In this, the most recent chapter in Dame Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s five-year exploration of Mozart’s piano concertos, the pianist led the ensemble in the mercurial no. 17 in G major and the great no. 22 in E flat major. Sandwiched between them came Jörg Widmann’s Chorale Quartet for flute, oboe, bassoon, celesta and strings.
Conducting from the keyboard, Uchida set a perfect pace in Mozart’s magical G major concerto. With her gracefully flowing conducting style she highlighted subtle details with pliancy in a gently pulsed, flexibly phrased account. The Allegro first movement displayed the requisite touches of drama and pathos, the meditative central Andante was sublime, and the buoyant finale with its wonderfully contrasted theme and variations enjoyed fine playing from the whole orchestra. In the solely orchestral sections, Uchida’s skillfully elicited just the right amount of sound to emphasize points without going overboard. In the parts where she played along with the orchestra, interplay between her and the MCO players was flawless, as the piano – performing as an equal within the ensemble – danced in and around the woodwinds, horns and divided violins. Uchida used Mozart’s cadenzas for the first two movements, shaping them with extraordinary sparkle and finesse.
Widmann’s Chorale Quartet – a re-working of his 2003 Second String Quartet – would be remarkable enough on its own. Heard between the two Mozart piano concertos, it made a particularly startling contrast. Inspired by Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, the score makes no concrete reference to the 1787 masterpiece, but does shares its slow tempo and solemn mood as it progresses from one wrenching sequence to another in a compact 16-minute movement.
This New York premiere, led by concertmaster José Maria Blumenschein, was distinctly dramatic. After the houselights were turned down, the music began softly with brief snatches of gentle melody sounding throughout the darkened auditorium. These harmonic fragments were interspersed with stretches of unpitched sounds produced by various instrumental techniques, with frequent retreats into silence. As the piece moved on to its steely climax, woodwinds scattered around the first balcony created an unconventional sound mix with the onstage celesta and strings. With no detectable form or narrative, the sounds drifted in and out as a series of brief but intriguing musical events. Widmann has labeled his challenging opus “an adventure in sound” and that it was in this extremely polished performance.
The second half started off on a grand and vibrant note with the ceremonial trumpets and timpani that open Mozart’s E flat major concerto. After the orchestra’s fluent introduction of the first movement's delightful variety of melodies, Uchida entered, delivering her own ingenious take on the orchestra’s themes, and playing her own cadenza. The glory of this interpretation was the soulful middle movement where there was a wonderful, wistful feeling throughout, especially in the beautiful passages where the piano interacted with the superb woodwinds. The playful Allegro finale exhibited an irresistible sense of joy, as Uchida executed the piano’s sparkling phrases with great delicacy and charm.
For an encore, the pianist called upon Bach, offering a lovely rendition of the Sarabande from his French Suite no. 5 in G major, that brought this rich musical evening to an end.
