Edition: U.S. / Global

MUSIC REVIEW; Philharmonic Resumes With Te Kanawa

Published: September 22, 2000

Rarely has the New York Philharmonic opened a season with so many loose ends dangling. The search for a new conductor is still frustrated. A deeply unsatisfactory hall awaits total overhaul. And an existing music director, Kurt Masur, lingers somewhere between his bruised relationship with a former Philharmonic management and some kind of part-time status in the future. The only encouraging certainty is Zarin Mehta, a newly installed executive director who just might make order out of chaos.

So Wednesday night's program at Avery Fisher Hall -- led by Mr. Masur in a space brightly lighted for a national television audience and played before a dressed-up constituency primed for postconcert feasting -- had the character of comfort food for the ear. Problems were deferred, at least for an evening.

Benign, beloved and seemingly indestructible was Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, singing such heart-tuggers as ''Ach, ich fuhl's'' from Mozart's ''Zauberflote'' and the last scene of Strauss's ''Arabella.'' Mendelssohn's ever-famous ''Italian'' Symphony, Strauss's perpetually endearing ''Till Eulenspiegel'' and more from ''Die Zauberflote'' -- its eternally popular Overture -- made certain that attention spans would not be unfairly challenged.

The Mendelssohn served the double purpose of introducing a more serious survey of the composer's music, which began last night and continues over the next few weeks. The choral pieces, along with all the Incidental Music to ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' next week should be particularly interesting.

Dame Kiri looked terrific, some of the nicest parts of her voice are still operating well and last night she chose wisely. The ''Arabella'' sequence is quiet and brief for an operatic finale, and also uncharacteristically calm. Strauss's writing is not violently demanding, but it extends this singer's vocal assets about as far as they will reach these days.

One felt the pressure in the music's relatively few climaxes, and heard a singer who has done a lot of singing in her time carefully hoarding her strength and avoiding danger. Elsewhere the musical difficulties had more to do with elegance than with brute power, and she handled them well.

We have learned not to expect particularly deep thoughts from this singer. For some performers, the beauty of the voice is a conduit, something that allows what is inside to come out. For Dame Kiri, the beauty is the voice itself. We may not have felt the pain of ''Ach, ich fuhl's'' or the confusion of the other Mozart aria, ''Vado, ma dove?'' but what we did hear was a singer in love with the sound of herself. The delicate Strauss encore, ''Morgen,'' was a further suggestion that to operate on the surface is not necessarily to be shallow. Glenn Dicterow played the violin solo beautifully.

The Philharmonic was in a good mood: bright, shiny and responsive. Mr. Masur takes the ''Italian'' Symphony at a walking pace, replacing excitability with leisurely good spirits. ''Till Eulenspiegel'' was all steel and high polish.

This may be the most urban of all the world's major orchestras. If the sound of the Vienna Philharmonic strings makes one think of swaying chestnut trees and green fields, the New York Philharmonic is more like the Chrysler Building: sharp angles and splendid engineering, and no less beautiful because of them.