BSO is dynamic in finale of season> Final conductor pushes orchestra

Sitting still was not such an easy task after hearing the Bangor Symphony Orchestra play Sunday under guest conductor Christopher Zimmerman. The concert, which was performed to a near-full Maine Center for the Arts, started out big, got bigger and then ended that way. And Zimmerman managed to tap into a world of music dynamics in every space in between.

The concert began with the quivering strings of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B flat Major, Opus 60. He moved slowly, filling the hall with suspense and expectation as the audience waited for the unleashed glory of the first theme. And when the music cut loose, the musicians ran high and mighty with it. There was control in every careful note of urgency. There was grace in every turn, around every wily corner. The musicians pulsated through the adagio, danced through the allegro vivace, and landed in light and clean semiquavers for the finale.

When the piece ended, clearly they felt exhilarated, too, and beamed at their leader. It seemed that, more so than the other conductors this season, Zimmerman was inseparable from the musicians. Conductor and orchestra seemed to breathe as one.

And that communion comes in handy for a piece like Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93, which was performed during the second half of the program. Considered by many as one of the greatest works of the 20th century, this symphony is also one of the most difficult and demanding. To add the 50-minute piece to the Bangor Symphony repertoire this year was a brave step on the part of Zimmerman, who nevertheless yanked this piece from the page and fast-pitched it into the concert hall. And although the symphony was perceivably challenging for the Bangor Symphony and at times beyond its reach, it was a mind-boggling performance and one that will surely go down in symphony history as one of the most exciting.

A rueful and bitter reflection on the Stalin years, this massive symphony roars out Shostakovich’s images of the communist leader as a psychopath. And the Bangor Symphony roared, too. Zimmerman snarled, the strings screamed, the horns brayed, the snare drum popped. The frantic beats counted out steps of agony and were quelled into a chilling tremor, as if a stalking animal might pounce at any moment. It was alarming, relentless, sad, sardonic and even comical.

As the orchestra welcomed this piece into its repertoire, it also said farewell to concert master Estelle Holly and principal cellist George Sopkin, both of whom retired yesterday from playing with the symphony. And what a fitting ending to an association with two musicians that have had a major impact on the Bangor Symphony.