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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
Midsummer Mozart, A Crown Jewel
August 4, 2001
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By John McCarthy
San Francisco's Mostly Mozart Festival continues to be a durable good in our trend-ridden city. Thursday's concert in the Palace of the Legion of Honor's Florence Gould Theater was a welcome constant, and throughout, a source of constant amazement.
Like Mozart, conductor-musical director George Cleve is a dramatist, and decidedly unlike a museum. Cleve remained faithful to the text, certainly, but was also remarkably filled with zest, and always in present time. He was ably supported by the talented freelancers of the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra.
Cleve's naturalness and breadth of phrasing infused the delightful Symphony in B-flat Major, K. 319, with a sense of continuity, a feeling that the plot was being advanced at every turn. The chamber music–like character of this symphony is well suited to Cleve's approach. Details were carefully molded and yet never fussy. A feeling of intimacy and clarity pervaded the Andante moderato second movement. The terse Minuetto, with its Ländler-like trio and the Finale-Allegro assai were robust, fully pulsating.
Unfortunately, guest soloist Nikolai Demidenko simply was not the right pianist for the Concerto in F Major, K. 459. In fact, any of a half-dozen young, aspiring local artists could have been engaged and would have been better for both the music and the box office. There was an admirable individuality and sense of conviction in Demidenko's approach, but little that suited the piece. The opening piano solo lacked focus of sonority and rhythm. The marchlike quality of the opening was obscured by boorish overpedaling of the firm dotted figures. Neither crisp nor light, the concerto was too often played with joyless assurance. There were moments of beautiful shadings and weightings in the second movement and delightful sparkling sections in the finale. But Demidenko's attention frequently was self-consciously focused on pianism and Drama rather than Mozartean essence and substance.
After intermission, Cleve and the orchestra returned to offer Mozart's Six German Dances, K. 571, and the Linz Symphony, K. 425. Cleve's distinctive personality and esthetic underpinning made these performances of enormous impact, fresh at every turn. The German Dances were played like the earthy, rustic minuets they are, ranging from the downright melancholic quality of the second dance to the bouncy, irresistible Turkish flavor of the last one. Mozart wrote and rehearsed the Symphony in C Major, K. 425 (Linz), in three days on the way from Salzburg to Vienna. The influence of Haydn is apparent, especially with the opening Grave introduction. Cleve approached this introduction with portentous solemnity and overt seriousness. The Poco adagio second movement was transcendent, ideally combining rich sonority with an unsluggish, forward-moving tempo. Concluding its 27th season, the Midsummer Mozart Festival remains the crown jewel of summer musical events in the Bay Area. (John McCarthy is a pianist and teacher. He is Director of Preparatory and Extension Divisions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.) ©2001 John McCarthy, all rights reserved |
