BSO contender leads rousing performance

Paul Phillips tells a story about being a young jazz student and hearing Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” for the first time. The crashing rhythms, the intensity, the rage, excitement and frank warmth of the piece changed Phillips on the spot into a classical musician. Fortunately for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Phillips also became a conductor.

As the fourth contender in a yearlong search for a new music director and conductor of the BSO, Phillips and his skills were boldly on display Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, where he led the orchestra in a bountiful program that closed stunningly with the Stravinsky. It is as if Phillips has declared that since this piece affected his life so powerfully, he is on a mission to spread the glory.

Anyone who didn’t hear that call on Sunday had to have been asleep, and anyone who was asleep had to have been supplementally sedated because the music was – thank goodness – unapologetically rousing. Prominent lines were delivered expertly by French horn player Suzanne George, oboist Laura Green and trombonist James Trembley.

It was a smartly successful afternoon, in general, for the orchestra and especially for the brass section, which played with triumphant bite and backbone.

During the first half of the concert, Phillips addressed the audience congenially and spoke of the pleasure he had derived from working with the musicians and community during the nearly two-week interview process. “You should be extremely proud of this orchestra,” he said.

Phillips, music director of the Brown University Orchestra in Rhode Island and the Pioneer Valley Orchestra in Massachusetts, is an intelligent, meticulous conductor. His respect for the score is evident in the care with which he romanced notes out of each section of the orchestra. During the overture to Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Phillips found the complexity of the themes without compromising the sprightliness of youth. After all, Mendelssohn was a mere 17 when he wrote this gorgeously dreamy fantasy, and Phillips seemed to take pleasure in finding not only beauty but the green genius of the composer.

The suite from Manuel de Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” showed an earthier dynamic. Here, the orchestra was joined by the gypsylike vocals of Penelope Bitzas, a Boston-based soloist and native Mainer. While Bitzas’ voice was sometimes overpowered by the instruments, the combination of her emotional somberness and the Spanish sensuality of the music was magnetic.

The afternoon also included the overture to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Though the performance was nuanced and handsome, it was clear that Phillips was saving the real punch for the opulent, aggressive, suspenseful and, finally, haunting work by Stravinsky. Whether whispering or walloping, the piece was a crowning end to an engaging concert that left the audience on its feet, cheering gratefully.