Symphony’s
Mozart bill uplifting

Review by Ruth Bingham
Special to the Star-Bulletin

In any one performance, even Mozart can't be all things to all people, but considering how many festivals, performances, and recordings appear each year, he probably has been all things over the course of the past 200-plus years.

Furor and dissent over how to perform Mozart peaked at the end of the 20th century, ranging from modern orchestras performing as their traditions dictated to performance practice orchestras insisting on authentic instruments, tempos, dynamics, articulation and ensemble size.

Every choice has its strengths and weaknesses, and the task of choosing from a plethora of possibilities falls to the conductor.

For Sunday's Mozart Festival, the Honolulu Symphony's maestro Samuel Wong chose the middle ground for Mozart's last two symphonies, Nos. 40 and 41, aiming toward classical restraint and balance. "Because we've been exposed to (extremes in music), we've lost our sensitivity and our sense of surprise," Wong explained. "Mozart's music is of a very human scale; it bowls us over in a different way, with beauty, elegance, and symmetry."

Wong employed a small orchestra of around 40 musicians, about the size Mozart used, which afforded a nimble ensemble and a delightfully transparent texture.

Small orchestras are usually paired with faster tempos, the theory being that the larger, heavier orchestras of later eras slowed Mozart down.

But Wong retained moderate tempos, choosing the more deliberate tempos of larger orchestras for the first and last ("fast") movements and the more flowing tempos of smaller orchestras for the inner ("slow" or "moderate") movements. He also remained within classical parameters of dynamics, never allowing the orchestra to lose body in a pianissimo or distort in a fortissimo, both of which are real dangers for a small orchestra.

Intentional or not, along with his tempos and dynamics, Wong also chose more moderate emotions over sublime passions; even wrenching dissonances were softened. It was an intriguing trade-off, which allowed the orchestra to play with a precision that yielded numerous stellar moments, as in the development of No. 41's first movement or the counterpoint of its last movement.

At Wong's tempo, the slow movement of No. 41 was especially effective. With its long phrases stretched out like the cables of a suspension bridge, the movement demands a level of focus and patience few listeners have. Many conductors yield to the temptation to speed up, but not Wong.

Have classical phrases ever been stretched so far, by so simple a device as repeated notes? Wonderful ...

Originally, Wong intended to present Mozart's last three (not two) symphonies, which were composed together during six weeks in 1788. But Wong noted, "Some members of the string section thought that might do injury to their playing. Mozart is arduous (to perform); hence, this wind serenade."

Showcasing the Symphony's fine wind section, Mozart's Serenade No. 12, K.388, is scored for 2 oboes, played by Scott Janusch and Roger Wiesmeyer; 2 clarinets, by Scott Anderson and Norman Foster; 2 bassoons, by Paul Barrett and Philip Gottling; and 2 French horns, by Ken Friedenberg and Jonathan Parrish.

A serenade is unusual fare for a symphony concert: It is a chamber work and seemed out of character being conducted in a large hall, an impression exacerbated by the long break required to set up chairs and stands.

While it is easier to surrender authority to a conductor, and while a conductor makes for a more homogeneous performance, a conductor also interferes with the intimate communication between musicians that is such a hallmark of chamber music.

The work's identity crisis notwithstanding, the eight musicians played superbly, with excellent blend and balance, outstanding solos, and expressive phrasing. Their performance more than made up for the awkward setting, and gave credence to Wong's claim that "we become better people when we listen to Mozart, when we play Mozart; it uplifts us. ... It leaves us feeling healed, whole, and human."

Even after 200 years, the need for that remains strong.

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