Like a chef, D.M. Symphony shows off blend and technique

They say the best way to judge a chef’s skill is to ask for an omelet. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t require any fancy tools or exotic ingredients. But if anything goes wrong – even the smallest mistake – there is no place to hide it.

The best test of an orchestra is Beethoven, for the same reasons.

So the Des Moines Symphony can be justifiably proud of what it served Sunday afternoon at the Des Moines Civic Center, in a repeated program from Saturday night. Their reading of the German’s popular Sixth Symphony was as buttery smooth and cohesive as anything to slide off a French skillet.

Maestro Joseph Giunta conducted without a score — or a cookbook — because he’s led it many times before, although not here since 2004. He told the Register earlier that he chose it for this weekend's program, just the second in the hall's new acoustical shell, because he figured it would show off the orchestra’s technique and depth of talent.

He was right. From the gentle swell of the first movement to the rollicking dance and dramatic storm in the middle (popularized by Disney's “Fantasia”), the orchestra gave the so-called “Pastoral” symphony the breath of fresh air the composer undoubtedly intended. Exposed solos were excellent across the board, especially from the principals of the traditional wind quintet: Kayla Burggraf (flute), Jennifer Wohlenhaus (oboe), Gregory Oakes (clarinet), Kevin Judge (bassoon) and Bret Seebeck (horn).

But the real mark of the orchestra's skill — and the new maple shell — was how even the quietest solos came through the ensemble’s ebb and flow. Even tiny voices spoke up in the chorus. That's fun to hear for its own sake but also for the contrast it set up for the rumbling low strings and timpani, which signaled the storm as clearly as any super-Doppler gadgets ever could.

After intermission, the gifted guest violinist Elena Urioste jumped in for Glazunov’s rarely performed 1905 violin concerto, which is challenging in at least two ways: for the soloist, who has to make a series of jagged high-altitude sprints, and for the listener, who has to keep up. The piece has its lyrical moments, and the soloist played them up, but the meandering score is probably too academic for its own good. Sunday’s performance seemed to go through all the motions of a concerto without creating a discernible story.

Urioste shined brighter during her comparatively simple encore, the Sarabande from Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor. The phrasing was thoughtful. The tone of the 309-year-old violin was rich and warm. And the concert hall seemed to shrink around her, as if the rest of us were eavesdropping while she practiced at home, deciphering the grace Bach built into the notes.

A jolting wake-up call came with the Capriccio Espagnol that Rimsky-Korsakov wrote during what must have been a great trip to Spain — bull fights, flamenco dancers, sangria, the whole works. It’s the sort of piece that fourth graders should hear before they choose what instrument to play, because it shows off almost everything — all the strings, all the flashy brass, the harp, and a toy box of percussion, including the tambourine and castanets. Clarinetist Oakes and violinist Jonathan Sturm (now in his 25th year as the concertmaster) were especially good with the jaunty solo line they traded a few times before the big Pamplona stampede to the finish.

The program could have ended there, on a rowdy note, but Giunta sent the crowd away with Elgar’s poignant “Nimrod” movement from the “Enigma Variations,” which is often heard at British state funerals. It’s the English answer to the German “Pastoral” Symphony, inspired by the rolling hills near Elgar’s home, and something about its sweep and swell resonates beyond that particular horizon. The woman next to me brushed aside tears.