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Each season, the Utah Symphony honors one young soloist or conductor with the Evelyn Rosenblatt Young Artist Award, underwritten by a fund honoring the late Utah arts philanthropist. It might be easy to miss the discreet mention in the concert program, but this award has turned up some outstanding musicians in the early stages of their careers. Twentysomething Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan is the latest of these, bowling over the Abravanel Hall crowd on Friday with his thrilling performance of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1.
The piece is one of the most athletically demanding concertos in the repertoire, and Hakhnazaryan tackled it with fearsome technique. He drew impressive volume from his 1707 Guarnerius, formerly owned by cello titan Janos Starker, yet the quietest passages were no less intense. A gripping duel with Utah Symphony hornist Edmund Rollett and an incisive dialogue with clarinetist Erin Svoboda added interest. Hakhnazaryan put on a textbook demonstration of left-hand pizzicato and other technical feats in the spellbinding cadenza. To the amazement of the crowd, the cellist capped this marathon with the equally dazzling "Lamentatio" by Giovanni Sollima, spiced up with vocalizations and percussive techniques.
Conductor Thierry Fischer bookended the evening with Brahms: "Academic Festival Overture" and Symphony No. 2, whose friendly melodies piled one on top of another in a big, comforting blanket of sound. —
Utah Symphony
Music of Brahms and Shostakovich.
With • Conductor Thierry Fischer and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan
When • Reviewed Friday, Feb. 3; program repeats Saturday, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m.
Where • Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City
Running time • 2 hours, including intermission
Tickets • $26-$84; utahsymphony.org