Mostly (?) Mozart - Langree & Ehnes

I attended my first Mostly Mozart Festival concert of the season at Lincoln Center last night.  The festival runs through the month of August.  Louis Langree, music director for the Festival Orchestra, conducted a program of Bach-Webern, Barber and Beethoven.  Canadian violinist James Ehnes was soloist for the Barber Violin Concerto.

What has happened to the Mostly Mozart Festival over the past few years is perhaps best exemplified by the heading on the page presenting the program in the Playbill.  "Mostly Mozart" is in large type, the "Mozart" dark bold, the "Mostly" faint gray.  That is, the composer whose works used to provide the overwhelming focus for the summer festival at Lincoln Center is still present on many of the concerts, but no longer all, and the attempts in the program book to link the content of a program such as last night's to Mozart are, in a word, pathetic.  What we had was a program that would pass for ordinary in any regular concert series, with no pretense that it had anything to do with a festival centered on Mozart.

Not that I'm complaining.  Last night's concert was terrific.  Just observing...

The opening work, an arrangement by Anton von Webern of the Ricercar (Fugue) from Johann Sebastian Bach's "Musical Offering" BWV 1079, is an interesting rethinking of a great masterpiece of polyphony, and was skillfully presented to open the evening. 

Then we had the work that has, perhaps surprisingly, emerged as one of the most important contributions to the standard orchestral repertory by an American-born and trained composer of the 20th century, Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (1939).  The international bona fides of this concerto are certified by last night's performers, a French conductor and a Canadian violinist who gave a thoroughly idiomatic rendition of this gorgeous work.  Barber was frequently denigrated in his lifetime as old-fashioned, too resistant to modern trends in music, etc., and thus looked down upon in the concert world, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the disastrous premiere of his opera for the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House.  But the young composer who wrote the Violin Concerto (at age 29) possessed lyrical gifts unsurpassed for his time.  For me, the great highlight of this concerto is the second movement where, following the precedent of Brahms, the composer gives the big tune first to the solo oboe, significantly delaying the entry of the violin soloist.  This works dramatically, especially when one can call upon such an extraordinary player as Randall Ellis, the oboe principal of the Festival Orchestra.

Indeed, time out to mention all of the wonderful woodwind principals, who shown like stars last night: Flute Yoobin Son, Oboe Randall Ellis, Clarinet Jon Manasse, Bassoon Marc Goldberg, Horn Lawrence DiBello.  Barber gives them all marvelous opportunities to shine, and they made the most of them.  A special word here about Jon Manasse, who has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  In the early days of CD, I acquired several recordings he made when he was a mere youth, and was delighted when he started showing up in the various smaller orchestras that play in NYC, not least Mostly Mozart.  It is always a special pleasure to hear him.  As the NY Philharmonic struggles to fill its principal clarinet chair after the retirement more than a year ago of Stanley Drucker, I continue to wonder why they don't tap Manasse, surely one of the best clarinetists on our NYC concert scene today.  His recent Harmonia Mundi recordings are excellent.

But back to the concert - Amazing as it is to consider, this was a debut performance for James Ehnes, who has played frequently with the NY Philharmonic and appeared as soloist with many visiting orchestras at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, but had not previously played at Mostly Mozart.  Ehnes is a superb musician, and he expresses the Barber Concerto fully, from the core of his soul.  He has a fine recording of the piece with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony  (I mentioned that he is Canadian, right?), so his expertise in it is no surprise.  He capped his triumphant run through the finale last night with a suitable encore: Paganini's Caprice No. 16 for unaccompanied violin.

After intermission, we had Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.  One would have thought that the tiny Mostly Mozart orchestra would not be able to produce sufficient sound for this large-scale symphonic work, but I felt no lack of body in the sound, nor of volume.  Langree takes a fast-paced view of the work in every movement, and the orchestra responded most capably, again the woodwinds standing out for their virtuosity. 

My only slight reservation concerns the finale.  It has become the trend these days to play this faster and faster and louder and louder - as fast as the players can articulate the notes.  It makes for a very exciting conclusion -- the audience certainly responded enthusiastically -- but I think the result is to underplay the majestic aspects of this music.  Great musical technicians can play faster than the ear can easily follow, and this movement can easily become a blur.  Sometimes, listening to this, I'm thinking: "Where's the fire, Chief?"  A slightly less frenetic tempo can uncover great beauties in this music that are all too fleeting at the super-fast speeds favored today.  But, beside that, I had no complaints, and I thought the first three movements fully captured the dance-like excitement of the piece.  And, again, Jon Manasse's playing of the clarinet solos in the second movement really struck me by their warmth and eloquence.

I have several more Mostly Mozart events on my calendar for the next month, and look forward to reporting on them here.

Comments

[Alan Masters]

As you say, Barber was frequently denigrated. I recently came across the review in the Gramophone (all their reviews are now available on line) of Isaac Stern's wonderful 1960s recording of the Barber Concerto. The reviewer described the concerto as uninspired and poorly constructed and concluded by suggesting that the composer withdraw the piece since it could hardly enhance his reputation.
I kid you not - this is what he wrote !

[Art Leonard]

That was the attitude then. I agree that the Concerto has structural weaknesses, but the lyrical writing and orchestration are incredible!

[llcwine]

As a former student of Randall Ellis, I'm so happy that his talent is not going un-noticed. An exemplary musician and a heck of a great person to boot.