Year of guest conductors has brought new confidence

By Loren Tice CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC

What a year it's been for the Lexington Philharmonic, with five guest conductors competing for the post of music director, book-ended by two concerts led by retiring conductor, George Zack.

Friday night's concert closed the MasterClassics series with a blaze of glory -- Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, possibly the closest that humanity has come to immortality in music. Everybody knows its Ode to Joy theme, commonly sung to the hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. But to really know that tune, you have to experience the hour-and-a-quarter of music that surrounds it.

It contains hurricane-force winds that can batter the best musicians. Did our forces stand up to the challenge? And has the orchestra grown through this year's battery of changes?

The first answer is a qualified yes. Yes, in setting mood and atmosphere, in executing jagged rhythms, in Zack's care in balancing orchestral elements, and in channeling potential mania into fixed purpose. But no, in precision and cohesiveness. And the hall did seem to swallow up the vocal soloists in the din.

The second answer is a yes in confidence and poise, gained because of, not in spite of, the constant change in conductors. But yet to emerge is the swagger that you would really like to hear, or the consistent, fierce concentration that separates the great from the good.

There were hints of greatness. As they sang "Be embraced, you millions," you would swear that the Lexington Singers (Jefferson Johnson, conductor) is not at all a small-city chorus. In vibrancy of tone and explosiveness of rhythm, this chorus ranks with the finest.

Soloists led the way, too. Timpanist Brady Harrison showed the difference between banging and thunder. Baritone singer Jacob Lassetter's ringing clarion call was as true as a trumpet's. Fourth hornist Sherry Baker probably doesn't expect a lot of mention, but she deserves it this time, by negotiating a perilously difficult solo with aplomb.

Beethoven always offers moments of pain-free peace, and it was the limpid clarinets of Mike Acord and his duet partner, Atossa Kramer, that seemed to repeal the laws of gravity.

There was bounce, also, to the rather odd choice of Eine kleine Nachtmusik of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as concert opener. Pairing it with Beethoven's Ninth is like making Napoleon's statue's hat a butterfly. In this playing, the Mozart didn't have a lot of delight, but there was charm. It was in the Mozart, not the Beethoven, that transitions were as natural as rain, and it was the ease of the conductor that made it happen.

In the fall, the search for a new conductor for the Philharmonic will begin anew. The best comment I have heard is that we should look for a person who is not all about ego, but all about the music. George Zack is an engaging showman, on and off the stage. But he has never wavered from his main focus, music of the heart and spirit. That is a great legacy to offer the future.

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