Word: mozarteans
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...White House performance and at a concert in the Kennedy Center a few hours later, the symphony-probably its composer's third-proved to be genuinely Mozartean. A dashing allegro assai with a surprisingly sophisticated development (perhaps Leopold had a hand in here) is followed by an Italianate andante that ambles along amiably, the gracious, formal melody accompanied by a distinctive stutter-step in the violas. The presto finale is a sprightly...
English Conductor John Pritchard, a confirmed Mozartean, unfurled these bolts of melody with a judicious blend of brio and ease. It was astonishing to note the degrees of softness he achieved with the chorus, rather than the customary piling up of decibels. The soloists were a uniformly excellent band of singers-though how they fared dramatically depended on the whim of Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, former Wunderkind of European opera. Ponnelle attired his Electra in a red fright wig and managed the considerable feat of making Soprano Carol Neblett look less than gorgeous. Electra may be a mixed-up lady...
...been many years since New York has heard it sung and played so exquisitely. To describe the entire cast, the word perfect for once seems apt. Among the women, British Soprano Margaret Price sang the Countess with an appealingly fresh vocal bloom and a masterly control of the Mozartean style. From New York's Frederica von Stade came a Cherubino of distilled soprano beauty and ebullient range of boyish emotion. Soprano Mirella Freni remains the best Susanna of the day. Belgium's José Van Dam is a handsome, intelligent, rich-voiced Figaro. Gabriel Bacquier's Count...
...gruff as Strauss at one moment, as ethereal as Debussy the next, sometimes underlining the drama at hand while simultaneously anticipating events to come. Most important, Argento can write for the voice. The land beyond, a second-act aria for Poe's wife Virginia, is almost Mozartean in its poignant simplicity. Virginia died of consumption at 24. In the opera she is resurrected, but after singing her aria, she dies again. It is an enviable role that allows the soprano to die more than once, and the limpid-voiced Karen Hunt makes the most...
Martino used tonal centers strong enough to appease the eighteenth century ears with which most listeners are equipped, but he did not do so in a blatantly reactionary fashion. It is an accomplishment to expand the appreciation of an audience without offending it: at best, the result is a Mozartean perfection of pre-established forms; at worst, it is misguided invention better spent writing yet another Bach chorale. In between those extremes, only the passage of time can determine whether the effort was a mere transitionary stroke or a truly original statement...