CNJS - New Jersey Symphony Concert Review

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New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. "Many Faces of Mozart Festival: Mozart's Autumn Years." Neeme Järvi (conductor), Karl Herman (clarinet). Overture to La clemenza di Tito, K. 621; Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622; Fantasia for mechanical organ in F minor, K. 608 (arr. Sieber); Symphony no. 41 in C major, K. 551 ("Jupiter"). Prudential Hall, Newark.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra opened its winter festival devoted to Mozart with a consideration of "Mozart's Autumn Years." This circumlocution elides the issue of whether there is such a thing as "late Mozart" since he died so young. Inasmuch as the life-expectancy of a male living into adulthood in 18th century Vienna was only in the 40s, 35 is only a bit early, not extraordinarily so (and while we're at it the same goes for Schubert; Beethoven was relatively old at 56). But maturity is the real point with Mozart (or Schubert or Beethoven), not age or lack thereof.

One of the elements which surfaces in "late" Mozart is his increasingly adept use of complex *counterpoint following his introduction to the music of J. S. Bach. Yet that is hardly the only attribute. While there are well-worked out *canons in the Clarinet Concerto, the listener hardly sits there awestruck at the technique of the composer. Rather, one sits there moved by the sheer lyricism of the writing and, in this particular case, by the musicality and tone of NJSO principal clarinetist Karl Herman. Every phrase had refined shape and, needless to say, his technique was flawless. Between him and Music Director Neeme Järvi (who stepped in for ailing guest conductor Gilbert Varga) there was a palpable bond which allowed the work to achieve an uncommon balance not only between the soloist and the orchestra, but at a deeper level in which balance is the equivalent of sanity. While many, including this writer, prefer a very mellow sound such as one once heard from German clarinetist Jost Michaels, Herman produced just a hint of an edge to project the sound into the large hall more effectively. It was a wise choice.

With Järvi now on the podium one could count on a lyrical account of all the works. This led to a "Jupiter" of uncommon nobility and linear clarity. Again "balance" was the operative word, but in this case it was a different kind of balance in which the demands of lyricism were enhanced by the conductor's care to supply crisply defined rhythmic underpinnings. Even the *harmonic rhythm became a perceptible element. Thus the lyricism was wed to operatic drama in a show of Mozart's greatest virtues.

Thus it was quite odd that in the the passage in the finale where strings are doing nothing but scale flourishes while the flutes and oboes are producing a somewhat expanded iteration of an important rhythmic pattern, the scales covered the winds and the heroic expansion of the rhythm was lost.

The rarity of the program was the Fantasia for mechanical organ, K. 608. The 18th century's fascination for clockwork entertainment (works by Haydn, and Beethoven, as well as E. T. A. Hoffmann's description of what we now might call an animatronics singer) found Mozart composing a work which alternates between dotted rhythm nobility and earnestly learnéd *fugal writing. In his pre-concert presentation Festival host Joseph Horowitz described this work as the most impressive of Mozart's explorations of fugue. It is best known in its transcription for piano duet, and in that guise was played as part of the Festival Prelude.

Horowitz said he had no idea why Mozart wrote such a deep and complex piece for such an odd instrument. After hearing it played by the orchestra in an arrangement using pairs of winds, strings, and timpani, as well as in the piano duet version, I shall attempt an answer.

The clockwork mechanism enabled the composer to avoid physical considerations of human players. The near-crashes of the duet players as each struggled to play his or her part while allowing playing room for the other, the impossibility of the music for a single organist, the inability of the wind instruments of Mozart's period to play all the notes (as opposed to the modern instruments required by Matyas Seiber's 1938 arrangement played at the concert), all attest to the music's "impossibility" . except through mechanical means. Given the device for which he was to write, what better than to compose something fit only for that instrument? Sure, others wrote "music box" stuff for the device, but how could Mozart resist reaching beyond the limitations usually imposed by the instruments of his time? The Fantasy is just such a piece.

Seiber's arrangement was fulfilled with impressive style and energy. Bart Feller's flute solos were excellent.

The concert began with a celebratory and lyrical account of the overture to Mozart's final opera La clemenza di Tito. It lacks the distinctive character of integration into the opera which follows that one finds in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte, but in this it is the norm. Just why it is not more often played is a mystery.

The unannounced encore featured timpanist Randall Hicks playing sleighbells and trumpeter Garth Greenup playing a *posthorn-style lick. As he finishes this review, this writer has identified the piece as the third of Mozart's "Three German Dances" (K. 605).

The rarity of the program was the Fantasia for mechanical organ, K. 608. The 18th century's fascination for clockwork entertainment (works by Haydn and Beethoven, as well as E. T. A. Hoffmann's description of what we now might call an animatronics singer) found Mozart composing a work which alternates between dotted rhythm nobility and earnestly learnéd *fugal writing. In his pre-concert presentation Festival host Joseph Horowitz described this work as the most impressive of Mozart's explorations of fugue. It is best known in its transcription for piano duet, and in that guise was played as part of the Festival Prelude by Mason Gross School of the Arts pianists Donald Dolan and Jin-Kyung Park.