Mostly Mozart Festival 2006 (I):
Sergey Khachatryan, violin (New York debut) Mostly
Mozart Festival Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä (conductor)
Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, 05.08.2006 (BH)
Martin:
Ouverture en hommage
à
Mozart (1956)
Mozart:
Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 ( “Haffner”) (1782)
Beethoven:
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (1806)
The transformation
of the somewhat staid Mostly Mozart Festival has resulted
in many new pleasures, such as the uncovering of this
rare Frank Martin Ouverture en hommage
à
Mozart,
a gem written fifty years ago for the composer’s 200th
birthday party. I doubt it has been performed much
since. Its sunny, Hindemith-y neo-classicism was
the perfect prelude to the ebullient Haffner that
followed, and conductor Osmo Vänskä immediately made an
impression with some taut leadership and an ensemble that
sounded glorious.
Vänskä
dived into Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 with a ferocity
that I thought he surely couldn’t sustain, but he did,
producing a taut, propulsive Allegro con spirito and a
suave, beguiling Andante. The last two movements
were done full throttle – probably too fast for some,
but most were caught up in Vänskä’s exhilaration.
With lots of body language in Bernstein mode, he would
suddenly crouch down in soft moments, then rise as did
the crescendo, his arms moving in wide arcs.
Sergey
Khachatryan and his collaborators delivered by far the
quietest performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto
I’ve ever heard in my life. With delectably modest
work from the orchestra and Vänskä, Mr. Khachatryan (who
might resemble a younger, more sober-looking Simon Rattle)
opened with a lithe, dramatic line and softness that some
in the audience probably had to strain to hear.
Although the first movement splashes were splendid, overall
one was left with the sensation of quietness and delicacy.
Love it or hate it, most listeners were likely not indifferent,
and the piece is rugged enough to withstand a young violinist’s
seriously introverted attack. One friend even thought
his approach “too serious,” especially in the buoyant
final movement, but we all agreed that perhaps he will
find a broader range of emotions in the piece as he matures.
But meanwhile, Khachatryan is the real deal, commanding
a wide range of tone on his instrument, but always with
a focused intensity. To its credit, the audience
was about as attentive as one could want, with some notable
exceptions. Just before the vast Larghetto,
in response to someone who was loathe to be quiet, Vänskä
put down his baton, turned and gave the kind of stony
glare that could cause involuntary muscle cramps, and
I bet the target will never talk in a concert hall again.
Irritation
grew to a boil for another reason, when each of the three
movements of the Beethoven and Mr. Khachatryan’s generous
encore (Bach’s Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in
D minor) were invaded by four separate mobile phone
rings from all over the hall. To the Mostly
Mozart stage crew: unfortunately, a polite verbal announcement,
“Please turn off your cell phones,” is all but de rigueur
these days, given their increasingly ubiquitous presence.
But
back to the good news. Changes in repertoire are
not the only novelties at Avery Fisher during the month-long
festival. The main stage has been moved further
forward into the room, allowing about a dozen rows in
a tier behind the stage, and seats on either side of it
as well. Overhead, a circular trestle holds a cluster
of what look like large cream-colored vanilla wafers (i.e.,
acoustic reflectors) with slender lamps hanging in a circle
above the heads of the musicians. Despite some comments
from a couple behind me (“We liked it better when there
were flowers onstage.”) the visual effect is elegant and
pleasing, and the even better news is that the sound has
even more presence and focus. Perhaps the temporary
arrangement should be made permanent.
Bruce Hodges
