Going Places

The Fort Smith Symphony often shows off the size and force of its ever-growing organization.

Except when music John Jeter would rather go small.

Last January, he pared down the sometimes 100-plus group to a smaller size for a traditional offering Jeter called "Fascinating Rhythms."

With a chamber orchestra feel, and about 65 players, some of the more delicate elements of a work like Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 come to the surface, Jeter says. That piece is on the bill Saturday in a one-month return to a smaller, more intimate format.

The symphony's Saturday program is called "French Impressions and Scottish Landscapes." The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at the ArcBest Performing Arts Center in Fort Smith.

But this isn't a diminished orchestra, Jeter assures, just a different one. He's watched string quartets fill the room with sound.

"We can be a small group, and that hall works well," he says. "We're still going to have the same sonic impact."

Of the themes hinted at in the title of the program, the "Scottish" element comes courtesy of the Mendelssohn work, which he wrote after traveling to Scotland. The program kicks off with Ravel's "La Tombeau de Couperin." Ravel's work, despite being framed around World War I and the death of his mother, remains, as Jeter describes it, "light, happy and very optimistic."

Like the Mendelssohn piece, "Tombeau" finds its roots in the baroque style, although it was written long after that period faded into more classical and romantic themes.

Rounding out the offerings of the program is Haydn's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. Featured on trumpet will be Matt Vangjel, formerly of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. He now is assistant professor of trumpet at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He will return as part of a busy season of performing.

"He has a following here, so it's really nice to have him," Jeter says.

This is the symphony's last public performance until April.

-- Kevin Kinder

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