MEASLY MOZART

Last night was my first Mostly Mozart concert of the season, not counting Opening Night which I watched on television. It was very good (not that I'm a terribly good critic, but I know what I like). But there was little Mozart to be heard--just one of the four pieces performed. We also heard works by Johann Christian Bach (JSB's son), Beethoven, and Haydn.

The single Mozart piece was short aria, "Va del furor portata." I guess we must excuse the brevity--little Wolfgang scribbled it down at the age of eight! The title translates to "Go, Transported by Fury," and there was plenty of fury in tenor Russell Thomas' rendering. His voice easily filled Avery Fisher Hall with a glorious sound. Only the lowest notes gave him any trouble--he did have to reach a little. There was plenty in reserve at the top, not that this piece is a test of a tenor's high notes. This was his New York orchestral debut--he made his Metropolitan Opera debut this past season. I'm looking forward to hearing him there. And there, at least, I won't have to look at his purple shirt.

The extended stage they built for the Mostly Mozart series worked quite well--maybe a little too well. I could hear conductor Louis Langrée exhaling a couple times as he urged the orchestra to a crescendo--even from the 12th row. But the sound is smooth and balanced, and the lighting and acoustic structure hanging over the stage isn't too intrusive--though the silvery rails clashed with the gold trappings of the hall.

Intermission always gives me a chance to check out what the women are wearing, and there was a good number of nice, colorful summer outfits. Mostly Mozart is pretty informal for the audience--plenty of people in shorts, sometimes just with a t-shirt. But there always exceptions, like the 20-something couple in front of me on the refreshment line, obviously out on a date. She wore a little black dress, showing off an impressive (but not overly impressive) amount of cleavage. It was a great distraction from her rather plain face, which she wisely refrained from emphasizing with a lot of make-up. And it gave her date, much taller despite her 4-inch heeled ankle-straps, a great view.

And while we're on the subject of clothes, I really wish Langrée would lose that bus boy jacket he wears.

One more complaint: It is customary not to applaud between movements of a piece. Well, some of the Mostly Mozart audience isn't aware of that. The performers manage. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson even got up and did a little bow after his excellent rendering of Beethoven's oh-so-long cadenza in the first movement of the First Piano Concerto (after checking with the conductor, of course). What I don't like is the smirking of the non-applauders. It's not that big a deal.

(and you thought this post would just say "Second Post?")