SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart and Schubert: Günther Herbig, cond., Garrick Ohlsson, piano, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 20.4.2008 (BJ)

Mendelssohn - Sinfonia No. 10 in B minor for string orchestra

Dvořák - Cello Concerto in B minor

Sibelius - Symphony No. 1 in E minor

and

Mendelssohn, Dvořák, and Sibelius: Günther Herbig, cond., Xavier Phillips, cello, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 24.4.2008 (BJ)

Mozart - Overture to Don Giovanni and Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595

Schubert - Symphony No. 9, “Great C-major”


If I say that one overriding impression left by these two weeks of concerts led by guest conductor Günther Herbig is of the surpassing elegance and refinement of the playing he drew from the Seattle Symphony, that is not to suggest that there was any lack of what might be called tougher virtues. Rigorous musical logic and an unfailing care for structural integrity were also evident throughout.

Indeed, Herbig’s residency culminated in a performance of Sibelius’s First Symphony that was not only dramatically compelling and lyrically inspired – with marvelous contributions from timpanist Michael Crusoe and clarinetist Christopher Sereque – but made even the relatively loose architecture of the finale seem better integrated than I have ever found it in the past. My seat-neighbor at the concert remarked afterwards, “All the connections were so clear,” and she was right.

Quite apart from the orchestra’s polish and vigor, another factor that contributed to the splendor of both concerts was the participation of two exceptional soloists. Garrick Ohlsson, for me, has long been a known quantity, a pianist of transcendental technique who yet knows that what matters is not mere brilliance but musical content. His collaboration with Herbig in Mozart’s last piano concerto realized every facet of this introspectively lovely music to perfection: virtuosity was given its due, yet never at the expense of subtlety and those Wordsworthian “thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.” 

The following week, by contrast, brought a soloist I had never heard before, but I have every confidence that I shall be hearing a great deal of the young French cellist Xavier Phillips in the future. Again, the combination of phenomenal technical command with insightful musicianship was comprehensive, and Phillips drew from his 1710 Matteo Gofriller instrument a warm, dark, and powerful tone that had no difficulty in cutting through even the most sonorous tuttis. He has studied with both Paul Tortelier and Mstislav Rostropovich, and the passion characteristic of both those men was fully evident in his playing, but he also projected an aristocratic dignity of his own that served the music well. Principal horn John Cerminaro’s luminous delivery of the first movement’s subordinate theme was another source of deep pleasure, and even when he sat the second half of the concert out, the quality of the entire horn section that he has shaped was clear from many thrilling moments in the Sibelius symphony.

The shorter works that began the two programs were both finely played, and so was the first week’s Schubert “Great C-major” Symphony, illuminated by a pinpoint accuracy of intonation and articulation and an impressive clarity of texture. My only regret concerned the number of repeats Herbig chose to disregard. I know it would be doctrinaire to demand the observation of all the eight repeats Schubert marked in the course of his already voluminous score. But in the trio of the scherzo, particularly, I really do want to hear all those heart-stopping inspirations twice, and all the more so when they are realized as beautifully as they were on this occasion. That, however, is a relatively minor complaint. More importantly, though I have admired Herbig’s sane, sensitive, and humane musicianship for years, I have never until these two weeks gone home from his concerts with so powerful a sense of his stature as a truly great conductor. The world needs more like him.

Bernard Jacobson


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