by Emre Tetik
Richard Termine for The New York Times
The Mostly Mozart Festival, now in its final few days, has offered NYC a variety of engaging programs this summer centered around core Classical repertoire. Such was the case this past Tuesday when David Zinman led the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in a performance of the Eroica Symphony, alongside Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola and English composer William Boyce’s First Symphony, written in 1760.
Zinman’s approach to Beethoven is guided by strict adherence to the composer’s intentions, based both on the score and on recent scholarship. The result sounds fundamentally different from the rich, broadly phrased interpretations of, say, Herbert von Karajan. Zinman's Beethoven exhibits far more freshness, with brighter tempi and a striking attention to details.
All of this was on display in the opening moments of the Eroica, with Beethoven's use of sforzandi - an instruction to play a note with sudden, strong emphasis (literally "forcing" in Italian) - occurring on weak beats and in syncopated rhythms, creating a sense of awkwardly losing your balance. It’s funny and exuberant at the same time.
At the same time, Zinman's quick tempo in the second movement Marcia funebre, while faithful to the score, felt cold and unmoving. With its pathos and Romantic expansiveness, why not indulge in a bit broader sound?
Certain moments were not as loud as they could have been, and some dynamic contrasts could have been more pronounced. This seemed calculated to an extent; Zinman reserved the fullest, loudest sound of the orchestra for certain climaxes, making them all the more powerful. But in the first two movements, the orchestra’s volume was restrained to the point that many passages, which have stormy potential, were underwhelming. This got better by the breathtaking finale, in which the strings played with intense bite and depth that ended on an edgy, ecstatic note.
Zinman’s eye for details like those was also apparent in the other works on the program. The Boyce symphony, with its intricate technical runs, was played with facility and control, but with enough surprising dynamics and phrasing to make what could have easily become a dull, technical snooze into an exciting prelude. The oboe, bassoon, and flute blended well with their counterparts in the strings.
Violinist Joshua Bell and violist Lawrence Power brought virtuosity and tasteful charm to the Sinfonia concertante. Most importantly, they showed coherence in their phrasing and style. while Zinman coaxed excited playing from the orchestra.