Give music director Joseph Silverstein full marks for timing, maybe even clairvoyance. After all, way back when this year's Utah Symphony season was announced, who could have known that Joan Tower's "Silver Ladders," the final installment in the orchestra's tribute to women composers, would pull down the $150,000 top prize in the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Competition? And in the same week it was to be performed here.
Which, as someone observed Friday, "must be around a dollar a note." There are a lot of them, especially for the percussion. But there is also a great deal of energetic, highly charged writing whose strength and generally upward direction evoke not only the ladders of the title but the composer's last name.In that, it very much resembles her "Sequoia" of some years back, from the opening percussion stroke (there the gong, here the timpani) to the expiring shimmer at the end. This time I think the first section might have been profitably tightened up, in view of what is to follow. Nor does the finale always seem to know when to let up. But the boldness and color of the writing, at times fairly straining to break free, together with its determination and rhythmic drive make it an ear-grabber. And, obviously, an award-grabber as well.
Friday at Symphony Hall it was preceded by Mozart, the overture to "The Marriage of Figaro" and the Symphony No. 29 in A major. Under Silverstein's direction the 18th-century bustle of the first was given a weight and substance that underlined the serious side of Beaumarchais' comedy.
Likewise the symphony, together with No. 25 perhaps the finest of the early (i.e., pre-1780) Mozart symphonies. For my taste the octave drop that opens the piece might have been not quite so slurred over. But in general textures were light but not too light, and especially in the lovely slow movement the decision to split the violins left and right paid off handsomely. After which the minuet was typically lithe but robust and the finale a winning combination of vigor and elan, the horns in particular singing out strongly.
All this was followed by a generally undistinguished account of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which nevertheless earned a standing ovation.
Soloist on this occasion was the orchestra's concertmaster, Ralph Matson, who may be looking more and more like Paganini these days but since coming here five years ago has most often proven his worth in music of this century - e.g., his Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
His Mendelssohn by contrast, although served up in broadly romantic fashion, suffered from a certain lack of focus and, especially in the opening movement, intonation that was frequently wide of the mark. Happily that firmed up as things progressed. Nor was he let down by the orchestra, which offered solid support throughout.
But the slow movement, while never overstating the music's charms, remained less than wholly ingratiating tonally. And although the finale was generally animated and to the point, the violinist's tendency to slide over some of the more difficult passages resulted in a few missed notes. Even at Tower prices, however, I'm not about to ask for a rebate.
- REPEAT PERFORMANCE: Christopher Hogwood's zesty Mozart 29th, on Oiseau-Lyre, is perhaps the finest of his Mozart symphony recordings, with John Eliot Gardiner (Philips) a close second in the period-performance sweepstakes. Among more conventional editions Marriner (Philips or EMI) and Mackerras (Telarc) get my vote. As do Lin (CBS), Zukerman (Philips) and Perlman/Previn (EMI) in the Mendelssohn concerto, with Music & Arts' CD of the ancient Kreisler/Blech set of prime interest among historical reissues.