The Orchestra at Temple Square delivered a bit of Russia to Salt Lake City June 10 at its annual summer concert in the Conference Center.
Led by its Ukrainian-born conductor Igor Gruppman, the orchestra performed "a program of the greatest Russian music" for an audience of thousands on a warm Saturday evening. They were joined in their second number of the evening by young Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk in a Sergey Rachmaninoff piano concerto that highlighted the event.
The same concert was performed a day earlier at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah.
The program began with the orchestra's Dmitry Shostakovich's Festive Overture, op. 96. Brother Gruppman introduced the overture, saying it had been composed and dedicated to the young people who were rebuilding Russia following the dark years of World War II. A feeling of new hope could be heard in the peppy, frenetic overture.
The rich, albeit brief, piece was enthusiastically performed by the orchestra.
A remarkable talent not long removed from his teen years, Mr. Gavrylyuk brought appreciated energy to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 2 in C Minor, op. 18. The concerto's three movements could stand alone as independent works. Together, they become a singular, rewarding composition.
Prior to the performance, Brother Gruppman described the internationally acclaimed Mr. Gavrylyuk as a "very deep and serious artist." The pianist's collaboration with the Orchestra at Temple Square was intense, yet graceful and effortless. His performance was rewarded by multiple standing ovations. He answered with a solo encore that prompted yet more cheers.
The concert concluded with a symphony from perhaps Russia's most famous composer, Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky.
As introduced by Brother Gruppman, Tchaikovsky's autobiographical Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, op. 36, is about the personal, internal struggle between good and evil.
"In this symphony, good wins over evil."
E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com
