There’s no arguing with success in Mainly Mozart Festival's closing concert

If one word sums up the 2011 Mainly Mozart Festival, which closed Saturday with a sold-out concert at the Balboa Theatre, it’s collegiality. From the festival’s first orchestra concert on June 9, Mainly Mozart set a tone similar to a yearly family gathering, where long separated family members delight in each others company.

Even the festival’s soloists, particularly violinist William Preucil and pianists Anton Nel, Anne-Marie McDermott and Adam Neiman, were essentially collaborators, each like someone in a discussion who is making a point but always attuned to the others.

In Saturday’s finale, however, there was little discussion, at least in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Violinist James Ehnes showed up and he was determined to be the violin soloist. From the concerto’s opening phrase, it was clear Ehnes had something he wanted to say and he was going to say it.

There was little back and forth and even less give and take. It was a matter of Ehnes making a statement and the orchestra and conductor David Atherton providing the accompaniment.

Fortunately for all concerned, Ehnes’ thoughts about Mendelssohn were worth considering and Atherton was a sensitive and sympathetic accompanist. In the opening section of one of the most cherished concertos in classical music, Ehnes pushed the tempo, incessantly moving the music forward, even keeping several of the rhapsodic solo passages in tempo.

And then, when he finally arrived at the second theme, introduced by the woodwinds, he suddenly relaxed. He took a big breath, and his playing in the second section became as expansive as it had been driven in the first.

Ehnes’ contrasts in approach gave the movement added tension, and after an intensely lyrical second movement and a buoyant third, the audience jumped to its feet.

It may not have been collaborative, but it was undeniably compelling.

The Mozart Serenade No. 12 in C minor for winds was also uncharacteristic. Many of the festival’s performances have been remarkable for their interactive nature and sense of spontaneity. But despite the polished presentation, the Serenade’s musicians treated each other as strangers. There was little interaction and consequently, the piece just sat there, like some plaster bust of Mozart on a dusty shelf.

But after an ardent reading of Mendelssohn’s Nocturne from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the orchestra brought Mozart down from that shelf and not only dusted him off, it had him dancing by the closing Presto of the Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”).

While most of the festival’s orchestral performances of Mozart and Haydn have had a chamber music-like quality to them, this interpretation was more symphonic in nature.

Still, it was collegial in the best sense of the word, with everyone, conductor and musicians, committed to fulfilling a common goal. That the performance served as a reminder that an orchestra doesn’t have to be a museum, that this music still inspires and challenges us more than 200 years later, is a testament to their success in reaching it. Together.


