Violinist gets Philharmonic off to boffo start

A violin virtuoso led the Las Vegas Philharmonic to a dynamic season opener.

Years of tutelage from Itzhak Perlman helped prepare Giora Schmidt, 26, of Philadelphia for the boffo presentation Saturday at Artemus Ham Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

During a pause in Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35," the audience stopped his performance with raucous applause and a partial standing ovation.

"Does that mean I can go?" Schmidt cracked from stage.

It certainly did not.

Schmidt and the orchestra soared even higher for the remaining portion of the 1878 composition, receiving more applause and a lengthy ovation at its conclusion.

Schmidt has particularly emotive facial expressions, grimacing at some difficult sections, seeming close to a smile at other times. He occasionally leaned into his playing and, when standing quietly, sometimes nodded in time to the other musicians.

Under the direction of music director and conductor David Itkin, the 70-plus members of the Philharmonic appeared to be enjoying themselves as they were inspired to grand textural work accompanying Schmidt.

After the lengthy ovation, Schmidt offered a solo encore of the prelude of Bach's "Violin Concerto in E Major," an unexpected, bright fillip.

The orchestra opened the evening with "Finlandia, Op. 26" by Jean Sibelius.

"It's very dense and very dark," Itkin said of the selection in his pre-curtain remarks. "I don't know what I was thinking" when he picked it to open the season.

Yet, it set a mood in its own way, indicating that the musicians are ready for rich, overlaid complexities of composition that must create sentiments on their own, rather than relying upon automatic responses to proven successes.

After intermission, the orchestra returned with Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92" from 1812.

With its slides from minor to major, its varying tempos and its dramatic emotions, it required the musicians to have knowledge of classical and romantic techniques, along with a spirited zeal to wander Beethoven's musical byways but return, and finish, with a final dramatic fury.