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FESTIVAL REVIEW
Better Late Than Never
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By Stuart Canin
Conducting on auto-pilot hardly seemed the way for George Cleve to open his Midsummer Mozart Festival's silver anniversary season Wednesday in the Florence Gould Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Fortunately, after a tedious first-half for the program of Mozart, the Prague Symphony, K. 504 awakened the conductor, George Cleve, and there followed an absolutely wonderful, exciting performance.
To be sure, Cleve's refusal to give a metronomic inch in the second themes was questionable, but Cleve, and the orchestra, playing superbly, seemed to find a challenge worthy of their efforts in this Symphony. The D Major Symphony stimulated all the wonderful talents at Cleve's disposal--the effortless conducting technique, the musical involvement, and the refusal to indulge in conductorial hi-jinks.
The first half of the concert was, unfortunately, a somewhat different story. The Symphony No. 32, in G major, K. 318, albeit a work inferior to the Prague, was given a perfunctory reading that in no way helped capture the beauties of the work. No one on stage seemed involved but the fault must lie with Cleve--a gesture now and then to a particular section here and there did not Mozart make. Propulsion without feeling gave a casual feeling to the music, which needed tender loving care to flourish.
Tammy Jenkins was the soprano soloist in Exultate, Jubilate, K. 165. Blessed with a big voice but one that lacks real beauty, Ms. Jenkins gave a spirited performance, and her ability to sing the ornate music is duly noted. Again, in what seemed to be a volume contest with the orchestra, she failed to moderate her intensity, and by so doing, gave an unrelenting severity to the music.
Nadya Tichman, violin soloist in the Violin Concerto #5, in A, K. 219, was well prepared note-wise but her sound lacks the true Mozartean beauty vital to Mozart's well-being. Her inability to take time for inflection or to reduce forward motion in the minor key sections of the concerto made for an unrelenting, and in the final analysis, tedious performance of the concerto.
One further note regarding musicological knowledge these days about the proper performance of the appoggiatura or grace note: Generally, these notes, which are attached to longer notes, are lengthened in performance, making thesse embellishments usually more expressive and musically important than the note to which they are attached. Regrettably, this practice, common today, was ignored by Ms. Tichman, lending a Sarasatean cast to some passages.
After intermission came the aria for soprano and violin obbligato, K. 490, an alternate aria from the opera Idomeneo. It was well sung by Jenkins and nicely played by Tichman, setting up the Prague Symphony, which then brought the concert to a triumphant close.
(Stuart Canin is the former Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and of Hollywood film orchestras, and just retired as the Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra)
©1999 Stuart Canin, all rights reserved
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