There was a time in Knoxville’s music past when we treated the accomplishments of the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra under music director and conductor James Fellenbaum as news. Sunday’s season opening concert program of the UTSO, which had as its broad theme Italian influences, proved that we need not make any adjustments in our expectations. This is a solid orchestra of talent and burgeoning musical maturity playing with attention to musicianship and ensemble artistry. Although the connection may be mostly rhetorical, the recent rebranding of the school into the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music practically demands no less.
Sunday’s theme, “An Italian Adventure,” allowed for an orchestral sampler, of sorts, with only one of the composers—Puccini—actually Italian. The remaining three shared the fact that they were being influenced by an Italian visit. The opening work, Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, overflowed with energy and exuberance from Fellenbaum and the orchestra that was exceeded only by the final work, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien with its dynamic changes of mood.
The Launy Grøndahl Trombone Concerto, in the hands of UT faculty trombonist Alex Van Duuren, was something of a revelation. The work’s 1920s sensibility was descriptive and painterly, its performance by van Duuren in ranging shades of warm gold and champagne.
The only actual Italian composer on the program was Giacomo Puccini, represented here by the Act III Intermezzo from his opera Manon Lescaut. The intermezzo—lush, mysterious, and crepuscular—was nicely introduced with the violas and cellos playing beautifully in the opening. The work’s lyrical sadness, tinged with faint hope, was nicely captured by Fellenbaum.
Although it should go without saying, one couldn’t help notice the sizable number of students in Sunday’s audience. This worked on several levels—the recent UT parking crackdown has unfortunately had the probable effect of discouraging non-UT audiences from venturing onto campus for concerts and recitals. Here’s hoping more rational heads prevail on this issue.
