Review: Cape Symphony's 'Fanfare' a rousing concert with town council president Levesque

HYANNIS — Barnstable Town Council president Matthew P. Levesque got three standing ovations Saturday after presenting the words of President Abraham Lincoln at Cape Symphony’s season opener, “Fanfare: A Celebration of Unity.”

Levesque opened the concert with a rousing version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” and returned as narrator to read excerpts of the 16th president’s great works in composer Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.”

Levesque’s voice is an instrument of its own, rich, warm, swelling into a vibrato as the Cape Symphony played flawlessly behind him.

Farkhad Khudyev first guest conductor after Jung-Ho Pak departure

For many, the draw of “Fanfare” was curiosity about the first in what is to be a year of guest conductors while a search ensues for a conductor/artistic director to replace Jung-Ho Pak.

Farkhad Khudyev, a world-renowned, award-winning conductor and violinist, worked with Cape Symphony musicians for a week before their masterpiece concert.

The result was impressive, resulting in music that was energized, with soaring passages and crisp stops.

Khudyev and the musicians engaged in a fluid, physical dance that produced amazing music. The guest conductor moved like mercury ― Freddy and the stuff in thermometers ― as the music moved through him. He swung the baton like a baseball bat; thrust it out like a fencer's foil and drew tiny little circles in the air. His feet left the podium once or twice.

The musicians, especially the strings, responded, bobbing and weaving in time to the notes they produced.

You too can fly with Copland

Close your eyes during Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and you — well, I — could feel the sense of flying free high above the mountains.

In a brief talk to ticket holders before the concert, Khudyev said conducting for him means getting the best sound from each group of instrumentalists and then balancing those optimal sections to best serve the piece of music.

The approach certainly seemed to pay off in a pure golden sound: I especially enjoyed the first act because Copland, well known for his “Appalachian Spring,” creates a sound now associated with Americana. It is familiar, including snippets of reels many of us learned in grade school.

Also wonderful in the first act was Jean Sibelius’ rousing “Finlandia,” the unofficial national anthem written when that country faced a Russian invasion.

The second act, Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 3, Eroica (Hero)” produced music that seemed impossible, with one section of instruments sliding into the next like nesting dolls. Cape Symphony told this story of disillusionment and hope with despair and glee.

When each piece ended, Khudyev would signal groups of musicians with a little gesture of applause, a thumbs-up or what looked like a small heart hand sign. Then, as Cape Symphony always did with Pak, the conductor and musicians all bowed as one.

One more thing: I will never miss another of the educational talks presented on the opening day of each masterpiece concert. On Saturday, trombonist George Shaw talked about the program, putting the pieces in context and demonstrating with video, including Leonard Bernstein conducting. It was the perfect prep for “Fanfare.”

Cape Symphony's next concert, on Oct. 21-22, is a CapePOPS! performance with guest conductor and trumpet player Byron Stripling and vocalist Carmen Bradford playing hits made famous by New Orleans favorites Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Al Hirt, Mahalia Jackson, and Jazz Age icons Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday

Gwenn Friss is the editor of CapeWeek and covers entertainment, restaurants and the arts. Contact her at gfriss@capecodonline.com. Follow her or X, formerly Twitter: @dailyrecipeCCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Conductor Farkhad Khudyev, Cape Symphony create rousing 'Fanfare'