Vienna Philharmonic Perform Mozart & More at Carnegie Hall

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 06 March 2025 14:05

Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Chris Lee.

At the remarkable Stern Auditorium, on the afternoon of Sunday, March 2nd, I had the considerable pleasure to attend another superb concert presented by Carnegie Hall—the last of three on consecutive days—featuring the exceptional musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic under the outstanding direction of the inestimable Riccardo Muti.

The event started brilliantly with a masterly realization of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s awesome Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, the “Jupiter,” from 1788. The initial, Allegro vivace movement—here is one place where the composer’s music is close to that of Ludwig van Beethoven—is stirring but with a somewhat solemn cast; ultimately affirmative, even quietly celebratory, it contains a dazzling, fugue-like section. Despite its consummate grace and almost pastoral passages, some of the ensuing Andante cantabile has a tragic ethos; it ends softly. The Menuetto, marked Allegretto, has an ebullient quality but with dramatic touches as well as moments of great charm, especially in the enchanting Trio. The Molto allegro finale is propulsive, even exhilarating, but with subdued episodes; the complexity of its fugal structure is simply astonishing. The movement closes regally.

The second half of the program was maybe even more memorable: a sterling account of Antonín Dvořák’s magnificent, melodious Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, “From the New World,” from 1893. The first movement’s Adagio introduction is at first gentle and then portentous; its Allegro molto main body, for all its turbulence and lyricism, is sweeping in its expansiveness and it finishes powerfully. The song-like Largo that follows—its primary theme came to be the basis of the Negro spiritual, “Goin’ Home”—has a hushed atmosphere but becomes more animated with a more urgent interlude; it ends ethereally. 

The succeeding Scherzo, marked Molto vivace, is exciting and dynamic but with elements of mystery, and it has much forward momentum but also contrasting, leisurely measures as well as a certain joyousness for much of its length; it ends emphatically. The Allegro con fuoco finale which is exultant and forceful, but inward and tentative at times, sustains a great intensity; after a triumphant climax, it ends serenely. Deservedly enthusiastic applause was rewarded by a fabulous encore: the delightful Overture to the operetta, The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss, Jr.

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