Mostly Mozart Festival - Week 2

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 05:00

Written by Jack Angstreich

As part of its special focus this year on the music of Igor Stravinsky, in a relatively bold move, the Mostly Mozart Festival invited the impressive musicians of the International Contemporary Ensemble to perform an arresting all-Stravinsky program of chamber works on Monday, August 8th, at Alice Tully Hall.

In a capitivating coup de theâtre, the program opened with a series of works played in quick succession: the intriguing Study for Pianola; Fanfare for a New Theater, an austere work here performed by trumpeters placed in the balcony; the curious Lied ohne Worte, for two bassoons; the challenging, brief trio, Epitaphium; and, finally, the odd Three Pieces for String Quartet.

The enterprising young conductor Pablo Heras-Casado took the stage to lead the ensemble in several more substantial works. These included: the delightful Ragtime; the strangely opaque Concertino; and the similarly disorienting "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto.

An unexpected highlight was the discovery of the ingenious Eight Instrumental Miniatures. This was surpassed only by a thrilling performance of the concluding work, the Concerto for Piano and Winds, featuring as soloist the magnificent Peter Serkin.

My pleasure in this program was considerably enhanced by attending an entertaining pre-concert lecture given by Juilliard faculty-member Kendall Durelle Briggs.

The Tuesday and Wednesday all-Mozart Festival Orchestra programs at Avery Fischer Hall, featuring the excellent Concert Chorale of New York, were preceded by splendid pre-concert recitals of the outstanding Partita No. 2 of Johann Sebastian Bach, brilliantly performed by pianist Ilya Yakushev.

Conductor extraordinaire Ivan Fischer opened the concerts proper with luminous readings of Mozart‛s ever-popular Ave Verum Corpus. Without a break, celebrated organist Kent Tritle played a brief prelude as the chorus left the stage, leading immediately into an impressive account of another stalwart work, the magisterial "Jupiter" Symphony.

The evening concluded with a moving performance of the exalting, rarely played, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, featuring gorgeous singing by soprano Lucy Crowe. A weakness here was the insertion of liturgical chants between movements, less than impressively sung by a baritone in the Chorale.

On Thursday evening, the International Contemporary Ensemble returned to Alice Tully Hall for a more wide-ranging program, here conducted by Matthias Pintscher.

The concert opened with the delightful Adagio for Glass Armonica (K. 356) by Mozart, here arranged for a small chamber ensemble by Salvatore Sciarrino.

A mystical ultra-contemporary work by Pintscher, Occultation, followed and Sciarrino then led a bracing account of the difficult Chamber Symphony No. 1 by Arnold Schoenberg.

The program's high-point, however, was its close -- a mellifluous reading of the beautiful Mozart Serenade for Winds in B-flat major, K. 361, the "Gran Partita".

The Ensemble soon repaired to the more intimate Kaplan Penthouse for another heterogeneous selection. A late-night presentation opened with the New York premiere of the likable Serenade in Homage to Mozart by contemporary composer Jonathan Harvey, based on the "flute" motif from The Magic Flute.

An early work by John Zorn, Christabel, for five flutes was also unaccountably rewarding. The world premiere of Steve Lehman's Lenwood and Other Saints Who Roam the Earth, a duet for flutes, was less accessible.

But another world premiere, Phyllis Chen's Chimers, was a delightful surprise, featuring electronically enhanced music from an altered toy piano played by the composer herself.

The apotheosis of the program, however, was a wondrous performance of the lovely Mozart Adagio and Rondo for Glass Armonica and Chamber Ensemble (K. 617), the last work of chamber music completed by the composer -- a vehicle here for Dennis James, the astonishing virtuoso of the exotic instrument.

For his pre-concert recitals on Friday and Saturday, the superb pianist Jeremy Denk was originally scheduled to perform Phrygian Gates by minimalist composer John Adams --his self-described "Opus 1".

But Denk announced that he was not yet ready to play the piece and, instead, substituted the intricate, challenging, Final Piano Sonata No. 32 by Ludwig van Beethoven, which was heard here in a riveting account.

The all-Beethoven Festival Orchestra concerts proper, led by Louis Langrée, opened with powerful readings of the second Leonore Overture, featuring a dramatic trumpet fanfare by a player positioned in the balcony, to memorable effect.

Denk then took the stage for subtle but lively accounts of the Second Piano Concerto. At the Saturday program, Denk was mesmerizing in an encore, the brilliant third movement ("The Alcotts") from the eccentric, monumental "Concord" Piano Sonata of Charles Ives.

After intermission, the fine soprano Christine Brewer joined the orchestra for a memorable performance of the haunting recitative and aria, "Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?" from Fidelio -- she was especially strong in her higher register.

The program closed with an exuberant account of the buoyant Eighth Symphony. At the Saturday concert, it sounded better than I have ever heard it played.

Alice Tully Hall
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York City
212-875-5050

Runs August 2 - 27, 2011

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