Minnesota Orchestra

Dvořák cello concerto definitely first rate...Zuill Bailey coaxed from his instrument a complex, multi-hued voice, particularly warm in its upper register. Litton drew complementary colors from the [Minnesota] orchestra, giving his marvelous principals plenty of latitude in their telling dialogues with the cello.

This year's Minnesota Orchestra Sommerfest ended triumphantly with a stellar performance of Puccini's "La Bohème." The vocal performance was of a quality that would be welcome in most of the world's opera houses. From the opening measures, Andrew Litton conducted with a brio appropriate to the madcap bohemians, without stinting the abundant lyricism. It was gratifying to see his responsiveness to the singers.

His first movement suggested an approach to Mahler's [Symphony No. 1] that was less an exploration of nervous impetuosity and dramatic extremism than a focus on careful integration of tempos and enforcecing a sense of inevitability on the music. What he did was save the biggest emotions for the finale, which carried tremendous impact (Minnesota Orchestra).

Drawing a rich and detailed performance from the orchestra, Litton gave vent to the music's exuberant drive, but he sought always to clarify, to balance and to bring into structural unity the composer's ideas. It may be that Litton's considerable experience in the opera pit came to the fore in the work's final pages of almost ecstatic lyricism, where he allowed the phrases to stretch delicately, evoking the consoling, sweet tone of a similar moment in Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier.

In Mahler's Symphony No. 1, Litton created extraordinary visual and emotional imagery that built to triumph. Mahler's first symphony traverses a disturbing emotional landscape where the grotesque and the beautiful cohabit. Litton pushed both extremes. The fury of the last movement was frightening as it broke through a soft, sweet moment. Triumph's final victory was more joyful for being so hard-won.