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CHAMBER ORCHESTRA REVIEW
September 26, 2004
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By John Lutterman
A chamber orchestra hailing from Salzburg might be expected to have a special affinity for the music of Mozart. For the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, this affinity appears to stem from the ubiquitous "tourist concert" approach characteristic of their lovely Austrian city, which has long thrived on exploiting the appeal of its most famous native son.
Mozart's Serenade in C minor, K. 406, which opened the program, is actually a transcription for strings of an earlier wind Serenade. Although in Mozart's day Serenades were normally light works, designed as "entertainment" music, this one is full of quasi-operatic dramatic juxtapositions, large-scale structural designs, and contrapuntal devices that are as sophisticated as those found many of the mature symphonies. It is also, like much of Mozart's music, full of witty turns of phrase, some quite urbane, others much more earthy, but all of which depend on clearly defined lines and textures.
Unfortunately, the Salzburg Chamber Soloists appeared to be determined to perpetuate the popular image of Mozart as a composer of pleasant innocuous tunes, supported by pretty accompaniments. The sound they produced was pleasant enough, well in tune and with no rough edges, but the experience was like sitting in a lukewarm bath. Textures were much too opaque, articulation was rather muddled, entrances weren't together, and the aroma of stale Sacher torte and "Mozart liqueur" seemed to waft its way through the hall for much of the performance.
Following such an inauspicious beginning, the opening tutti of Mendelssohn's D-minor Violin Concerto didn't bode well for the rest of the performance, but things took a sharp turn for the better with soloist Lena Neudauer's entrance. The orchestra seemed ill at ease with the Mozartean character of this youthful work (Mendelssohn was thirteen when he wrote it), but Neudauer, although her approach is more of the Szeryng-Milstein-Grumiaux variety style of playing rather than that of Manze, Kuijken, or even Vegh, projected a very strong, confident musical personality that more than made up for any stylistic shortcomings. Her imaginative use of vibrato and color achieved a wonderful vocal quality in the more lyrical passages. The soliloquies of the second movement were especially moving. The orchestra was much more at home with Dvorák's E-Major Serenade for Strings, Op. 22. With its endearing settings of Czech folk tunes, and its many clever orchestral effects, this has long been one of Dvorák's most popular works. In the exquisite fourth-movement Larghetto, breathy, whispering entrances created an ethereal atmosphere, and the rich inner parts, which give the violas a rare chance to shine, were nicely voiced. The rollicking finale was also very impressive, and showed that the orchestra is certainly capable of fine ensemble playing. The audience, which was suitably enthusiastic, was rewarded with three crowd-pleasing encores: two pieces by the popular Argentinean tango composer Astor Piazzolla, the first of which offered an entertaining essay in fugal writing, and finally the theme from Ennio Morricone's music for Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western "Once Upon a Time in America."
(John Lutterman is a cellist and musicologist. He holds a DMA from SUNY
Stony Brook and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in historical musicology at UC Davis.)
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