A big night for the tuba

Conventional wisdom says that new music at the symphony is audience repellent.

That's why it was so great to find a world premiere that was a real celebration. The first performance of Samuel Jones' new Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra was downright festive, with the Thursday audience applauding lustily for an important new work and an inspired performance by tubist Chris Olka.

Commissioned by Sandra Crowder in memory of her late husband, James, the new concerto was composed with Olka's considerable gifts in mind. Arching continually upward, the motifs for all three movements are beautiful, set against harmonies that suggest what Mahler might have sounded like if he were writing in the 21st century. Jones' flair for orchestration creates splendid colors and effects that never overwhelm the solo instrument's velvety, soft-focus sound.

Olka made the best possible case for the new work, negotiating its huge range and its mighty technical demands with finesse — and with the same dexterity as the piccolo, an unlikely but wonderful partner in some passages. The extensive quotations from Wagner's "Ring," and the swirling evocation of the wind tunnel where the dedicatee (a former Boeing engineer and "Ring" fan) worked, make the third movement especially picturesque.

Opening the program was Kodály's "Dances of Galánta," with beautifully understated clarinet solos by Christopher Sereque among the pleasures of this flexible, pliant performance.

Schwarz took a very deliberate opening tempo for Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony, underscoring the work's gravity and returning to that same emotional climate in the heartfelt fourth movement. The third movement, a terrific display piece for the brass, found the overexcited orchestra rushing almost out of control, but Schwarz managed to keep the forces in check despite the exuberance of the music. The audience couldn't resist applauding, even though current symphonic etiquette deems otherwise; it's Tchaikovsky's fault for writing something so splendidly stirring.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com