SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart and Stravinsky: St. Louis Orchestra, David Robertson, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 17.4.2010 (HS)


What a lovely idea for a program, mixing Mozart with Stravinsky in his neoclassical mode. Conductor David Robertson, touring with his current orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, even included a violin concerto from each composer played by the incomparable Gil Shaham Sunday night at Davies Hall in San Francisco. They opened the proceedings with Stravinsky’s Danses Concertantes and concluded with Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 “Linz.”

This back-and-forth between the 18th and 20th centuries, rather than underlining any similarities between Mozart’s consummate classicism and Stravinsky’s look back to it, actually emphasized the differences. Try as one may, the pungent dissonances with which Stravinsky sprinkled his neoclassical music make it sound and feel like a whole new thing. On its own, it can fool us into thinking how retro it is, but played cheek by jowl with the antecedents, it sounds thoroughly and completely modern.

The performances lacked nothing in energy and drive, sometimes at the expense of orchestral accuracy. There were times, especially in the Stravinsky works, when attacks missed on clean articulation. But that never fazed the ebullient Robertson, whose conducting presence exudes brio. He moves on stage with vitality and conducts with vigor, and that translated into music-making that ultimately satisfied.

The highlight was the Stravinsky concerto, which Shaham played from a score. He drew from the music extra nuances that lifted it into an almost Mozartean realm. Phrases had shape. They pulsed with energy. Pinpoint intonation made every fillip clear. The cadenzas emerged naturally and Shaham never seemed to be showing off as he developed the tunes and gestures of the music that preceded.

In the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 2, played from memory, Shaham exuded an equal naturalness. The melodic line spun out in a silvery arc. The buoyant accompaniment from Robertson and the orchestra kept the pulse quick. Especially nice was the sinuousness and shape of each phrase in the slow movement. The only caveat might be that the music in the cadenzas veered toward the Romantic, even modern, rather than adhering to a true classical style. Maybe it was nod to the presence of Stravinsky’s music in the same concert. At any rate, there was no denying how deftly Shaham played them, or how smoothly they emerged from the music immediately preceding them.

The rhythmic articulation issues that caused some hiccups in the Stravinsky concerto also appeared in the Danses Concertantes, a ballet score in all but name. Like most of the composer’s neoclassical works, rhythm plays a big role. Fortunately, other than these hiccups, the music did dance.

Rhythm was a major part of the Mozart symphony too. It had drive and an unerring pulse, but even better was that each phrase shaped itself to lead inexorably to the next one. It seemed to be over in a flash. Too bad there wasn’t time to play it again.

Harvey Steiman