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PBO plays Mozart, Beck, & Haydn

Kelley_R_J_c_Matt_Dine * Notes * 
Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra opened the 2011-2012 season with Mozart, Beck, and Haydn. The concert started with Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D major. The playing lilted, the brass seemed slightly rawer in style compared to the strings and woodwinds. The featured soloist of the program was R.J. Kelley (pictured left, photograph by Matt Dine), playing Mozart's Concerto pasticcio for Horn in E-flat major with the orchestra. The natural horn just seems an impossible instrument to play in tune, and one wonders what sort of personality is drawn to such a difficult vocation. Kelley made a good go of it, and sounded best in the second movement Romanza. The instrument can have a warm and mellow quality that is quite beautiful.

The second half of the performance gave us a cheerful rendition of Beck's overture from La mort d'Orphée. Haydn's Symphony No. 98 rounded off this delightful evening. The oboe sounded particularly nice, and the playing altogether was animated and genial.

* Tattling * 
Some latecomers seated in the back of the orchestra level held up the performance in between the two Mozart pieces. A cellular phone was heard during the last piece, again from this area.

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2 responses to “PBO plays Mozart, Beck, & Haydn”

  1. knights-tale Avatar
    knights-tale

    I have to say I really don’t understand the allure of the natural horn or why period instrument orchestras insist on performing pieces for it. Though to be fair, I’m not really against playing baroque pieces on modern instruments, in fact I often prefer it.
    I’ve never heard a concerto for natural horn played cleanly, I personally don’t hear enough of a difference between natural and modern horns to warrant all the fuss, and I end up mourning the Bach, Mozart, or Haydn melody that was marred by an instrument that is all but impossible to play.
    My last experience was an American Bach Soloists concert wherein the playing of the natural horn (poorly) ruined the delightful Brandenburg Concerto No. 1. The soloist made a valiant effort, but for what?
    Seems to me a vanity thing more than a desire to interpret music. I respect the difficulty level, but in the end it ends up being about a man or woman wrestling with a piece of metal and usually losing.

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  2. Not For Fun Only Avatar
    Not For Fun Only

    My strongest impression from this performance was definitely one of struggle! Mr. Kelley is nothing if not brave. I don’t think PBO made a strong case for the instrument this time around, though it does have a timbre distinct from the modern instrument.
    On the other hand, there is a very high bar for modern instrumentalists these days, & we would probably be appalled by standards of playing in the 18th century.

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