Leonard Slatkin conducts hearty program with Peabody Symphony, Marina Piccinini
It was nice to have Leonard Slatkin in town, if only for a single concert with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night.
Last fall, Marin Alsop conducted this ensemble in a memorable account of the incendiary Second Symphony by Aaron Jay Kernis, which was recorded for future release on Naxos. Saturday’s concert contained another Kernis work that was also recorded — the Flute Concerto from 2015, written for and dedicated to flutist Marina Piccinini, one of Peabody’s excellent faculty artists.
In four action-packed movements, the concerto shifts in mood between clouded and lighthearted, muscular and tender, assertive and wistful.
The flute is both protagonist and commentator in this eclectic drama, which ends with a nod to Jethro Tull (the movement is titled “Taran-Tulla”) that generates a manic, jazzy edge, only to dissipate in a questioning wisp.
In addition to the brilliant, prismatic writing for the flute, Kernis provides a multilayered orchestral fabric that includes, to delectable effect, a mandolin.
Piccinini, who performed the concerto’s premiere last year with Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony, met the work’s thorny technical demands on this occasion with her usual aplomb. Slatkin provided supple partnering and drew a vivid response from the orchestra.