The Portland Youth Philharmonic roared like a Maserati on Saturday in its first concert under music director David Hattner. The route was challenging, the execution distinguished and the ride delightful.
Hattner, a conductor with an ear for momentum and drama, is the orchestra's fifth music director in its 85 years. A clarinetist by training, he comes from the other coast with a list of guest-conducting credits that includes the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and Eugene Symphony. His choice of music to open PYP's season not only provoked the orchestra into some terrific playing, it also signaled a sense of history, both musical and within the organization.
For example, the first half of the program, performed in Schnitzer Hall, offered fascinating music by three 20th-century Americans: Samuel Barber, Henry Cowell and Aaron Copland. Copland, especially, is associated with PYP after one of his students, and former PYP music director, Jacob Avshalomov, invited him to lead the orchestra for a performance in 1964.
Copland's ballet music "Billy the Kid" received a colorful and rhythmically pointed performance, made even more engaging by two players, Emma Davis, principal flute, and Kate Davis, principal bass. To introduce the work, Hattner asked them to stand on the side of the stage and sing the original folk songs that Copland incorporated into the suite. Members of the orchestra then played Copland's versions of the songs in the context of the work.
Barber's "Music for a Scene From Shelley" is a sumptuously orchestrated tone poem based on a passage from the poet's "Prometheus Unbound," and it unfolded with purpose and drama. The work calls forth a lush arsenal of neo-romantic harmonic color, and the orchestra's brass players distinguished themselves, as did the woodwinds.
Antonin Dvorak's Sixth Symphony is less played than Nos. 7, 8 and 9, but it's a snappy thing and proved a sharp vehicle for Hattner and the players. Brahmsian warmth glowed in the opening and closing movements, while the Scherzo danced lightly. The playing, which included outstanding contributions from French horn principal Charles Dietz Crabtree, had freshness and intensity.
On a final note, it was nice to see Avshalomov, 89, recognized from the stage after a period of several years when he and the orchestra were at arm's length. As the nation's first youth orchestra, this is an organization with a proud past, and Hattner seems poised to acknowledge that while further polishing its legacy.