This means that the evening began with the K. 201 (186a) A major symphony, composed by the teenaged Mozart in 1774. This was his first significant effort in the four-movement symphonic form, departing from the three-movement convention of most of his earlier symphonies. It also has one of the most challenging openings, demanding an understated downward octave leap as its first gesture. I have heard this opening fumble in both directions, either coming on too strong to defeat the piano dynamic or so understated that it is barely audible. These days it is the sort of composition that thrives better in a studio where the equipment can do all the work. However, Cleve had no trouble finding that middle ground from which the music makes its presence known with the subtlety that the score demands:
Once Mozart establishes his introduction, the teenaged show-off kid takes over; and he uses the four movements of the symphony to explore a diverse palette of inventive gestures. It is almost as if he decided to "play" the orchestra with the same virtuosity he brought to his keyboard performances; and both Cleve and his orchestra were there, right on top of things, each time Mozart pulled a new rabbit out of the hat.
The remainder of the program brought us to the later period of Mozart's life, beginning with his 1784 F major piano concerto, K. 459, later called "Coronation" when it was performed for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II, who was also honored with La Clemenza di Tito, whose overture began last week's Festival concert. [Correction added after initial release: The title "Coronation" was applied to the D major K. 537 concerto, which, like K. 459, was performed on the occasion of Leopold's coronation. I discovered this error through Jerry Kuderna's review of this concert for San Francisco Classical Voice.] While the program promised another encounter with a Fazioli piano, the instrument was clearly marked as a Steinway; but soloist Seymour Lipkin commanded such a light touch from his instrument to remind us all that the pianist always matters more than the piano. Last week we had younger keyboard performers offering us the music of a younger Mozart; this week we had a pianist with far more extensive experience approaching Mozart's penultimate piano concerto with all the youthful energy of his earlier works.
The intermission was followed by the third of Mozart's four horn concertos, K. 447 in E-flat major (although there is some debate as to when this concerto was actually written). The soloist was David Sprung, principal horn in the Festival orchestra. Here again we have a playful Mozart writing for a horn virtuoso he knew well, Joseph Leutgeb. As was the case with last week's flute concerto, the flamboyance of Mozart's solo piano work may have been missing; but he knew how to rise to the technical skills of his soloist. This is definitely a showy piece of work, and Sprung deftly negotiated Mozart's technical demands to bring the horn the attention it deserves.
The evening (and Festival) concluded, appropriately enough, with Mozart's final symphony, the C major K. 551, later given the name "Jupiter." This required the most orchestral resources of the evening, supporting the strings with one flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, and timpani. As was the case with last week's "Haffner" symphony, this is a work of extensive harmonic and contrapuntal imagination, climaxing with some of Mozart's richest counterpoint in the coda of the final movement. Cleve and his ensemble delivered all of this detail with both clarity and energy, bring everything to an exhilarating conclusion.
In addition to the works listed on the program, the horn concerto was preceded by a Mozart rarity, the fragment of a concert aria for soprano, strings, and two horns, "Die neugeborne Ros' entzückt." This work has a Köchel catalog entry of K.365a (Anh.11a), but cannot be viewed through the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe Web site. The autograph was discovered in 1996 and consists only of a fragment; and Cleve decided to perform this fragment, without any subsequent editing to flesh it out, with soprano Deborah Berioli, thus providing an element of novelty to those who thought the offerings on the program were too familiar.
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