For the last several years, i have been boycotting the New York Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival. Under the reign of Kurt Mazur, the orchestra was flat, uninspired, going through the motions and seemed as if they were playing in what can be best called a "perfunctory fashion".
Perhaps the final blow was watching him conduct Mahler's symphony #1 on TV, and watching him shake off the brass section that was trying to play parts of the music marked with something like "loud and ostentatious". His directive was clearly "knock it off guys- tone it down". You can imagine directives like that, along with the consistent repetition of the old warhorses of the repertoire would lead even the toughest member of the orchestra to finally give up and say "ok, i just work here".
Yes, I know Mazur retired some time ago, but I could never convince myself that it was time to give the New York Philharmonic another chance. It seemed like there were three choices when seeing the Philharmonic or the Mostly Mozart festival:
1- See Kurt Mazur lead his dispirited, lifeless orchestra
2- See a guest conductor come in and try and draw blood from a stone from the orchestra Mazur had created.
3- Go to Mostly Mozart and Listen to third rate, contract musicians conducted by perhaps the worst conductor of all time, Gerard Schwartz. I can not think of a conductor who butchered music as badly as Schwartz did during his tenure.
Last night was the Mozart Festival, honoring the 250th birthday of the Great One. Two piano concertos (k 453 and k 466) and the famous Sinfonia Concertante were performed. The soloist, Jeffrey Kahane also conducted the three works. Despite supersizing the orchestra, the music was true to form. The piano playing was not overly romanticised or exaggerated. Kahane phrased the music in a classical style that I think would have pleased Mozart. The first movement of the Piano Concerto 17 (k 453) was played with exquisite detail - highlighting the subtle theme and variation of the movement. I always felt that this concerto begins the era of increased complexity of Mozart's piano concertos.
The classic k466 in d minor has always struck me as a romantic piano concerto trapped in the 18th century. Its an astounding work of drama, theme and variation, form and emotion. It is the only piece of Mozart that Beethoven is known to have performed with some reguarly in his lifetime.
The final work performed for the night was the Sinfonia Concertante (k364). There are some works which there is nothing that can be said about them- and this is one of them. It's a supreme and sublime masterpiece. As Isaac Perlman's said "Buy the disk. If you don't feel like you died and went to heaven, I'll give you your money back"
As Rossini had said, we must listen to Mozart and give thanks. I give thanks to Mozart for deadening the pain of life and inspiring me, and I also give thanks for what seems to be a new era for the NY Philharmonic.
