By Daniel Buckwalter
(#CommonManAtTheSymphony)
From the soft, gentle and delicate illustrations at the start to the heavy low brass, clangy bells and grotesque portrait at the end, stirring images were captured and put on full display during the Eugene Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Jan. 15, 2026.
Each of the three pieces the orchestra played in the concert at the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall told its own story of languid dreams, sparkling dance-like vitality, and an artist’s descent into nightmarish madness over romantic love unrequited.
And under the direction of guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero — the artistic director from 2002-2009 of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra — the musicians completed a week of vigorous rehearsals with an exquisite performance rewarded at the finish by a standing ovation.
As the evening’s performance unfolded with the opening piece — Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun — the night was about scenes of stories. Principal flute player Kristen Halay ushered the orchestra through lush sounds that evoked nature’s wonder, and the roughly 10-minute prelude is a gorgeous, layered piece of music.
Next was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s spritely three-movement Symphony No. 31 in D major (Paris). Or is it a four-movement piece?
Guerrero had some fun with this when, after the first movement, he stopped the orchestra and addressed the audience, explaining that Mozart composed two versions of the second Andante movement.
Mozart’s first crack at the second movement, Guerrero noted, is an emotional and complex masterpiece that resonates even today, almost 300 years after it was composed. But it apparently generated little applause at the time, so Mozart went back and composed a second version, more to the perceived taste of his audience.
Guerrero invited the Hult Center audience, through applause, to vote which version it liked best, then he asked the orchestra to do the same.
Make of the voting results what you will, but the audience liked the second version more, while the orchestra voted in favor of the challenging first version.
That led to Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Op.14 — a remarkable and unsettling five-movement work composed in 1829 that traces the life of an artist whose colorful vitality for his beloved devolves into dark madness when that love is unrequited.
Of particular interest to me were the final two movements, March to the Scaffold and Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath. It’s a stark observation on the part of Berlioz that obsession can lead to stalking-like behavior, and Guerrero and the symphony handled it with first-rate care.
It was a remarkable night of music by the symphony, with Guerrero leading the way. He has moved on to bigger stages since his stint in Eugene. Among other things, he is the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, and he is the music director laureate of the Nashville Symphony.
He also is a reminder that the Eugene Symphony Orchestra has been a wonderful steppingstone for many talented artistic directors, and for that — and much more — it should be treasured.
