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Orchestra Opens Masterworks Season On High Note

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By KURT LOFT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2007

TAMPA - This week we asked the musicians of The Florida Orchestra about the relevance of their art in today's world, and they responded with a zeal typical of this talented group.

But a more potent answer can be heard this weekend when the orchestra celebrates the opening of its 40th masterworks season under the baton of music director Stefan Sanderling. The fanfare began Thursday night at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center with a delirious performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1, complemented by the delicate poetry of soloist Louis Lortie in Edvard Grieg's ever-popular Piano Concerto.

Relevance was a word that came to mind in looking around 2,500-seat Morsani Hall, where only 900 people turned out. Though a possible labor dispute between musicians and management has created an unsettling atmosphere, the poor attendance may say more about Tampa than any problems within the orchestra.

Anyone going to the St. Petersburg or Clearwater performances is in for a treat. Lortie and Sanderling are an affectionate team, and in the concerto they struck a balance between incisiveness and drama, sweetness and spectacle. If Lortie has played the piece all his career, his beguiling fingerwork and romantic warmth gave no hint of routine, and the orchestra sounded radiant in all three movements. The adagio was a model of poise in Lortie's hands.

"The pleasure is the communication with the musicians and transmitting a love of the piece to the audience," Lortie said in a recent interview. "My aim is to make it fresh for people who have heard it a hundred times."

Mahler's hourlong creation unfolds as an evocative impression of nature, opening with the strings sustaining an A note in seven octaves as other instruments — clarinet, horns, offstage trumpets — depict the sounds of an awakening forest. This was a marvel to hear live, simply because recordings rarely do it justice, and Sanderling's pace felt like a huge musical canvas on which 90 painters dabbed their brushes.

Principal bassist Dee Moses set a compelling tone by opening the third movement with his solo instrument, a solemn transformation of the French nursery rhyme "Frere Jacques" that turns mocking in the woodwinds. No less than eight horns and full percussion onslaught added weight to the finale, and the entire orchestra brought down the house in an exultant celebration of sound.

Performances continue at 8 tonight at Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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