REVIEW: Hartford Symphony Orchestra, "Gershwin, Marsalis & Bartok"

Bushnell, Belding Theater, Hartford, CT
www.hartfordsymphony.org
through September 26-28, 2025
by Michael J. Moran

For the first weekend of their 2025-2026 “Masterworks” series, the HSO’s Music Director, Carolyn Kuan, selected orchestral showpieces by four composers and featured an orchestra member as soloist in an impressive HSO premier.

photo by Eric Hutchinson

A heartfelt traditional season-opening national anthem was followed by a vigorous reading of French composer Paul Dukas 1897 masterpiece “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Based on a story by German writer Goethe, it was imaginatively popularized by Mickey Mouse in Walt Disney’s 1940 movie “Fantasia.” Kuan and the HSO captured the excitement of this 12-minute drama about magic run amok with flair and finesse.   

The HSO premiere was a sensational performance of jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis’ 2021 “Concerto for Tubist and Orchestra” by the HSO’s own Principal Tuba Jarrod Briley. With few breaks from playing, Briley met the 25-minute piece’s technical challenges with unflagging energy and apparent ease. He made his unwieldy instrument sound surprisingly agile in the opening “Up!” movement, funky in “Boogaloo Americana,” soulful in the gospel-inspired “Lament,” and virtuosic in the
closing “In Bird’s Basement.” Conductor and ensemble offered their colleague strong support. 

Next came a thrilling account of the raucous suite from Hungarian master Bela Bartok’s 1919 ballet “The Miraculous Mandarin.” Its lurid tale of seduction, robbery, and murder led to few early performances of the ballet, but its eerie, suspenseful music and culmination in a wild chase scene made the concert suite more appealing. Kuan and the HSO played this colorful score with power and sensitivity.

The program closed with a lively rendition of George Gershwin’s 1928 tribute to the “city of light,” “An American in Paris.” Though Gershwin’s own program notes cite a trumpet passage as signaling the traveler’s homesickness, it can also be heard as a quiet, restful interlude in a busy day of sightseeing. The musicians reveled in the music’s overall spirit of celebration, a fitting way both to end the concert and to begin a new year, their 82nd season, of music-making together.