By Tim Smith
After the intensity of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, the provocative work that occupied the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the past two weeks and garnered glowing notices from Washington to New York, last night’s comfort-food program must have provided a welcome return to normality.
Led by an exceptional guest conductor, Ludovic Morlot, the musicians sounded cohesive and dynamic as they addressed three repertoire standards in a less-than-filled Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
To start, there was a fun, if unintentional, nod to Halloween – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, by Paul Dukas. Perhaps forever destined to be associated with Walt Disney’s Fantasia, where it was memorably used for a Mickey Mouse sequence, the piece stands as solidly as ever on its own. It exudes a delectable combination of the spooky and the zany, elements that Morlot unlocked with a deft touch.
