Philharmonic continues to settle into its new venue

When the Las Vegas Philharmonic takes the stage of Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts this weekend, it'll mark more than just the conclusion of the orchestra's 2011-2012 season.

It'll also mark the next few steps in a journey of discovery the orchestra continues to make as it becomes ever more comfortable moving into its new home.

The Masterworks V concert will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m., while the preconcert discussion is scheduled for
7:15 p.m.

On the evening's program will be "Symphony No. 9" by Antonin Dvorak, Beethoven's "Consecration of the House" and Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome."

The concert, like the Philharmonic's Smith Center debut in March, will represent - apologies in advance for the tacky home-buying metaphor - the Philharmonic's sort of scrunching its toes into the plush carpeting of its new living room.

"We still think of this as kind of our opening at The Smith Center," said David Itkin, the Philharmonic's conductor and music director, and that notion will be reflected in the evening's program.

The Dvorak piece, for example, is "not only a great piece and a favorite piece of pretty much everybody, but it's also titled 'The New World,' and it is a new world for us in the arts in Las Vegas right now," Itkin said.

The Beethoven piece, meanwhile, is "traditionally played at the opening of a new theater," Itkin said.

Finally, the Respighi piece "in and of itself has nothing to do with newness or new buildings," Itkin said, "except that it's such a wonderfully sonically diverse piece."

For example, the Respighi piece will feature brass players positioned in one of the concert hall's boxes to "play a sort of antiphonal (section) with the brass that's onstage," Itkin said.

The piece also will feature a striking incorporation of recorded sound.

"Pines of Rome," which debuted in 1924, is "one of the first pieces - probably the first piece as far as I know - to utilize what was then the infantile technology of recorded singing," Itkin said.

At "a certain point between the third and fourth movement," he said, the audience will hear the trill of a nightingale - "very delicate, very, very soft and sort of ethereal and mysterious."

"It was a groundbreaking concept for Respighi at the time to integrate that. And we don't use just any bird noise. We use the exact recording Respighi blessed, so to speak."

It's sure to be "a magical moment," Itkin said, and the audience likely will wonder whether what they're hearing is a real bird or music instruments.

"It's wonderful, and it really uses the sonic environment (at Reynolds Hall) to real effect," Itkin said.

Audiences should expect to see even more such boundary stretching as the Philharmonic continues to, as Itkin puts it, explore "the unique musical and technological opportunities" Reynolds Hall offers.

Next season's schedule will, for example, include a pops program during which the Philharmonic will play the score to Charlie Chaplin's 1931 silent classic "City Lights."

"It's going to be very fun," Itkin said, and something the Philharmonic "never could have done" before its move to Reynolds Hall.

"Then we're going to do a presentation of Holst's 'The Planets' where the entire time the audience will be looking at 3-D images of the solar system," Itkin said. "It's like taking a trip in outer space for 50 minutes. It's going to be very fun.

"Even in our holiday pops (concert), because our stage is now big enough to accommodate something other than just the orchestra and the chorus crammed up there, we're able to do, for example, the presentation we're going to do with the Goodmans, Mayor (Carolyn) Goodman and former Mayor (Oscar) Goodman ... involving the famous poem, 'The Night Before Christmas.'

"Without giving anything away," Itkin added, "it's going to need a little more room."

Still, itkin said, the Philharmonic is "still very much in a learning curve as to how to use this hall, and we're going (be on) a learning curve for quite a while.

"Every concert, we're going to be more and more comfortable with the different ways we have to play and the different way we have to make music to utilize this sonic environment in the best possible way."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@review
journal.com or 702-383-0280.