MUSIC REVIEW: BSO Weekend at Tanglewood

TANGLEWOOD
KOUSSEVITZKY MUSIC SHED
Boston Symphony Orchestra

 

JULY 23-25, 2010

 

Reviewed by Clarence Fanto

(LENOX, Mass., July 25, 2010) — Of all the Tanglewood projects BSO Music Director James Levine has had to forego this summer as he continues convalescing from major back surgery, the concert version of Mozart's singspiel (musical theater-piece with spoken dialogue) The Abduction from the Seraglio must have been among the most sorely missed.

Fortunately, he had assembled a first-rate cast of five for the key roles; vocal fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center had been recruited to lend Turkish musical flavor in the first and third acts, and well-known performer Will LeBow (of the Cambridge-based American Repertory Theater) was at the microphone to deliver witty, occasionally too-cute English-language narration by Simon Butteriss — first commissioned for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment — to replace the German dialogue.

The BSO management brought in Canadian National Opera music director Johannes Debus to stand in for Levine, and this turned out to be a master stroke. Debus conducted with vivacity and keen understanding of the work's shifting moods and its farcical elements.

So the stars were well-aligned for a successful evening despite Levine's absence. This light-hearted, almost operetta-like creation of Mozart's middle period, completed when he was 25, is set in an unidentified Mediterranean outpost of the Ottoman Empire in the 1700s and revolves around the plot to liberate three kidnapped Europeans from Pasha Selim's palace. It became one of Mozart's greatest hits in 1780s Vienna — understandably, since the Austrian Empire had only recently vanquished attempted invasions by the Turks.

It has a great overture (frequently performed in concert halls), some delectable coloratura arias for soprano (sung brilliantly by Lisette Oropesa as Konstanze and adequately by Ashley Emerson as Blonde), and — best of all — comical and musically challenging set-pieces for the vicious palace overseer Osmin. (The Pasha's speaking role was absorbed into the narration for this production.)

Reveling in the theatricality and the over-the-top offensiveness of his character, the deep bass Morris Robinson (who performed memorably as the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni twice in recent Tanglewood seasons) stole the show. Though accurate German diction proved elusive, his push-the-envelope depiction of a character whose misogyny is blatant yet hilarious in its context compensated well for a few repetitive and soporific soprano arias in the first two acts.

The other male roles — Belmonte, a Spanish aristocrat affianced to Konstanze, and Pedrillo, his servant who has been promoted to gardener-in-chief by Pasha Selim, were competently performed by tenors Eric Cutler and Anthony Stevenson, despite German diction inadequacies.

The English supertitles, also written by Butteriss, were as clever as the narration and despite the occasional longeurs, the two-and-a-half hour production was a triumph of advance planning, swift chess moves to replace the missing-in-action music director, and an opportunity to witness Mozart's genius, not yet fully baked yet well along in the process of rising toward greatness.

Despite the soggy night air, the BSO played with sprightly enthusiasm, and the percussion section reveled in its prominent role assigned by Mozart for the Turkish-style music. The normal classical-size orchestra — with a full complement of winds, trumpets and strings — is augmented by a prominent triangle as well as bass drum, cymbals, and a set of two timpani.

Though it's not top-drawer Mozart, the production did ample justice to the Abduction and the high level of performance was a credit to all concerned.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Saturday evening's all-Brahms program, originally to be a homecoming event for Laureate Music Director Seiji Ozawa and for Peter Serkin of nearby Richmond, Mass., who performs annually at Tanglewood. But Ozawa canceled several months ago as he continues battling esophageal cancer and Serkin had to bow out at mid-week because of a stomach bug. Into the breach came the stalwart Herbert Blomstedt, the Springfield native who preceded Michael Tilson Thomas on the San Francisco Symphony podium and who now, at 83, limits himself to guest-conducting stints.

Pinch-hitting for Serkin was the young Swiss pianist Gilles Vonsattel, who has been making the rounds of the major piano competitions, racking up numerous wins, and also performing with regional orchestras in Europe and the U.S. The Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 is fiendishly challenging, and Vonsattel certainly had the technical chops to turn in a creditable performance.

But in terms of subtleties of interpretation, he's not ready for prime-time and the performance, marred by overuse of pedal and key-pounding at the climaxes, suffered from a lugubrious approach that added 10 minutes to the normal performance time, with no comparable gain in insight. Better days surely are ahead for Vonsattel, who becomes assistant professor of music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this fall.

Blomstedt's accompaniment was heavy and overstated, and the BSO's playing was far from pristine. That can be blamed, in part, on one of the worst nights of heat and humidity in recent memory. A tropical rainforest evening does not make for suitable outdoor performance conditions.

The Symphony No. 2, the composer's alternately sunlit and dark-shadowed pastoral vision, suffered from a dutiful interpretation, the inclusion of rarely included first-movement exposition and development repeats, and some remarkably slipshod playing and lack of ensemble. More's the pity, since portions of the third and fourth movements demonstrated a spark of what might have been a fine interpretation under better conditions.

By far the high point of the BSO's weekend was Hans Graf's triumphant return to the podium on Sunday afternoon, carrying out Levine's program (performed to acclaim at Symphony Hall in Boston during the winter seasion) of Richard Strauss's Don Quixote and a collection of overtures, waltz, polkas and marches by Johann Strauss Jr. and Sr. Graf, the music director of the Houston Symphony and a welcome guest with the BSO and leading orchestras worldwide, was in his element.

Lynn Harrell, the cello soloist who is in the fifth decade of a major career, offered a noble, eloquent account of the errant Don and the BSO's principal violist Steven Ansell matched him as Quixote's faithful companion, Sancho Panza. The orchestra performed at peak inspiration and the interpretation of one of Strauss's greatest works was one to be cherished for its honesty, virtuosity and depth of understanding. Harrell, no longer as virtuosic as in earlier days, still provided rich tone and profound understanding of Strauss's vision.

For the second half, Graf led a mini-version of the annual New Year's Day in Vienna — highlights included the "Fledermaus" Overture, the Thunder and Lightning Polka, "At the Hunt" and the Emperor Waltzes, all dispatched with idiomatic panache and gemutlichkeit that avoided the trap of schmaltz. No wonder; Graf is Austrian-born and trained, and spent a decade as head of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. As heard on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio broadcast because of family obligations, this half of the program was a musical eclair with generous dollops of whipped cream, and there were even two encores — the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka and the Radetzky March (complete with audience clap-along), which always concludes the worldwide live telecast of the Vienna Philharmonic on Jan. 1.

The Bostonians played like transplanted Viennese under Graf's leadership and a fine time was had by all. With gloom surrounding us on the political and economic landscape, this concert amounted to a brilliant shaft of bright sunshine. Just what we needed.

Clarence Fanto reviews music for Berkshireliving.com and is a contributing editor to Berkshire Living.