Great concert. We've been attending Vermont Symphony Orchestra concerts when we can for the last 12 years, and they are noticeably better now than in 2002. Tonight's program showed off Albert Brouwer's talents as principal fl(a)utist, beginning with Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. He managed to linger over notes in a way that was more suggestive of the sleepy faun than in any other recording or live performance I've heard, and the rest of the orchestra followed suit. Jaime Laredo should be rightfully proud of this interpretation.The second piece was Ravel's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major. It's an interesting piece, and was well-performed, but I didn't realize Ravel produced anything quite so modern -- the Adagio of this concerto is Romantic, but the first and third movements are extremely dissonant -- and it was a curious choice to sandwich between two masterworks of the Romantic period.
The final piece, after intermission, was Mahler's 4th. I'm extremely fond of Mahler's 4th and 5th symphonies, and the first movement again featured Brouwer's flute. I've never seen the 4th performed live, so I've never seen the principal violinist swap between her usual instrument and the violin tuned at a higher tone. That was fun. The fourth movement featured the soprano Hyunah Yu, who, in addition to a fine voice, has the most exquisite diction when singing German that I've heard.
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