San Francisco Classical Voice

Concert programs too often seem to be assembled the way a meal is: one of this, one of that, a little of the other, all in the hope that the appetite will be piqued by the random diversity. This could certainly not be said of the carefully and uniquely crafted programming for Thursday's concert at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Midsummer Mozart opened its 2000 season in Gould Theater with its own "Summer Serenade." The all-Mozart program began with the March No. 1 in D, K. 335, and ended with the March No. 2 in D, K. 335. In between, the seven-movement Serenade in D Posthorn, K. 320, was split between the two halves of the program, with the Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488, centered between the intermission and the last six movements of the Serenade.

The key of the concerto, A major, is also the fifth of D, which was the tonality of most of the rest of the program. As a result, A major became a kind of dominant suspension in the overall sequence of events. But it was the intense F-sharp minor Adagio movement of the Concerto that emerged as its expressive center, its musical center, and also its temporal center, the peak within the arch form of the concert.

This original, witty, and inspired arrangement by Music Director George Cleve seemed entirely in keeping with the spirit of the music, and even enhanced the listening experience. The entire concert, with its two halves a mirror image of one another, with the music progressing from diversion to a peak of emotional fervor and then regressing again, and with complete tonal integrity, became itself a kind of "summer serenade."

The performances highlighted the different levels of intensity in the music. The marches are light entry-and-exit music and were given casual performances. Cleve led his excellent group of players to maintain a restrained, low level of inflection and rarely seemed concerned with developing any significant tension in the musical line. The final Presto of the Serenade presented the most outward excitement.

There were numerous solos in the orchestra, and all were beautifully played. Special mention is due those by Concertmaster Robin Hansen, Maria Tamburrino, flute, and Roger Wiesmeyer, oboe.

The most important and memorable music making of the concert was by Menahem Pressler at the piano. The intensity of presentation in the slow movement was appropriate to its setting at the center of the evening. Pressler shaped and directed the music with an honesty and directness that is rare on the concert stage.

From the piano's opening statement in the first movement, the impression was of lucid, committed, and purposeful speech with a refreshing absence of hype and affect. This made the music itself, and not the performer, the issue, and that significantly heightened the pleasure of listening. In the final movement, Allegro Assai, Pressler took a somewhat slow and deliberate tempo, and it worked. The complicated passagework emerged with unusual clarity and became a comprehensible and satisfying musical experience.

This was not just your usual concert, or even your usual all-Mozart concert. Instead, it was a bold reordering of the usual, and it rewarded with an original and fresh take on the familiar.

(Paul Hersh is a pianist and violist, and, since 1972, the James D. Robertson Professor of Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)

©2000 Paul Hersh, all rights reserved