Orchestra Miami's 2008 concerts have put the emphasis on guest artists to spark ticket sales rather than showcasing the fledgling ensemble in its own right.
The chamber orchestra's season finale, presented by the Miami Civic Music Association Saturday night at Gusman Concert Hall, boasted a superb guest soloist with Angel Romero yet also allowed the musicians their share of the spotlight in a varied program.
Music director Elaine Rinaldi led off the evening with an exuberant performance of Mozart's Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, the exotic ''Turkish'' percussion very music to the fore, before Romero took the stage for David Chesky's Guitar Concerto.
Born in Miami and long resident in New York, Chesky, 51, is a gifted and intriguing voice, a self-described ''orchestral urban composer,'' whose eclectic music mines jazz, rock and world music within traditional classical structures.
Written in 2002, Chesky's Guitar Concerto was the first of his ''urban'' compositions, with the composer in this case mining -- surprise -- Latin and flamenco traditions in the solo guitar writing. Most prominent is Chesky's offbeat writing for four percussionists who play no instruments but provide an unusual, constantly varied counterpoint of handclapping that reflecting the palmas aspect of the flamenco tradition.
Chesky's more recent works have a greater dynamism and rhythmic edge, and in the Guitar Concerto, one can feel Chesky grappling with different forms. The first movement relies largely on Latin guitar tropes and flamenco runs, mixed in with some mysterious string harmonies, while the second section offers a lovely solo line for Romero against a moody nocturnal background. The astringent finale has a Bartok-like feel at times, with fragments batted back and forth between the soloist, clappers, woodwinds, and strings, as the increasingly virtuosic solo writing builds to an energetic coda.
Romero's stellar musicianship and range of colors provided the finest possible advocacy, but this isn't one of Chesky's more successful works, with some awkward moments and the clap-happy percussion seeming more gimmicky than inventive. Chesky's concerto is a difficult work to coordinate and while Rinaldi and Orchestra Miami provided workmanlike support, the accompaniment was not as tight or rhythmically pointed as their star soloist, with rather sodden handclapping.
Romero was heard to better advantage in his encore of the Fantasia by his celebrated father Celedonio, thrown off with remarkably even articulation, subtle dynamic turns and great rhythmic élan.
Rodrigo's Tres Viejos Aires de Danza (Three Traditional Dance Airs) maintained the Spanish motif. The light arrangements plumb no depths but have a light charm that was fitfully conveyed, though the performance also showed some rough edges and wayward intonation.
Rinaldi and the orchestra were heard to better advantage in Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, which closed the evening. Rinaldi paced the movements alertly, bringing the requisite vitality to the outer movements, while attentive to scoring details in the Andante, conveying the somber melancholy.
