There were two decidedly different layers of entertainment last weekend as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra opened its 2016-17 Masterworks season. One, naturally enough, was the music, a program of two always compelling works by the Russian composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The other revolved around the debut of the orchestra’s new 30-year-old music director and conductor, Aram Demirjian, and the marketing campaign that has been constructed around his arrival. The KSO is calling it the “Aram Era,” a major theme built around Demirjian’s image and personality and featured on all the organization’s materials—advertising, program booklets, posters, even on T-shirts—in an effort to generate excitement among current audiences and understandably expand its appeal to a changing music demographic.

Perhaps cautious of the singular marketing attention on him, Demirjian took great pains to praise the orchestra itself during his opening remarks at the Tennessee Theatre, acknowledging that he has inherited an orchestra of substantial ability and maturity as an ensemble. His audition concert last January, marked by the now infamous snowstorm scare that reduced the audience to a dedicated few, was a testament to the orchestra’s ability to pull calm music-making from the grasp of anxiety and tension. Demirjian will have to retain—and build on—that ability, as well as the enthusiasm of the players, as the orchestra deals with upcoming personnel turnover and the natural dynamics of performance.

Building on observations from that audition concert, last weekend’s performance offered further evidence of Demirjian’s skill at drawing excitement from tempo and momentum, but perhaps at the expense of less attention to balance between sections, as well as to individual and ensemble tonal color. It’s worth noting that Demirjian made changes to the physical arrangement of some sections, moving trumpets and low brass to the stage left rear corner of the orchestra shell—a move that offered a noticeable difference in sound projection. Similarly, the timpani was moved behind the horns, center rear, allowing it to blend more easily.

However, it was that tempo excitement that was evident as pianist Orion Weiss joined Demirjian and the orchestra for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor. It had been almost four years to the day since KSO audiences last heard Weiss, on that occasion in a 2012 season-opening performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. While both works are mind-bogglingly virtuosic for the pianist, the No. 3 showers the listener with continuous long thematic journeys and rippling melodic side trips. Weiss’ performance was masterful, both sensitive and intelligent, and without a hint of heaviness.

While Rachmaninoff kept the focus squarely on the piano, he was also conscious that a fully developed orchestral accompaniment, rich with complexity, was essential for the work’s long-term reputation. To that end, he carefully wove echoes and variations of the piano’s themes throughout the orchestration like a narrative thread. In the opening movement, there was one such moment of true magic and joy, in which a theme is repeated delicately first by the flute (played by Jill Bartine), then subsequently by  the oboe (Claire Chenette), clarinet (Gary Sperl), and horn (Jeffery Whaley).

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, on the second half of the program, was like an old friend to many listeners, with its familiar themes conjuring up a range of emotions, from sadness to triumph, from pomp to tragedy, from the happiness of the waltz to melancholic despair. Demirjian’s attention to tempo worked well in this case, keeping the performance fresh and lively, with a brisk pace and dynamics. Surprisingly, though, the expected picturesque contrasts of typical Tchaikovsky instrumental textures seemed to be almost afterthoughts rather than prominent features in this performance. Nevertheless, Demirjian’s tempo won out in the Finale movement—a powerful ending, and a solid beginning for the Aram Era.

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With a leap from Russian romantics to the solid heart of the Classical period, KSO opens its Chamber Classics Series on Sunday, Sept. 25, at 2:30 p.m. at the Bijou Theatre with works by Mozart and Haydn. Resident conductor James Fellenbaum will be on the podium for three works, starting with Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and continuing with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, featuring University of Tennessee faculty pianist Kevin Class. The program concludes with Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 in D Major, nicknamed the “London.”

Alan Sherrod

Alan Sherrod has been writing about Knoxville’s vibrant classical music scene since 2007. In 2010, he won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts—the Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera—under the auspices of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also operates his own blogs, Classical Journal and Arts Knoxville.