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It was heartening, although, to see a highlight on the violist Cynthia Phelps in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E flat, a double concerto that additionally showcased the violinist Sheryl Staples, all the time a welcome soloist. Violists don’t get sufficient love as it’s, and Phelps was among the many first, brave gamers to carry out with the roving NY Phil Bandwagon in pop-up live shows through the pandemic. (Another of these pioneering musicians, the violinist Fiona Simon, was honored on Thursday for her retirement, after 39 years with the Philharmonic.)
Phelps and Staples blended fantastically with one another, however much less with the orchestra, in one other symptom of van Zweden’s shortcomings with the Philharmonic. He has by no means managed to stability this orchestra’s forces, even within the generously clear acoustic of the renovated Geffen Hall. And, whereas it’s troublesome to discover a candy spot within the Mozart that favors each the brightness of the violin and the subdued heat of the viola, it’s not unattainable. Brahms’s Double Concerto, in a while this system, was equally uneven, with the added bother of mismatched soloists within the extroverted cellist Carter Brey and the much less theatrical concertmaster, Frank Huang.
Much extra suited to van Zweden, and the Philharmonic, was Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, which drew from the orchestra within the trumpet soloist Christopher Martin however added some luxurious casting within the pianist Igor Levit. Here, the entire ensemble had the visibly, exhilaratingly collaborative spirit and readability of chamber enjoying, with the consequences of lithely popping melodies and entertaining grotesqueries.
At the middle of all of it was Levit, who typically seems able to making the piano do no matter he needs. With intelligent pedal work and the sort of intuitive, in-the-moment model of a jazz participant, he can, inside the similar passage, specific puckish lightness and the devastating immensity of an avalanche, packing a symphonic vary of colours right into a single instrument.
There was one other notable visitor soloist per week earlier: the violist Antoine Tamestit, who was making his Philharmonic debut enjoying Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto, one other first for the orchestra. The concerto, from 1996, additionally made for a chillingly perceptive interpretation by van Zweden. After opening with a rapidly escalating cadenza, Tamestit took on the character of a Charon-like information by means of a desolate panorama, with no reprieve or escape in sight. Adding to the unsettled ambiance was a quartet of principal string gamers who tuned their devices a quarter-tone under the remainder of the ensemble.
Gubaidulina’s concerto was paired, in a touch of salvation, with Mozart’s Requiem, which was adopted along with his transient motet “Ave Verum Corpus” as a coda. The Mass had proficient soloists within the pure-voiced soprano Amanda Forsythe, the luxurious mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, the clarion tenor Nicholas Phan and the vibrato-happy bass-baritone Michael Sumuel; as a bunch, although, their sounds have been too distinct to mix easily. Van Zweden, main the Philharmonic with the superb singers of Musica Sacra, slid again into outdated behavior of blazing by means of a rating, which robbed sections just like the hellfire Dies Irae of their heft. In the top, the piece sounded much less spectacular than it has underneath visitor conductors.
Before the live performance, I had been hoping for a repeat of the “St. Matthew Passion.” But as a substitute, this Requiem was consultant of van Zweden’s tenure: There was no hurt achieved, but in addition nothing approaching outstanding.
