Music and passion

Kristen Peterson, Las Vegas Sun

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

Tickets: $27, $45, $69; 895-2787

Where: Artemus Ham Hall, UNLV

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

What: "Masterworks II featuring guest conductor David Itkin and cellist Matt Haimovitz"

David Itkin was running a few minutes late Tuesday morning. But given his agenda, you could hardly blame him.

As one of three candidates vying for the position of music director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, he spent the morning discussing music education with Marcia Neel, head of the Clark County School District's secondary fine arts department.

For Itkin, the meeting was of personal and professional interest. In his 14 years as music director for the 40-year-old Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Itkin put a lot of weight on music education, on developing future concertgoers and on a professional orchestra's role in a community. Moreover, should Itkin and his wife move to Las Vegas, they would be bringing their daughter, an 8-year-old violinist.

But that decision comes later. When we see Itkin on Saturday, he'll be leading the Philharmonic through Hector Berlioz's "Overture to Beatrice and Benedict," Samuel Barber's cello concerto and Sergei Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.

Hearing Itkin talk about the program, you'd think it's his dream concert. But as he continues, you sense that he might be just as articulate and passionate about any program.

"He's a great believer in how music can communicate," says Phil Koslow, executive director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. "He's very focused. He knows what he wants to hear when he stands on that podium."

And given the difficulty of the pieces Itkin has selected, the musicians have their work cut out for them.

"Every one of the pieces is challenging. They're complicated," Itkin says. "It was a long, hard workout with the string section last night."

With Prokofiev, he says, "I wanted a piece that would challenge an orchestra. It's incredibly difficult. It's difficult technically, it's difficult interpretively and difficult musically."

But, he adds, "This is a piece where you really are able to see how far we can go."

Itkin's guest soloist is cellist Matt Haimovitz, whom he has known since Haimovitz filled in as a substitute soloist for a Beethoven triple concerto. He has worked with the 35-year-old former prodigy on a couple of other occasions and even saw one of his performances at a bar: "It was fantastic. People sitting around drinking beer and listening to Bach cello suites is otherworldly. The place was pin-drop silent, except for the occasional clinking of glasses."

Scheduling the busy Haimovitz was just a matter of great timing, Itkin says.

Regarding the program assembled with Weller, he says, "They are pieces that never fail to engage me."

Here's what the conductor had to say about the three pieces:

The overture

Berlioz, a 19th-century French composer, was inspired by Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" when he wrote this comic opera.

"It's just entertaining beyond belief," the conductor said. "It's his odd sense of musical humor, which he had in abundance, rocketing off the page. He really got the feel of a Shakespearean comedy in this music."

The concerto

The romantic work was completed by the American composer in 1945.

"The Barber concerto is one of Matt's favorite pieces, and it's one that a lot of people have not heard. Matt's really known for that piece. He 'owns' it. He has some particular gifts that lend himself to that piece. It has an extraordinarily high register.

"The piece is fun and unpredictable and if that doesn't describe Matt, I don't know what does."

The symphony

A popular Prokofiev symphony with an intensely dramatic fourth movement, Prokofiev wrote it to capture the "greatness of the human spirit." It premiered in Moscow in 1945.

"Prokofiev's Fifth is one of my very favorite pieces. People who haven't heard it will know why when they hear it.

"The whole work is about the flow of human progress. About absolute belief that humans and human values will overcome the Soviet State, that the cause of justice and freedom will overcome this monolithic (power). It's not only a philosophical, spiritual piece, it's fascinating to listen to. It's very exciting."