Conductor, composer, pianist, and educator Lorenzo Turchi-Floris took the podium for the second half of the Symphony of the Americas’ concert on Tuesday night at the Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater, delivering high voltage performances of orchestral showpieces by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Marquez. A music director search candidate to succeed Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese, the Italian musical polymath made a strong impression with his skilled command of symphonic forces, supple musicianship, and interpretive authority.
Brooks-Bruzzese led the first half of the evening. The opening of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor was played with expressive lyricism, the wind section especially distinguished. When the music turned to more fierce modes, the rhythmically charged rendition took the full pulse of Borodin’s exotically colorful score.
Brooks-Bruzzese has always been an exceptionally persuasive interpreter of Mozart and the Symphony No. 38 in D *(Prague) was no exception. There were big contrasts of dynamics in the Adagio introduction and the fugal string lines in the ensuing Allegro were clearly delineated. While the Andante was infused with grace, the movement’s darker dramatic subtext was not ignored. Brooks-Bruzzese set a brisk pace for the final Presto. Throughout the performance, the strings’ warmth of corporate sonority was on display.
Following intermission, Turchi-Floris took the podium, drawing rich sound and hair-trigger dynamics from the ensemble. There was real idiomatic style in the Suite from Tchaikovsky’s ballet score Swan Lake. The initial swan theme (the introduction to the ballet’s second act) was beautifully shaped, spun in ruminative tones by Marco-Key Navarrete’s solo oboe. Turchi-Floris brought out the dark drama beneath the soaring melody. The Waltz was replete with verve and imperial Russian grandeur. Turchi-Floris elicited edge of the seat precision from the players, the audience cheering at the conclusion of the movement. The Dance of the Little Swans was shaped with crisp rhythmic impetus and the Russian Dance conjured up the perfect aura of nostalgia. The fast coda really danced.
In his engaging pre-performance commentary, Turch-Floris warned “watch out for the witches” and indeed Mussorgsky’s tone poem A Night on Bald Mountain thundered from its opening bars. A portrait of a witches’ sabbath on a deserted mountain, the score is a potent orchestral panorama. Turch-Floris drew a hai raising performance that gave equal weight to the work’s fury and soaring portrait of the birth of a new day, dispersing the demons. The crucial brass was firm and strong, the tolling of bells announcing dawn perfectly balanced. Karrie Griffiths’ silvery flute solo capped a vital and propulsive reading.
The irresistible Latin dance beast of Arturo Marquez’s Danzón No. 2 was given cinematic treatment by Turch-Floris. From the silky strings, tinkling piano and terrific brass playing, this was symphonic big band propulsion at white heat. Turchi-Floris’ hard-driving rhythms added that extra touch of pizzazz to this gleaming dance hall brew. He engendered tremendous rapport with the musicians, the performances were given that extra dose of fire and gleam when conductor and orchestra work as one.
The Lisianne Lyons Jazz Trio joins the Symphony of the Americas for Pops and Jazz 2 p.m. February 29 at the Amaturo Theater.
Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese and the Symphony of the Americas celebrate Beethoven’s 250th Birthday with Beethoven to Bluegrass featuring the Lubben Brothers 7:45 p.m. March 10 at the Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater. www.sota.org 954-335-7002
