Flutist David Buck evokes nostalgia during Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Scheherazade

On January 12th, I had an out of body experience. I was not the only one.

Thousands of audience members sat stupefied that afternoon as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed their Scheherazade program. The program lasted about two hours total, consisting of Aaron Copland's Quiet City, Julia Wolfe's Dallas premiere Fountain of Youth, Samuel Barber's Andromache's Farewell, and, of course, Rimsky-Korsakov's classical masterpiece Scheherazade.

Quiet City was a calming, complete portrait, featuring Dallas Symphony players on the trumpet and English horn.

Julia Wolfe's Fountain of Youth was a different story altogether. Eerily cheerful with a subtle diabolic aftertaste, the piece sounded as if it were extracted straight from Bobby Krlic's soundtracks from the horror movie Hereditary.

In Samuel Barber's Andromache's Farewell, the featured soprano soloist Lise Lindstrom's ear-splitting range sent chills down the audience's spines. Her last note was a blood-curdling high B flat. Flutist David Buck had a delicate solo that blended into the orchestra with admirable ease.

However, the clear apogee of the program was Scheherezade. The moment the conductor Fabio Luisi ushered the low brass in, the world around the audience vanished. For the entire forty-five-minutes, the audience sat dead silent, completely captivated by the divination of the performance.

Scheherazade is a somewhat esoteric piece. It was composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov based on The Arabian Nights, also known as the Middle-Eastern compendium of Arabic, Persian, and Indian folk tales. In The Arabian Nights, the female narrator and storyteller Scherezade weaves a new tale every night to keep her psychotic husband from killing her.

Rimsky-Korsakov's piece aims to narrate the peripatetic stories that Scheherezade told. The first movement, The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, covers the story of pirates. The symphony's dynamic contrast was astounding, achieving a peak fortissimo followed by the definitive crash of the cymbals. The string section was stunningly clean and precise, especially the first violins. The low strings, including the cellos and string basses, provided noticeable power in marshaling the crescendos.

Notably, Principal Flutist David Buck's beautifully crafted solo phrases sent waves of irrevocable nostalgia and desire. Second flutist Kara Kirkendoll Welch did an equally marvelous job blending into David Buck's plaintive voice. Their playing was made complete by the comprehensiveness of the entire orchestra.

During the third movement, it was ethereal. Flutist David Buck encapsulated the sweet, innocent quality of the piece that complimented the sultry, lustrous undertones of the principal oboist Erin Hannigan. Fabio Luisi, tactful and gracious, cleanly presented the nutty bliss of the high strings.

As the forty-five-minute piece drew to the end, the concertmaster Alexander Kerr nailed his last, wisful harmonics. This final repetition transported the audience members back to reality like a bell tower chiming its eleventh-hour toll. By the time the audience regained consciousness, it felt as if the entire performance had been a dream.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's version of Scheherazade was the among the most riveting performances of the piece I have ever encountered. If you have not seen the Dallas Symphony yet, you must experience them yourself. During Valentine's weekend February 13-16th, they will be playing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.mydso.com/. Alternatively, you can consider one of these free ticket options here.