In an event that ran the extremes from blazing to “not,” the Hartford Symphony Orchestra continued its 2014-2015 Masterworks Series in the Belding Theater at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts Thursday, May 7 night. The program, “Beethoven & Mozart” which continues with concerts through Sunday, was led by Music Director and Conductor Carolyn Kuan, consisting of music by Mozart, Bernstein and Beethoven.
Hot: The evening began with Mozart’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, K. 43. This was the first time the HSO has ever performed this little symphonic gem, and it made a big impression with its youthful and invincible spirit. The symphony was Mozart’s first in four movements, and the first of his symphonies with a minuet as third movement. The orchestral color of the work is very distinctive because Mozart scored for flutes in the second movement only and used divided violas throughout. It is a symphony of jagged phrases that fit together with unexpected logic. The performance was thoughtful and energized.
Sizzling: The HSO was joined by the Hartford Chorale and singers from the Beth El Temple Chorus and the Congregation Beth Israel Chorus, for the Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein. The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the composition of this work that was commissioned for a festival in the Chichester Cathedral in Sussex. We heard a performance that was gutsy, fierce and amazingly tender. The 12-year-old soloist Gavin Holland impressed during the second movement with singing that was pure, accurate, and soulful. Kuan led the combined forces with great skill and precision and made the energized time signatures snap with excitement. The great moment of truth in this work is the final choral statement which was sung without accompaniment. The choir kept the pitch centered and perfectly in tune. Even the collective inhalations during this passage produced entrancing sound. The long fade as the final chord disappeared at the close of the work kept the audience leaning until it fell into applause.
The first half was extraordinary. After intermission it was less so.
Frozen: Without any indication in the program Kuan began the second half with the exposition of the first movement of Mahler’s fourth symphony. Why? The orchestra will play Mahler’s fourth symphony in its next concert. After the exposition the music stopped, and Kuan began explaining connections between Beethoven and Mahler. This kind of information might have been of interest during the preconcert lecture, but was out of place and distracting during a concert. We wanted to stay in the “now,” not in the “next concert.” The music from Mahler was too long for an excerpt, but long enough that it created expectations — stopping in midstream felt as if Mahler had been interrupted and silenced.
Warmish: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 is notoriously difficult to present live. The music can seem to dispel more energy than it creates, and this performance slumped and lost focus in the second and fifth movements. In itself this was not a big deal. The orchestral strings created wonderful tone throughout the performance, and there were also several memorable wind solos and thrilling timpani playing in the fourth movement storm.
But if the opening of the second half had started with a work chosen to manage contrasting energy then the Beethoven symphony would have been set within a sympathetic context. The meditative unfolding of the sixth symphony, with its focus on repetition and parallelisms was disadvantaged in the context in which we heard it. The event might have made a better impression if the halves of the program were reversed. Instead, the event changed temperatures suddenly and left us thinking about that great first half.
HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Masterworks Series Concert “Beethoven & Mozart” continues through Sunday, May 10 with performances at 8 p.m. Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9, and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 10. For tickets, call 860-987-5900 or visit hartfordsymphony.org.
