Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
Jan. 26, Richmond CenterStage

Paquito D’Rivera, the Cuban-born jazz reed player and bandleader, has also written several classical concert works. “Gran Danzón” (“Bel Air” Concerto) for flute and orchestra may be the best-known of these pieces, partly because of its rhythmic infectiousness and deftly colorful orchestration, and partly because the flutist for whom it was written, Marina Piccinini, is such a virtuosic and persuasive advocate for the music.

The flute may seem an odd choice for leading voice of a work rooted in Latin dance music – the prevailing horn is typically a saxophone or brass instrument; but the Cuban danzón in its traditional form was played on wooden flutes. The musicians’ “fresh and peculiar way of playing” inspired “Gran Danzón,” D’Rivera writes. (The “Bel Air” subtitle refers to the vintage Chevrolets still on the road in Cuba.)

Piccinini, who introduced the concerto 12 years ago, has by now thoroughly absorbed its idiom – not just its rhythms and colors, but also its deep integration of Latin expression and classical form. She plays the piece as a concert work of scope and subtlety, not as some detour into sonic or stylistic novelty.

Conductor Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony approached the D’Rivera concerto in the same spirit, emphasizing its neoclassical qualities while getting into its hip-swaying rhythmic grooves.

Smith and the orchestra took a similar, and comparably surprising, approach to Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.” This symphonic chestnut is commonly played as lushly and largely as an orchestra can manage. This interpretation is much more transparent – its silences are as musical as its torrents of tone – and more centered on the expressiveness and colorations of soloists and ensembles.

The most prominent soloist in “Scheherazade” is the first violinist, the voice of the Sultana spinning her tales from “The Arabian Nights.” Daisuke Yamamoto, in his first classical concert as the symphony’s new concertmaster, proved to be a spellbinding tale-spinner, boasting a silvery tone and unusually sensitive phrasing.

The program opens with a work by Smith, who is a noted composer as well as a conductor. His “La Chasse” (1994), originally the finale of “Quattro Contro” for chamber orchestra, is not exactly what its title might lead the listener to expect. The chase here does not sound to be part of a hunt – its motion (and some of its sound effects) seem more vehicular than horse-driven, and its bright colors and sometimes complex construction and texture suggest a busy freeway more than they do than hills and dales. The seven-minute piece shows off the orchestra, and raises the curtain, nicely.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $10-$73. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com