bookend the Utah premiere of Christopher Rouse's 1992 Trombone Concerto. The symphony's principal trombone, Larry Zalkind, will be the soloist.

During his tenure with the Utah Symphony, Silverstein programmed contemporary music regularly. Not only because he believed in it, but also because he wanted to continue Maurice Abravanel's legacy."It was a tradition of Mr. Abravanel, who conducted a certain amount of 20th century music," Silverstein said."And it's important to broaden the horizon of the musicians and the audience."

Since its premiere by the New York Philharmonic in December 1992, Rouse's concerto has received only a few performances, Silverstein said. "It's not performed that much because it's a very, very difficult piece, not only for the soloist but also for the orchestra," a statement with which Zalkind readily concurs. "It's really the heaviest work for trombone ever written," Zalkind said in a phone interview. "I think he really utilizes the stylistic and dynamic ranges of the instrument well. Rouse wanted to write a 'work of substance,' and it certainly can be considered a major piece that will stand the test of time."

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Rouse was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1990 to write a work for the orchestra's principal trombone, Joseph Alessi. Leonard Bernstein was to conduct the premiere. However, Bernstein died later that year, and the work became a memorial to him. "The last movement is really a tribute to Bernstein," Zalkind said. In this movement, Rouse quotes the "Credo" theme from Bernstein's "Kaddish" Symphony. "The 'Kaddish' is the Jewish prayer for the dead," Zalkind said. "He (Rouse) gives you clues to the theme in the second movement, and in the finale there's a full-blown quotation, and the work ends with that theme."

It was Leonard Slatkin who conducted the premiere in New York. "Slatkin, who has conducted a lot of new music, said that it was one of the hardest pieces he's ever conducted, especially the second movement," Zalkind said. "That movement is really something. There are so many crazy rhythmic things going on, and you can also pick out some Bernstein things. It's really a very complex piece of music."

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