By Mel Wilhoit
Correspondent
Boasting an extraordinary resume that currently includes assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, Ms Mei-Ann Chen took the podium of the Chattanooga Symphony on Thursday evening at the Tivoli Theater as guest conductor for an exhilarating evening of music-making.
The concert opened with Antonin Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture,” featuring whirling melodies, reminiscent of a festive celebration. Ms Chen, who appears to be the vortex of a musical tornado, wound her players to a fever pitch and then throttled them to an ecstatic climax. The crowd erupted with approval.
Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Weber” followed and is one of the composer’s more playful works. Its four movements are based on melodies by the 18th-century composer Carl Maria von Weber and proved an excellent vehicle for Maestro Chen to show off her podium persona, ranging from athletic to balletic.
Conducting from memory, she cajoled the orchestra with highly theatrical yet exquisitely disciplined gestures, producing a tension that kept the audience glued to the performance. This work is a great showcase for the brass and woodwind sections with a special nod to principal flutist Janet Hale.
After intermission, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” took center stage. This musical account of “1001 Arabian Nights” is filled with exotic legends of Sinbad’s ship, passionate royal encounters and a festival at Baghdad. The real stars of this work were the orchestra’s principal players who turned in an astounding display of bravura playing, led by the haunting performance of concertmaster Donald Zimmer.
This four-movement work also offered Ms Chen a chance to show a softer side as she molded lyrical and sinewy lines of musical arabesques. As the consummate showman, she also wowed the audience with her demonstrably entertaining style of conducting — without ever breaking a sweat. “Scheherazade” is a musical tour-de-force, conducted Thursday evening by a musical force of nature.
The concert will be repeated this evening at 8.