REVIEW Symphony offers up a sizzling performance

At the end, the musicians were joined by the Youth Orchestra.
By JERRY STEPHENS
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- The weather was cold and snowy, but the music was hot.
One of the liveliest short compositions in the standard repertoire opened the Saturday concert of the Youngstown Symphony at Powers Auditorium. This was Johannes Brahms' orchestration of his "Hungarian Dance No. 1," part of a set Brahms composed for piano four hands. The orchestra under Maestro Isaiah Jackson performed this, and the subsequent compositions at their usual high performance standards.
This spirited opening was followed by a marvelous performance of the "Concerto in A Minor" by Edvard Grieg. This concerto is often paired on recordings with Robert Schumann's "Piano Concerto in A Minor." This is probably not surprising, since Grieg patterned is composition after Schumann's. The concerto was quite popular in the middle of the previous century, possibly from the association with the movie, "Song of Norway."
The soloist for the occasion was Terrence Wilson, a talented young man from the Bronx. His style of playing is not what one could call flamboyant. His technique was economical, and he made it appear that this concerto was easy to play. It was also obvious that such music is a part of his soul.
A tough decision
As has often been the case with the Youngstown Symphony, it was hard to decide which selection was the central part of the evening. Certainly, the performance of Antonin Dvorak's "Symphony No. 9, From the New World" didn't make it any easier.
The symphony was composed during Dvorak's tenure as the Director at the National Conservatory of Music. Much has been written about the thematic origins of this work. I heard a talk by one Carl Haas in a National Public Radio program called "Adventures in Good Music." In it, he suggested that it was the rhythmic elements that one should look for, and pointed them out as he played a recording. I am able to discern differences in the rhythms between Dvorak's 8th and 9th.
Nevertheless, though Americans have taken the symphony as their own, this is a composition that truly belongs to everyone. Superb performances have been recorded by the Italian Arturo Toscanini and the American Leonard Bernstein, among many others. The Youngstown Symphony's performance was equally superb.
Joined by Youth Orchestra
Something out of the ordinary was done for the playing of the final movement. Fifty years ago, the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra began when a group of young musicians performed at a concert alongside of what was then the Youngstown Philharmonic. Saturday, in honor of that event, the young people in the Youth Orchestra played along with the Youngstown Symphony during that final movement.
There have been conductors that could take ordinary or relatively untrained musicians, and take them to very high levels of performance. Toscanini, despite his fearsome reputation, was one, and Maestro Jackson appears to be another. Those young rose to the occasion, and meshed very well with the orchestra. Even the potential imbalances in the overmanned brass and wind sections were smoothed out. It was an excellent conclusion to a very fine evening.