Presence of composers invigorates season finale of Colorado Music Festival

By Kelly Dean Hansen Camera Classical Music Writer

Posted: 08/08/2013 10:43:48 PM MDT

Updated: 08/08/2013 10:52:09 PM MDT

If you go

What: The Colorado Music Festival season finale concert is repeated.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road

Tickets: $12-$48. 303-440-7666 or COmusic.org

Michael Christie wanted to give the Colorado Music Festival audience something unique -- a personal gift -- for the finale of his last full season as music director.

The closing concert has always been a grand affair. A major choral work like Haydn's "Creation," an especially large and complex orchestral piece like a Mahler symphony, or even a reliable warhorse like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony have all been used.

Thursday's program at Chautauqua, however, was notable for the sheer number of stops that were pulled -- and for unexpected audience rewards.

It began with a world premiere by an award-winning composer Boulder can claim as its own. Kristin Kuster spent most of her youth here, and it is hardly conceivable that one of her orchestral works should not have been heard in the city before Thursday night. Thanks to the CMF's innovative "Click!" competition, she finally had her local moment.

Kuster's piece, "Devil's Thumb," maintains interest through dynamic orchestration, well-placed climaxes, and a sound that, while dissonant, is usually pleasing to the ear. It is an orchestral picture, inspired by a Boulder rock formation; one might imagine a heavy bias toward brass and percussion, but Kuster's string writing was actually more impressive. The scoring is surprisingly egalitarian across the orchestra. The piece has a heavy rhythmic drive, but there are some introspective moments.

If the "Click!" initiative does not continue with Christie's successor, this was a good way for it to end. The season finale was the right place for it. Kuster beamed as she acknowledged

the audience's appreciation.

But the crowd was in store for its biggest surprise. John Corigliano is one of the most prominent of all living composers. He has a Metropolitan Opera commission, an Oscar-winning film score, and most importantly, instant name recognition throughout the classical world.

The "Pied Piper Fantasy," one of Corigliano's best-known works, was the centerpiece of the season finale program. The performance included the composer's lighting effects, along with all of the quasitheatrical elements indicated in the score and then some. Flutist Alexa Still, a longtime University of Colorado faculty member, made a fantastic return, playing the extraordinarily difficult solo part from memory, clad in "pied" attire for effect.

In this work, the soloist cannot simply stand on the stage. The flutist must enter from the rear, step off the front of the stage for the theatrical effects, and actually be an actor. This is clearly a signature work for Still, who played with the ease of the mythical piper himself.

The children are represented by actual drum-- and flute-playing children, the rats by dancing girls moving along the aisles. Corigliano's score has many indeterminate elements, adding to the difficulty in choreography, but the young performers knew precisely where to place their motions. Still leads the children away, exchanging a flute for a small tin whistle (which she plays with equal abandon).

Christie's intimate understanding of the composer's intentions was obvious throughout.

And the great composer himself was in the auditorium, making a side trip from a summer in Aspen.

He conversed with the audience (along with Christie and Kuster) at intermission. Neither advertised nor expected, this was the great surprise.

Christie closed the gigantic program with one of the most intense warhorse standards, Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. An excellent choice for a season-ending work, it also had real relevance in looking back to the Russian Masters mini-festival three weeks ago, forming a sort of epilogue to that. The tempos were on the slow side throughout, especially in the profound third movement, but even the nominally joyous finale was taken at a deliberate pace--emphasizing Shostakovich's own statement that the rejoicing was forced and unreal.

There was nothing unreal about the unbelievably sustained applause Christie received, however.

His speech before the Shostakovich provided the last real impact for the CMF faithful--the maestro is really leaving. So many elements of this program brought that home to everyone--and clearly, Michael Christie meant it to be that way.