Music of the Baroque has cast its net widely and well in its search for a new music director this season. And though it is bidding farewell to the season with its weekend concerts, the board is not expected to choose a new director until late summer or early fall. Selecting the best-qualified musician with strong leadership skills requires careful deliberation.
Each of the six candidates I have heard this season has brought something distinctive to the table. That includes Paul Hillier, who directed a program of orchestral works composed for, or inspired by, the famous orchestra of 18th-Century Mannheim on Friday at First United Methodist Church, Evanston.
Hillier, director of the Theatre of Voices and Early Music Institute at Indiana University-Bloomington, is the only candidate who has worked with MOB, as a guest conductor. This familiarity enabled him to make music in somewhat greater depth–a good thing, considering the entire program was new to the orchestra’s repertory.
Of the Mannheim composers that made up Friday’s program, Carl Stamitz was the only name most listeners would recognize. Surrounding his Clarinet Concerto No. 10 in B-flat was a symphony by Stamitz’s father, Johann, and sinfonias by Franz Xaver Richter and Ignaz Fraenzl. Mozart’s Symphonie Concertante in E-flat for winds (heard in Robert D. Levin’s reconstruction) was the only familiar piece on the program.
None of this early Classical music is of masterpiece quality, save for the Mozart. But all of it was worth hearing beyond its historical importance to the development of the modern symphony orchestra. Hillier shaped the performances flexibly yet precisely, without a trace of four-square phrasing.
Although there is no conclusive evidence the E-flat Symphonie Concertante is Mozart’s, the masterful invention points to nobody but Mozart. What gave the reading its character was the graceful, urbane conversation between the orchestra and the well-matched soloists–Lyon Leifer, flute; Robert Morgan, oboe; Jonathan Boen, horn; and Shawn Mouser, bassoon. The jaunty theme-and-variations gave each wind player his moment in the limelight and each pounced on the opportunity.
The lively Richter and Fraenzl sinfonias combined Italian and German stylistic elements in compact packages, while Johann Stamitz’s A-Major Symphony exemplified many traits associated with the Mannheim school–headlong energy, sharp dynamic contrasts and abrupt shifts from major to minor mode. In melodic lines that left the violins suspended at the edge of cliffs, one could hear where Haydn got some of his audacious wit.
These works made a fine frame for Larry Combs’ performance of the clarinet concerto. There’s nothing anybody has composed for clarinet that Combs–the CSO’s peerless principal clarinet–cannot play beautifully. The Stamitz work is filled with modest bravura content that sent him racing from top to bottom of his range with the greatest aplomb.
The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday in Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest; and 8 p.m. Monday in Old St. Patrick’s Church, Chicago; phone 312-551-1414.
