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Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Presents Serenades
www.orpheusnyc.org
At
Carnegie Hall
www.carnegie.org
Cohn Dutcher Associates
www.cohndutcher.com
Nikolas J. Lund
February 6, 2007
Program:
Bohuslav Martinù (1890-1956)
Serenade for Chamber Orchestra (1930)
Allegro
Andantino moderato
Allegretto
Allegro
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Op. 31 (1943)
Allegro
Adagio
Andantino grazioso – Trio
Allegro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Serenade No. 9 in D major, K. 320 “Posthorn”
Adagio maestoso—Allegro con spirito
Menueto—Trio
Concertante
Rondo
Andantino
Menuetto—Trio I—Trio II
Finale: Presto
What’s “serenade” but a pretty word?
Tonight at Carnegie Hall the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra proposed a program comprising Serenades of various shapes, sizes, and historical origin, but let the marked difference of each piece stand in relation to the others by a common title which only grew more enigmatic as the evening went on. But then perhaps it was only all an invitation on the orchestra’s part to sit back and let ourselves be serenaded. I would have personally been quite happy to be seduced and carried away on so cold a night…
The Martinù tonight was precisely the Serenade to pull one in. It was played with extraordinary delicatesse throughout, crescendos and all operating at indoor voices, and I even worried, briefly, as the piece started out, that an underplucked pizzicatti or too-meek flute might fail to sound and break the beautiful lines the musicians were spinning out. But precision and elegance triumphed from start to finish, and the piece proved to be the perfect grounds for the careful interpretation it was given. Violinists Carmit Zori and Calvin Wiersma played their leads as though possessed.
I even found myself musing that perhaps these musicians had found a solution to those obstacles of expression which challenge any musician attempting to truly project on the main stage at Carnegie. By playing softer and more precisely, perhaps one might succeed in drawing in the ears of the audience to listen more closely? It would certainly be dependent on expressing a sound compelling enough, but, even in my unfamiliarity with the score, I found myself following every move of this first piece quite carefully.
Britten's Op. 31 was unquestionably the heart of the evening, both musically and interpretively. It was here, of course, that we were deprived the presence of Ian Bostridge, whose abdication due to illness had been announced well enough in advance to result in a highly conspicuous number of empty seats in the hall. Nevertheless, the reading of Britten, as given, turned out to be constructed with such carefully weighted sentiment and sound that I would certainly not have asked to hear it any other way tonight. Stewart Rose drew a pristinely beautiful sound from his horn, while surrogate tenor, Stanford Rose, took his lead directly, trading in more literal articulations of each word for an unyieldingly lovely tone. The whole ensemble took an extraordinary amount of time, in pacing the presentation of the complete cycle of poems, and it was in this work that one had the only moments of genuine pathos in a series of otherwise fairly fluffy Serenades.
Alas though, the dreamy ecstasy imparted by the Britten was to be dispelled after a long intermission by a Mozart "Posthorn" Serenade I could have done without. Again, the textures and playing were perfectly translucent, and the interpretation thoughtful, but the work on the whole falls generally dull in my ears and didn't benefit from the best efforts of the orchestra. With the exception of moments in the Concertante, it is predictable. And long.
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