BWW Reviews: Mozart and Beethoven Duke It Out at Lincoln Center's 'Mostly Mozart' Opening. Guess Who Wins?

Is Lincoln Center planning to change its summertime schedule from "Mostly Mozart" to "Basically Beethoven"? If so, they couldn't have picked a better concert to put the point across than the opening program of this year's Festival. Heard on Wednesday evening, July 31, the performance was led by Music Director Louis Langrée.

With the Festival seeking to bridge between the Classical and Romantic eras with this summer's programming, Mozart was a distinct runner up to Beethoven: There was a concert overture, a piano concerto and a symphony by the big "B" versus a couple of short arias by the precocious master from Salzburg. The audience, however, had no complaints.

Mozart arias fail to ignite

After the orchestra's bracing rendition of the Coriolan Overture under Maestro Langrée (with great work by the orchestra's cellos), British mezzo Alice Coote took on the Mozart concert aria, "Ch'io mi scordi di te...Non temer amato bene"("That I forget you...Fear not, my dearest beloved"). It's more of a duet for voice and piano, with the orchestra as background. It's a gorgeous piece, but unfortunately, Coote--who made such a strong impression at the Met last season in Handel's GIULIO CESARE--seemed ill at ease in the music, particularly next to the soulful playing of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on piano. Things improved somewhat for the mezzo in the wonderful "Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio" aria from Mozart's LA CLEMENZA DI TITO, but her performance was, overall, a disappointment, lacking in velvet and sureness. The aria featured virtuosic work by principal clarinetist Jon Manasse.

Beethoven à la francaise

Bavouzet was back to finish out the first half of the concert with an elegant rendition of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in G Major. With Langrée on the podium, this was very much a French Beethoven, suave and scintillating, but finishing up with an energetic and invigorating final movement. The audience ate it up-so enthusiastic that they broke in early with their applause.

The concert concluded with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, which started off rather sedately but raced toward a bold and bracing conclusion. Avery Fisher Hall's acoustics, which can be unforgiving under some circumstances, never sounded better than in the configuration used in this concert, with the orchestra moved forward and stage seating on three sides. Lincoln Center should keep this success in mind when they close the building for renovations sometime in the next few years.

Photo: Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Louis Langrée © Richard Termine

To post a comment, you must register and login.