In the first of two season-ending concerts Carnegie Hall, the Met Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin displayed their versatility in an eclectic program spanning four centuries. The evening opened with the New York premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone. Written in 2021 in response to the pandemic and ensuing social unrest, the 12-minute piece is a relatively simple work employing standard orchestral forces. It follows a hymnlike structure and, like much of the composer’s oeuvre, merges European traditions with Afro American elements, in this case a nod to Lift Every Voice and Sing, a late 19th-century hymn often referred to as the “Black National Anthem”.
The first few notes introduce a slow chorale-like melody that is repeatedly doubled and transformed as it winds its way through the orchestra, displaying a wide range of colors, until it is answered by a second theme and goes on to end in gently rendered release of emotion, all handled with tremendous poise by Nézet-Séguin and his Met musicians.
Next up was soprano Lisette Oropesa, whose agile voice dazzled in two weighty pieces by Mozart. The Salzburg master’s concert arias and scenas make the same demands on breath control, dynamics and expression as the operatic arias, but all within a few minutes. In two such pieces Oropesa made light of these requirements.
Written for insertion in a 1789 revival of Vicente Martin y Soler’s opera Il burbero di buon cuore at the request of superstar soprano Luisa Villeneuve, Vado, ma dove? deftly conveys a young woman’s contrition and wifely love when she realizes her profligacy has driven her husband to bankruptcy. With her lively and radiant lyric coloratura and formidable acting skills, Oropesa responded deftly to both the character and situation, sensitively conveying Lucilla’s confusion as well as her tenderness.
A Berenice... Sol nascente, written when the Mozart was only 13, is a substantial dramatic recitative and da capo aria written in honor of Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach, Mozart’s employer in Salzburg. Most likely performed as a postscript to Vologeso, Giuseppe Sarti’s 1754 opera seria, this enchanting and skillful composition reinforces the opera’s happy ending and goes on to beg the Muses for inspiration in laying out the praises of the day. Displaying extraordinary expressiveness, flexibility, and richness of color, Oropesa created a refined and deeply emotional interpretation of the scena. Singing with intensity and a rich, warm tone that perfectly supported the dramatic situation, she gracefully voiced the long legato lines and effortlessly negotiated the coloratura runs and trills.
The second half of the concert was devoted to a beautifully shaped, vividly realized performance of Brahms’ First Symphony. After a spacious introduction, Nézet-Séguin launched into a passionate and powerful rendition of the first movement, pointing up the rolling timpani sounds and the warm, polished voices of the lower strings. After the tender lyricism of the Andante sostenuto, distinguished by concertmaster David Chan’s gorgeous playing of the long violin solo, the poignant woodwind coloration in the gently spirited Scherzo was tremendously affecting. But the most impressive playing of all was in the well-tuned and shapely finale, with the strings sounding particularly lovely and the solid, finely tuned brass coming through splendidly in the majestic chorale that caps the symphony.
