Philippe Entremont closed out his tenure as director of the Boca Raton Symphonia on March 24 with a concert that included a flute concerto by Mozart and works by Respighi and Shchedrin.
The French pianist and conductor will return for one concert next season, but conducting duties will be divided among three other maestros: Gerard Schwarz, Alexander Platt and James Judd. Sunday’s concert at the Roberts Theater presented three works that were familiar to aficionados but perhaps not as well-known to general audience members, which probably made it refreshing for most.
Jennifer Grim, an American flutist who teaches at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, was the soloist in the Flute Concerto No. 1 (in G, K. 313) of Mozart, a lovely work akin to the violin concertos Mozart composed a couple years earlier. Grim plays with a light, silvery sound and impressive, fluid technique. Her breath control was essentially seamless, so that the music came across as an uninterrupted stream of color with which Grim could do as she pleased.
The first movement was in keeping with a gentle approach; it was laid-back and sweet rather than muscular and hard-charging, and Grim’s playing floated above the orchestra. In the lovely second movement, she played the first phrase of the opening theme with great lightness, drawing the listener’s ear, and in the cadenza added some nice dark shading to the brief minor-key passage. Her playing also blended well with the orchestral flute in this movement, sounding almost like the music of the spheres.
The finale was also light on its feet, but not limp; Grim’s playing had strength and confidence as well as grace, and the orchestra accompanied well. It was a nice change of pace from all the violin and piano concertos we generally hear during season, and one hopes Grim will make a return appearance.
The afternoon opened with Gli uccelli (The Birds), Ottorino Respighi’s five-part reimagining of some harpsichord and lute works from the French and Italian Baroque. The opening march (Preludio) was somewhat tentative and ragged, without the sunny-morning brightness it needs to make its point. The solo oboe in La colomba was quite good, with the harp underneath adding a strong feeling of poignant melancholy.
La gallina, based on Jean-Philippe Rameau’s famous keyboard piece depicting a hen, was attractively played, if a bit too slow and without a certain manic energy that makes it more fun. Flutes, horn and celesta did good work in the fourth movement L’usignuolo, and in the finale (Il cucu), found some of the energy that had been late in arriving for the opening bars.
The second half of the concert was devoted to music of Rodion Shchedrin, a contemporary Russian composer whose best-known work is the one the Symphonia played: Carmen Suite, a set of dances based on music from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. In this 1967 ballet score, Shchedrin filters Bizet through a string orchestra with a large percussion complement, which was adeptly managed by the extra percussion players on stage Sunday. His treatments of the source material are witty without being disrespectful, and they bring out the music anew in fresh raiment without making it seem unfamiliar.
That’s quite a feat, and its overall cleverness, plus its sometimes tricky scoring, must have had something to do with the feeling of engagement that came across from the Symphonia. There was passionate playing from the cellos in the Fate theme, for instance, and nice work from the all of the strings in the insistent rhythms of the section after the Habanera.
But this was a chance for the percussionists to shine, and shine they did, doing deft work from chimes to marimba, vibraphone to wood blocks and numerous other instruments, demonstrating how many different sounds there are in the percussion section if a creative composer cares to use them. The Symphonia’s performance under Entremont had vigor and high spirits, and its lean string numbers gave it an extra edge that brought Shchedrin’s invention into bold relief. It was a fine reading of this clever piece, and a strong finish for Entremont’s tenure at the helm.
The final concert of the season will be led by Constantine Kitsopoulos and feature violinist Ilana Setapen in the Violin Concerto of Antonin Dvorak (in A minor, Op. 53), the Beethoven Eighth Symphony (in F, Op. 93), and Stephen Dillon’s Amadeus ex Machina. 4 p.m., Roberts Theater, St. Andrew’s School, Boca Raton. Tickets: $33-$59. Call 866-687-4201 or visit www.bocasymphonia.org.