Guest conductor, orchestra excel

Guest violinist Joan Kwuon's performance was the evening's highlight.
By ROBERT ROLLIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Saturday night's Youngstown Symphony concert at Powers Auditorium continued the season of guest conductors, presenting Grant Cooper, conductor of the West Virginia Symphony.
Cooper, a New Zealander, made a point to introduce each work verbally, and had fine rapport with orchestra and audience alike. The orchestra seems to revel in the varied direction, and played a lovely program of smaller-proportioned works.
The evening's highlight was a beautiful reading by guest artist Joan Kwuon of the Mozart Third Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G major, K. 216, written when the composer was only 19. The reduced orchestra played with charm and precision. From Kwuon's first-movement entrance it was clear that she was playing the music, not merely the notes. She gave energetic-yet-elegant small accents to the downbeats where appropriate, and played with great musicality without being overbearing. The truly great performers subordinate themselves to the composer's musical intentions, yet inject some flair and beauty, and Kwuon certainly fulfilled these requirements.
Beautifully executed
The second movement, Adagio, the central jewel of the piece, was gorgeous and graceful as Kwuon enunciated her entrances clearly and the orchestra accompanied with great sensitivity. A particularly beautiful moment involved a short dialogue between soloist and principal flute. Kwuon's cadenza was also lovely.
The final Allegro, a sprightly rondeau, was delightful. Kwuon and the orchestra negotiated the rapid passages with poise and made the most of the surprising change from the lively three-eight to a four-four that is first beautifully lyrical, and then more animatedly rustic -- truly strokes of genius by the young composer. Kwuon also tossed off the difficult cadenza octave passages with ease.
The concert opened with Brahms' wonderful Variations on a Theme of Haydn. It was here that conductor Cooper truly showed his mettle, deftly negotiating the many changes of mood, rhythm and tempo. The performance was briskly paced, well-balanced and imaginative. The Fifth Variation's powerful scherzolike syncopations were excellent, and the horns excelled energetically in the Sixth.
Superb conducting
The conductor also brought out the marvelously dissonant suspensions in the Seventh that can only be delineated with careful rehearsal. Cooper and the orchestra made the most of the exuberant finale, which builds from the serious opening Andante to a strident, powerful fortissimo climax.
Bizet composed his Symphony in C when he was only 17. The first movement introduces an interesting doubling of flute and horn that appears later. The middle movement, Adagio, provides moments of sublime beauty.
These include several wonderful dialogues between the two oboes and an expressive fugato driven by the strings. The finale is a bit too long in its youthful enthusiasm, but its charming drone sections remind one of similar fare in the Chopin Marzurkas.
Other than some horn problems, and covering of oboe lines, the performance was solid.