Orchestra Excels But Soloist Disappoints

Mozart was born about 12 times as many years ago as the average Spectator reader.  This year, perhaps in celebration of that fact, concert halls all over the world are especially focusing on the legacy he has bequeathed to us, completely overshadowing the centennial of the birth of Shostakovich.  Amidst many other all-Mozart programs in Carnegie Hall this year, by many other ensembles, Daniel Barenboim conducted and played piano with the Berlin Staatskapelle in a performance of Symphonies 39 and 41 ("Jupiter") and of the Concerto for 2 Pianos in E-flat (K 365).

Barenboim as a conductor was careful and hands-off.  The orchestra seemed to know exactly what to do (although this is their own great merit as well as his) and his arms enacted their frenzied semaphore sparingly. 

The conductor's attention to detail showed particularly in passages of great dissonance.  Mozart wrote many such moments into his pieces, and it is a great pleasure to hear an orchestra summon real dolor from them.  The contrast, too, between these quiet aches and the stately or exultant or vengeful passages was brought out in the performance.  And when he allowed for a silence in the music, it stood out in its own right.

The very flare and energy which make him sound so plunky on the piano helped bring an already gifted orchestra to life. 

The Concerto, however, was a disappointment.  A rarely performed piece, I was looking forward to hearing it, particularly after the beauty of Symphony 39.  Radu Lupu played excellently beside Barenboim, but with every exposed or delicate passage, it became more apparent that Barenboim's rightful place is behind a baton (not a stand; he memorized his scores, although not his piano music).  Mechanically, he gave too much weight to the individual notes and not enough to the line they form.  It isn't Tchaikovsky; it's Mozart.

The audience clapped hard after the concerto and the two pianists expressed their appreciation with an encore, Andante from Sonata for 2 Pianos in D (K 448).  But because of Barenboim's heavy hands, it was, like the concerto, a mixed blessing.