EIF: Mozart Chamber Works
Queen’s Hall - 25/08/22
For the forenoon concert of 25th August, The Queen’s Hall welcomed Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with a handful of section principals of the orchestra, in an all-Mozart chamber programme consisting of two of his sunniest works, both in A-major.
The Clarinet Quintet of 1789 is indeed filled with Mozart’s sweetest melodic invention and a sense of untroubled tranquillity, evocative of a sunny afternoon spent relaxing in a fragrant shady garden. From the outset, any suggestion of the myth that orchestral musicians lack the temperament for chamber music-making was dispelled by the warm chamber sound that the Philadelphians produced. Little features, like the cello pizzicato that greets the blissful sighing of the second subject on the clarinet, were exquisitely pointed with a hint of relaxation of tempo. The theme of the Larghetto slow movement, foreshadowing that of the Clarinet Concerto of two years later, on clarinet over muted strings, has the same air of relaxed reverie and was played with flawless phrasing, while the answering solo on first violin shimmered with the sweetest tone. The return of the main theme pianissimo at the end of the movement was truly magical and time seemed to stand still. Offhand, I can’t think of another Mozart piece where an elegant minuet is graced with two trios, the first a brief uneasy foray into the minor key on first violin, as if a dark cloud has momentarily obscured the sun; the second with the sunshine restored and more than a hint of celebratory Austrian yodelling on clarinet, all played with graciousness and sensitive musicality. The finale, a tripping dance-like Allegretto with 6 inventive variations, is top-drawer Mozart and received top-drawer playing. The third variation, in the minor key, in which the viola seems to fixate Eeyore-like on a gloomy semitone interval and the first violin seems to empathise with consoling chromaticism, was as characterfully delivered as I’ve heard. In the fifth variation, slow with sweet ornamentation, we eavesdrop on an intimate conversation between first violin and clarinet and it was deliciously phrased. A truly engaging and life-enhancing performance of a beautifully crafted piece.
The work in the second half was the Piano Concerto No.12 in a version for string quartet authorised by Mozart, but with the addition of a double bass part, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the solo piano role. He addressed the audience before the performance in praise of the Philadelphia musicians, pride in their residency at the Festival and joy at performing again in the Queen’s Hall, a reference to his appearing with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2007.
The concerto, notwithstanding the nocturnal reverie of its delicious slow movement, is no less sunny than the quintet and benefited from a performance equally suffused with radiant musicianship. Played as a chamber piece, the opportunity for playful, mutually responsive phrasing opened up and was seized. At first, I was unsure about the inclusion of the double bass in the texture, finding it particularly intrusive in the bowed tutti sections of the Allegro, but in pizzicato with restrained dynamics and in the Andante, it grew on me, and by the tutti before the cadenza of the Rondo, I was won over. Gentle teasing tenuti in the piano phrasing of the slow movement were magical and the minor key interlude at its core had me involuntarily holding my breath so as not to miss any detail. The playful musical repartee of the Allegretto finale was a delight from start to gleeful finish.
In an overcast Edinburgh noontide, the sun burst through in the Queen’s Hall. Great concert.
Cover photo: Todd Rosenberg