Blossom
Music Center
July
20
An enthusiast whose joy carries over to the music. |
What
a pleasure to see someone who understands the vocabulary of Baroque
and early classical music present an evening of Mozart and Haydn.
Nicholas McGegan brought his considerable expertise along with an
irrepressible buoyancy to an 18th-century program on Saturday that
added some sparkle to a steamy summer night.
McGegan,
63, comes with an impressive and in some ways unusual pedigree. A
well-regarded early music specialist, he has served as music director
of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for 27
years. He is also an accomplished opera conductor and prolific
recording artist. Whatʼs most striking, though, are his many
appearances with symphony orchestras – unusual for a maestro whose
primary focus is working with chamber ensembles.
McGeganʼs
performing schedule for this summer neatly encapsulates the breadth
of his activities: leading the Orchestra of St. Lukeʼs in New York
and the Arcadian Academy in La jolla; teaching and collaborating with
stars like Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony at the Aspen Music Festival;
and conducting the Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Given
his extensive work with small ensembles, it wasn’t surprising to
see him strike up the opening piece, Mozart’s Symphony No. 33
(K 319) like he was conducting a chamber group. The 50-piece strings
and woodwinds aggregation from the Cleveland Orchestra responded with
aplomb, playing with a light-hearted spirit and frothy effervescence.
But the musicians had to fill in a lot of the details themselves, as
McGegan didn’t so much conduct as guide them through the piece.
This
is a typical approach in chamber music, where the players know a
narrower repertoire intimately. In this case, with McGegan working
from phrase to phrase and constantly urging the orchestra to catch
up, the overall arc of the music suffered. The sound, however, was
lustrous, with silken violins and tender woodwinds giving it a golden
glow.
Setting a sharper tone. |
The
definition sharpened in the second piece, Mozart’s Flute
Concerto in G major (K 313), mostly because the players followed
the soloist, Cleveland Orchestra principal flutist Joshua Smith.
Though his intonation suffered a bit on the high and low ends, Smith
complemented the orchestra with a sound as smooth as butter, and
showed some flair in the cadenzas, cleverly quoting Mozart’s Magic
Flute. Used to playing with one of their own, his colleagues
supported him with precision and elegance. And McGegan graciously
took a backseat, setting a stately tempo but otherwise mostly staying
out of the players’ way.
Back
with a firm hand for the second half, McGegan set a brisk pace for
Cimarosa’s Overture to The Secret Marriage.
It seemed almost too controlled at the start, but opened up nicely
with some particularly rich colors and a burst of fire at the end.
The
concluding piece, Haydn’s Symphony No. 103,
brought together all the best elements of the evening – great
intelligence, lively energy, glowing sound – and added depth and
texture for a satisfying finale. The opening drum roll quickly
established a crisp tone that McGegan carried throughout, adding
character with subtle shadings and swaying rhythms. Violinist
Jung-Min Amy Lee, sitting in the concertmaster’s chair for the
evening, added a fine violin solo in the second movement. By the
third movement, the conductor was waving his arms like a windmill,
propelling the piece with a momentum that was missing from the first
half.
Whatever
one thinks of his sound, McGegan is a show in himself, obviously
taking great joy in his work as he bounds around the podium,
sometimes literally hopping in time to the rhythms. His energy is
infectious, adding zest and an air of enchantment to the music. In
less knowledgeable hands, this could come across as forced or coy.
With McGegan at the podium, it was a treat to watch a master at work.
For
more on Nicholas McGegan: http://nicholasmcgegan.com/
For
more on Joshua Smith: http://www.soloflute.com/
Joshua Smith photo by Nannette Bedway
No comments:
Post a Comment