David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat V5, $50).
Pre-Concert Recital
Trio in E-flat major, K.498 (“Kegelstatt”) (1786) by Mozart
(1756-1791).
Jon Manasse, clarinet; Shmuel Katz, viola; Drew Petersen,
piano.
Program: All-Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503 (1786).
Ch’iomi scordi di te … Non temer, amato bene (1786).
Bella mia fiamma … Resta, o cara (1787).
Symphony No. 38 in D major, K.504 (“Prague”) (1786).
We barely made it in time for the pre-concert recital
this afternoon, and it was well worth it.
Kegelstatt means “bowling alley” which the Program Annotator insists has
nothing to do with the piece. Manasse, however, referred to the simple game
that inspired this composition. He also
mentioned Louis Langree started conducting MMF concerts 20 years ago – he became
its music director in 2006.
I remarked a few days ago that my ears were simply not
tuned to hear the viola. The clarinet
has similar softer qualities compared to the oboe, I usually can pick it out in
an orchestra. With only the piano as the
third instrument, there were no issues today.
As quoted in the Program Notes, this was “a work of intimate friendship
and love,” and it was pure joy to relax and listen to the give-and-take among
the three instruments.
Katz, Petersen, and Manasse performed Mozart's Trio "Kegelstatt."
Both Manasse and Katz are members of the MMF Orchestra,
Petersen is the 2017 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. The 22-minute piece consists of three
movements: Andante, Menuetto – Trio, and Rondeau: Allegretto.
Despite the familiarity of the name Christian Zacharias,
I could find no reference of him in my blog entries. In any case, I am not a great fan of
conductor/soloists. Perhaps an exception
can be made in cases of easy-to-digest music such as a Mozart composition (I
know, Mozart can be very complicated …)
Tonight I was okay with it. Other
than a somewhat over-pedaled initial passage, the piece was generally the way I
like it: light and crisp. Zacharias
continued to gesture the orchestra as he was doing his part on the piano: I
wonder if that is necessary. The
movements are Allegro maestoso, Andante, and Allegretto. The cadenza was composed by Zacharias.
Zacharias performed Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto in this All-Mozart Program.
I visited Prague a few months ago for the first time, and
found it a bit touristy, crowded, and somewhat chaotic. That evidently wasn’t true in Mozart’s time,
and the Prague symphony was a delight to listen to. It was one of his more “solemn” pieces,
beginning with a heavy-duty unison in adagio.
The symphony has three movements: Adagio – Allegro, Andante, and Finale:
Presto.
Between the two orchestral pieces were sandwiched two
songs by Mozart. Both “That I forget you
… Fear not, my dearest beloved” and “My dearest love … Stay my dearest” are
much darker than their titles would suggest.
Both were accompanied by the orchestra; a piano part was also included
for the first aria. This was Feola’s
debut at the MM Festival, and she sang clearly and beautifully, conveying the
emotion of the text very well. She will
debut at the Met at the next season.
This was Rosa Feola's debut at the MM Festival. She sang beautifully.
All the works performed tonight are dated 1786, with the
exception of the second aria (1787). Not
being a connoisseur of Mozart’s music, I often find tedious a concert that’s
all-Mozart. For tonight we had in
addition a trio for the pre-concert.
Surprisingly I found it quite “bearable.” Either I am coming around, albeit
slowly, or the variety of compositions (not three symphonies in a row)
makes it interesting for us intellectually challenged.
I was a bit worried whether it would be difficult to find
off-street parking on a Saturday afternoon; it wasn’t a problem at all. We had to wolf down the street food that we
bought to make it to the pre-concert recital, though.
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