Going Solo: Twist adds spark to symphony's Headliners concert

By: By Ken Keuffel | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: February 09, 2009

When a guest artist solos with an orchestra, his job description remains limited to one task and one task only. That's performing a concerto. He rarely joins the band for the rest of the program.

Just the opposite happened yesterday, however, when the Winston-Salem Symphony presented "Orchestral Headliners" at the Stevens Center.

The concert's first half featured seven symphony members soloing in one or two pieces with their colleagues; after intermission, these same players returned to assume ensemble roles in a spectacular performance of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, which showcases just about everything an orchestra can do -- and then some.

The players' focus never waned during what must have been a pretty arduous afternoon. It contributed to one of the best symphony concerts I have heard in some time.

Along the way, Matthew Troy, the symphony's assistant conductor and education director, made his "Classics" series conducting debut, leading a lovely performance of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante, K. 297b. Robert Moody, the symphony's music director, conducted the concert's other pieces.

The four soloists in the Mozart piece were flutist Kathryn Levy, oboist Amanda Gerfin, bassoonist Saxton Rose and horn player Robert Campbell.

Each made the most of their solo material, rendering it with expressivity and warmth. The quartet's players worked well as a team, too, particularly in the cadenza for four players that concluded the second movement.

One of the hallmarks of Moody's tenure has been the occasional surprise. The one that happened yesterday came at the end of the concert's first half, when trumpeter Karl Kassner joined Ken Wilmot and Anita Cirba as one of three soloists in Leroy Anderson's Bugler's Holiday. The performance hadn't been announced.

■ Yesterday's program by the Winston-Salem Symphony will be repeated at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Stevens Center. Call 336-721-1945 for information.

■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.