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Haydn, Mozart, Ives and Elliott Carter: Jonathan Biss (piano), Orpheus, Carnegie Hall, New York City, 6.12.2008 (BH)

Haydn: Overture to L'infedeltà delusa (1773)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482 (1785)
Ives: The Unanswered Question (1906)
Elliott Carter: Symphony No. 1 (1942)


Not in a million years would I have ever expected to see a concert program including Haydn, Mozart and Ives, yet witness Elliott Carter being the hit of the evening.  True: with the arrival of the composer's 100th birthday, audiences have been primed to celebrate, but on this occasion, the honoree was not even present.  The ovations for this big-boned Orpheus reading of Carter's First Symphony were loud and long, with many in the audience standing.

The program began with Haydn's Overture to L'infedeltà delusa, a pleasant concoction of silk and punch in three brief movements.  The group's witty reading went by so quickly that the piece seemed over as soon as it began.  To follow, pianist Jonathan Biss gave a commanding account of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22.  Watching his hands flicker across the keyboard, I was glad to see that some of his early body language has calmed a bit.  He is still enthusiastic and modest—two admirable qualities—but now he projects even more confidence and less bounce.  He and the orchestra found an agreeable balance, muted in the second movement, vivacious in the last, and finding a bit of playfulness in the cadenzas.

The sole misfire of the evening was Ives's The Unanswered Question, sabotaged by staging decisions.  Ives divides the ensemble into three groups: the soft cloud of high strings in slow-moving chords, the solo trumpet that asks "the question," and a group of pesky woodwinds who nervously try to "answer it."  With the solo trumpet at the rear of the hall, the four winds were onstage, with the entire string contingent backstage with the door cracked slightly open.  Unfortunately the strings were virtually inaudible, eliminating the context from which the trumpet makes its query and the woodwinds' response.

But all was forgiven after the Carter, which sounded as spaciously American as anything by Aaron Copland or Roy Harris.  Vigorous, assertive, probing, tender and thoughtful, it had the strength of a young oak tree, and the heavily accented final movement had the excitement of a barn dance.  One could only marvel throughout at the ensemble unity as they dug into the score, and as usual, the musicians' keen listening instincts.  Twenty years ago it would have been difficult to imagine Carter's opus being played without a conductor, but musicians have increased their technical proficiency and confidence.  I felt slight regret that the birthday boy wasn't there to witness the performance, since he surely would have given it a huge "thumbs-up."

Bruce Hodges


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