YOUNGSTOWN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA O'Connor overshadowed by Copland

The symphony's sound was colorful and crisp.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Symphony illuminated Powers Auditorium with an exciting American Music program Saturday evening. Guest artist was stellar jazz and country fiddler, Marc O'Connor.
Notwithstanding O'Connor's exceptional violin technique, the highlight of the evening was the orchestra's expressive performance of Aaron Copland's orchestral ballet suite, "Appalachian Spring."
"Appalachian Spring," composed in 1944, consists of eight freely interconnected movements that illustrate choreographer Martha Graham's scenario about a newlywed pioneer couple in rural, mountainous Pennsylvania. Originally scored for only 13 instruments, Copland expanded the work to a full-size orchestra for premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 1945.
The Youngstown Symphony performance was crisp, lively and colorful. Opening slowly and solemnly with the "Introduction of the Characters," the first movement had lovely orchestral sonority and austere chords punctuated by low-register harp. This mood returns in the final eighth movement, "The Bride Takes her Place with her Neighbors."
Maestro Isaiah Jackson kept a brisk pace in the rapid second movement, delineating lovely brass writing and a fine flute duet. The sudden hemiola shift to a three-beat group came off beautifully.
The pensive third movement, "Duo for the Bride and her Intended," had nice clarinet, oboe and flute solos, piquant brassy horns, fresh woodwind and brass sonorities and attractive slow-string textures.
The next two movements, "The Revivalist and his Flock," and the even faster "Solo Dance of the Bride," were exciting but marred by a few ensemble glitches attributable to the rhythmic complexity. The introduction of woodblock and other percussion provided a sparkling coloristic display.
The seventh movement paraphrasing the Shaker tune, "Simple Gifts," was outstanding.
O'Connor's work
The second half consisted of O'Connor's own 45-minute Fiddle Concerto, which suffered from proximity to the beautifully constructed Copland piece. The first movement, more than 18 minutes long, consists of interplay between what O'Connor calls a "hoe-down theme" and a "waltz theme." Unfortunately, the classical style, crudely approximating Beethoven or Schubert, dominates over the fiddling style, which only emerges in the blazingly fast virtuoso passages, which O'Connor played flawlessly.
The slow second movement is more interesting, with attractive writing for the cello section and some nice twittering in the woodwinds. It, too, seemed to go on for too long. In the third movement cadenza, a few hints of bluesy sonorities finally enter, but do not linger long enough.
The audience was appreciative of O'Connor's amazing technique, and was rewarded with a beautiful encore that presented "America" and "Amazing Grace" in a fine solo violin counterpoint -- a truly effect piece.
The concert opened with an excellent performance of Morton Gould's "American Salute," a compact and rousing set of variations on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," that set the tone for the interesting evening.