With classical sax, with virtuosic violins, philharmonic keeping it interesting

By Kristen Peterson

Friday, Nov. 14, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic is offering something unusual Saturday at Artemus Ham Hall.

Music director David Itkin has programmed a sampler platter, if you will.

There are the dramatic, colorful narratives of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” a symphonic painting of waves off a lonely Scottish Isle of Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides,” and a nontraditional marriage between a symphony and a 19th-century instrument typecast for jazz and marching bands — Henri Tomasi’s “Concerto for Alto Saxophone.”

It’s all part of Itkin’s effort to mix it up a little.

“I’m always looking to provide as diverse a sonic experience as I can with any given concert,” the musical director and conductor of the Las Vegas Philharmonic says.

Reasons to go and things you should know:

Cocktail chatter

There are very few professional classical saxophonists in the world and even fewer saxophone concertos. So this is a rare chance to say, while nibbling at cheese, that you recently attended a concerto for alto saxophone.

On Saturday, Eugene Rousseau will perform a piece that was written for saxophone. If you want to get a taste of Bach on sax, check out Rousseau’s CD “Saxophone Colors” and hear him play Bach’s Flute Sonata in E major. Itkin, who refers to Rousseau as the “gold standard of classical saxophonists,” accepted a gig conducting a concert in Europe one summer solely because Rousseau was a soloist.

Purists might argue that hearing a saxophone performing with a symphony is much like eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich, but then purists will argue about anything.

They should take comfort in knowing that Rousseau knows what he’s doing. He’s a professor at the University of Minnesota, co-founded the World Saxophone Congress in 1969 and performs with the quartet Saxophilia. Also, Rousseau’s 1993 saxophone recital at the Mozarteum Conservatory of Salzburg was a first at the conservatory.

Mendelssohn’s postcard overture

Can we ever tire of Felix Mendelssohn’s wave-breaking overture? No. Mendelsohn’s overture was written to capture the experience of sitting and listening to waves of the Atlantic Ocean echo inside a cave formed by lava.

The composer was moved by the experience of Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa. Word has it that instead of scribing the usual, “Having a splendid time in Scotland. Wish you were here,” he hastily wrote the open theme to the overture and mailed it home that day.

“Scheherezade”

This is a fun one. You can never have too much cymbal action at the symphony and the violin solo is enough to make you melt.

Rimsky-Korsakov based his musical fantasy on the tales from “One Thousand and One Nights” with movements titled “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” “The Kalendar Prince,” “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” and “Festival at Baghdad.” “Scheherezade” is the composer’s most popular work. Accessible and entertaining, it showcases an orchestra’s virtuosic talents.