Conductor Les Pfutzenreuter

TCHAIKOVSKY PIECES HIGHLIGHT USO CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Despite stormy weather and incessant rain, a substantial audience attended the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra’s “Home for the Holidays” concert on December 1 in Mendocino College’s Center Theater in Ukiah.

Conductor Les Pfutzenreuter led the Symphony in the opening piece, the second and best-known suite from Smetana’s “The Moldau”. The Suite was performed with intensity.

Solo violinist Roy Malan then joined the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35. Filled with daring violin slides, leaps, plucks and even some bluegrass-style sawing, the ever-popular Concerto received a virtuoso reading by Mr. Malan and the Orchestra, and elicited a standing ovation.

Following intermission, the Symphony turned to more traditional holiday fare, the first a series of extracts from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet and Mr. Pfutzenreuter explained that the selections represented lesser-known motifs from the work that are not as familiar to audiences as the more often-played sections. These included Tableau One from Act I, No. 4 and 5; the Adagio from the Grand Pas de Deux in Act II; the Introduction, Scene Dansante and Spanish Dance, also from Act II; and the Final Waltz and Apotheosis from Act II.

Next was a symphonic arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” and the concert concluded with “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. This delighted the audience with its percussive effects representing the clip-clop of horses’ hooves, jingling sleigh bells and the crack of the driver’s whip.