Phish guitarist's work delights February 4, 2001 - Albany Times-Union by Greg Haymes TROY -- All too often, when a rock star throws his hat into the world of symphony orchestras the results are full of pomposity and pretension. Fortunately, Trey Anastasio -- guitarist for superstar rock band Phish -- managed to nimbly avoid those failings on Friday night as he joined forces with the Vermont Youth Orchestra at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The performance not only found Anastasio playing guitar with the young, 85-member orchestra, but also watching as they performed the world premiere of his first-ever orchestral work, "Guyute.'' Welcomed by the sold-out crowd with thunderous applause, Anastasio's orchestral "Guyute'' is, at heart, the fusion of two Phish songs -- "Guyute'' from the '98 album "The Story of the Ghost'' and "My Friend, My Friend'' from the '93 album "Rift.'' As described by VYO conductor and musical director Troy Peters, the two songs are "separated-at-birth twins.'' In the hands of Peters and his orchestra, the sweeping, 12-minute piece was a sheer delight -- full of drama, crescendo and verve, underpinned with rich Celtic folk influences. As a composer, Anastasio -- along with Peters and Ernest Stires, Anastasio's 76-year-old musical mentor -- also contributed to "Samson Riffs,'' a disjointed, somewhat disappointing triptych. The first section, Stires' "Samson Riff'' was a jumping but too-genteel jazz-blues number featuring Anastasio on electric guitar and Stires on piano along with bass and drums. The second section, Anastasio's "Samson Variation,'' spun the song into a lovely baroque fugue for brass quintet. In Peters' closing section, "Samson Counterpoint,'' the strings took up the melody while Anastasio and Stires returned to add an R&B foundation to the fugue. Unfortunately, the diverse piece didn't hang together well, as though composed of mismatched sections of different suites. The Phish guitarist also sat down and plugged in to play with the orchestra on the world premiere of Stires' "Chat Room,'' a thoroughly modern composition commissioned by VYO and penned as a vehicle for Anastasio. A concerto for electric guitar and orchestra in three movements, the energetic piece was ripe with constantly shifting mood and tempo changes. Elements of big band swing, film noir soundtrack, Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts,'' a demented tango, a bit of boogie woogie, some Spike Jones-like sound effects and a smoky, late-night jazz ballad were all injected into the piece, which frequently evoked Bernstein's overture to "West Side Story.'' The Vermont Youth Orchestra acquitted themselves quite nicely throughout the Trey-less portions of the program as well, especially with Samuel Barber's "First Essay for Orchestra Op. 12,'' which opened the concert on a somber but seductive note, and Richard Strauss' "Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Opus 11,'' which featured very impressive horn solos by Burlington High School senior Jocelyn Crawford. And Anastasio had one more trick up his sleeve, too. Following the triumphant performance of "Guyute,'' which he watched from a box seat looking over the theater, Anastasio returned to the stage, acoustic guitar in hand. He sat center stage with four of the high school students from the orchestra and delivered a hushed, crystalline rendition of "The Inlaw Josie Wales'' from Phish's most recent album, "Farmhouse.'' While the recorded version takes the song in a definite bluegrass direction thanks to the contributions of Dobro master Jerry Douglas and banjo man Bela Fleck, the elegant string quartet version on Friday was a revelation, a sweet, sparkling bonbon of a song at the end of a rich and rewarding evening of adventurous music.