Chamber orchestra performs melange of styles marvelously

UTAH SYMPHONY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Park City, Wednesday Wednesday's concert by the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra was a melange of musical styles and composers, blended with a wide range of orchestral textures. Three pieces for strings were sandwiched between two works for orchestra, offering a nice contrast. While it defies conventional wisdom to program a concert in this manner, it worked remarkably well. Thanks to some outstanding playing by the members of the Utah Symphony and to guest conductor Douglas Boyd's intelligent and lucid direction, this was without question one of the better concerts in the Deer Valley Music Festival's five-year existence. The three string pieces on the program were Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" and... [read full story]