So much of Mozart’s music resists the cavernous proportions of modern concert halls, where music of an intimate nature tends to get lost. Once in a while, however, someone comes along who is able to shrink these ungodly performance spaces to manageable scale.
This weekend at Orchestra Hall, that someone is Pinchas Zukerman. With half the members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra taking the week off, the chamber orchestra the violinist conducted in an all-Mozart program Wednesday night was probably much the same size as the Salzburg ensembles Mozart had in mind when composing his violin concertos and the “Haffner” Serenade, K.250.
Zukerman, of course, took the solo parts in the Violin Concertos Nos. 3 in G Major and 5 in A (“Turkish”), also playing the prominent fiddle solos in the serenade, presented minus its four concluding movements. He conducted from the fiddle, and while none would mistake him for a maestro, he got everything he wanted with a minimum of fuss. All that was needed were a few swipes of the bow to set the tempo or to mark a rhythm, and the CSO players did the rest.
Zukerman’s solo playing in the concertos was strong, accurate, confident, with an abundance of feeling. Zukerman is too stylish, too tasteful a musician to allow that feeling to turn cloying or sentimental, as other violinists of the Russian-Israeli school tend to do. Where a portamento slide was needed to assure a smooth transition from one note to the other within a phrase, he executed it with admirable discretion.
Slow movements were beautifully done. The Adagio of the G-Major Concerto sang with the ineffable grace of a Mozart opera aria, the violin cantabile supported by delicious chromatic fillips in the fiddles. And his characterful handling of the violin parts carried over to his accompaniments, which adhered to the spirit of orchestral chamber music, late 18th Century style.
The “Haffner” Serenade is a grand entertainment in eight movements, designed to entertain guests at a party celebrating the wedding of the daughter of one of Mozart’s patrons, Sigmund Haffner. Because Mozart was incapable of writing down to any occasion, the piece is full of charming invention and remains one of the most endearing of his Salzburg serenades.
Embedded in the long sequence of movements is a three-movement “violin concerto.” Zukerman gave these sections, and the majestic Allegro movement that preceded them, his most refined yet spirited attention. One’s only regret, here and in the concertos, was that he didn’t embellish the repeats more boldly. Still, the serenade made for a satisfying half-hour of Mozartean party music.
The program will be repeated at 1:30 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
