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, at all times 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. (One other 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 Corridor. And, whereas it’s tough 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.
Far more 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. Right here, the entire ensemble had the visibly, exhilaratingly collaborative spirit and readability of chamber enjoying, with the results of lithely popping melodies and entertaining grotesqueries.
On the middle of all of it was Levit, who typically seems able to making the piano do no matter he desires. With intelligent pedal work and the sort of intuitive, in-the-moment type of a jazz participant, he can, throughout the similar passage, categorical 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 shortly 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. Including to the unsettled ambiance was a quartet of principal string gamers who tuned their devices a quarter-tone beneath 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 gifted soloists within the pure-voiced soprano Amanda Forsythe, the luxurious mezzo-soprano Cecelia Corridor, the clarion tenor Nicholas Phan and the vibrato-happy bass-baritone Michael Sumuel; as a gaggle, 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 long run, the piece sounded much less spectacular than it has below visitor conductors.
Earlier than the live performance, I had been hoping for a repeat of the “St. Matthew Ardour.” However as an alternative, this Requiem was consultant of van Zweden’s tenure: There was no hurt accomplished, but in addition nothing approaching outstanding.
