At Mostly Mozart, a Tousle-Haired Newcomer Joins a Returning Hero
By STEVE SMITH
New York Times
August 7, 2006
The notion of viewing Mozart from the vantage point of what followed him –
both in close proximity and at a farther remove – is a central principle of
this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. The program presented
by the guest conductor Osmo Vanska and the festival orchestra at Avery
Fisher Hall on Friday evening neatly illustrated the concept, with a major
work by Mozart preceded by a modern homage and followed by a masterpiece by
Beethoven, whose revolutionary gestures were built on Mozart’s foundation.
Mr. Vanska, whose debut in the festival last year was a star-making event,
was greeted as a returning hero. An exacting musician, he quickly revealed a
care for textural balance and a predilection for extremes of dynamics in the
Swiss composer Frank Martin’s `Overture in Homage to Mozart,’ a tart but
genial Neo-Classical curtain-raiser commissioned in 1956 to celebrate the
200th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.
Taking advantage of the improved acoustics of the reconfigured Avery Fisher
Hall, Mr. Vanska established a subdued base-line dynamic. Hushed pianissimos
compelled listeners to lean in close, and accented notes and louder passages
leapt out in striking contrast.
Wielding his baton with an urgent sweep, Mr. Vanska propelled Mozart’s
Symphony No. 35, the `Haffner,’ at a tempo that initially seemed too driven
to sustain. Fine details of articulation were occasionally lost in the
headlong surge of the Allegro con spirito; that the ensemble never lost
cohesion was a testimony to its marked improvement over the last few
seasons.
Violins that were divided left and right on the stage yielded heightened
clarity in the clockwork Andante. Mr. Vanska led a courtly Menuetto free of
expressive quirks, and spurred a breathless Presto finale.
The Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan, a 21-year-old past champion of
the Jean Sibelius and Queen Elisabeth competitions, made his New York debut
in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, a work that expanded Mozart’s model of a
virtuoso showcase into a forum for philosophical rumination. Lanky and
tousle-haired, Mr. Khachatryan projected intense concentration in the first
movement, his sweet tone and strikingly introverted phrasing suggesting
vulnerability and internal debate. He shaped his lines fastidiously and
executed them cleanly. Mr. Vanska, departing from his previous metronomic
precision, provided ideally flexible accompaniment.
Clocking in at 26 minutes, the opening movement felt slightly prolonged and
episodic. Still, Mr. Khachatryan’s rapt account of Fritz Kreisler’s cadenza
was quietly dazzling, and his gentle sound against the muted strings of the
Larghetto was bewitching. The orchestra seemed to breathe a collective sigh
of relief when unleashed at last in a buoyant Rondo, which elicited Mr.
Khachatryan’s most effusive playing.
The audience responded with a tumultuous ovation, and Mr. Khachatryan
rewarded those who lingered with the Largo from Bach’s Unaccompanied Sonata
No. 3, broadly spun and richly expressive.