Feb. 20--Riccardo Muti may be a strict constructionist when it comes to his beloved Giuseppe Verdi, but with respect to Mozart's music, his interpretations harken to performance attitudes beloved of earlier generations of great European musicians, especially those immersed, as he is, in the traditional Viennese Mozart style.
That much has been apparent from the past Mozart performances he has conducted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and it was apparent again Thursday night at Symphony Center where the music director began his three-week February-March residency with an all-Mozart program.
We tend to associate the Italian maestro more with the sacred choral music of Luigi Cherubini than that of Mozart, which lent added interest to Muti's first local performance of Mozart's final work, the Requiem in D minor.
Left unfinished after the composer's death in 1791, the work was brought to completion by his pupil, Franz Xaver Sussmayr, in a version that, while deeply flawed, has been accepted by most musicians and scholars ever since. Recent years have brought several new realizations that have attempted to improve on the sometimes clumsy Sussmayr. German conductor Helmut Rilling introduced such a realization, by musicologist Robert D. Levin, at CSO concerts in 2006. It proved to be a bracing experience.
Muti will have none of such latter-day reimaginings. His decision to stick with the standard Sussmayr completion, he told me last month, is based on his conviction that, in fact, Sussmayr's version actually is the most authentic of all, since Sussmayr was closer to Mozart than any modern scholar and "breathed the same atmosphere." "I don't think anybody can do a better realization than Sussmayr," Muti declared.
That said, the account one heard on Thursday night flew in the face of the leaner, tougher, less sentimental view of the music favored by the period-performance brigade with whom Muti takes issue. Ultimately, "authenticity" becomes a moot question, boiling down to personal preference.
Muti's Requiem felt grand, solemn, weighty and, to these ears, occasionally ponderous, realized with the utmost sincerity by his orchestra, vocal quartet and the Chicago Symphony Chorus at peak form. Those listeners who cling to an old-fashioned, romantic view of the Requiem won't share my reservations.
Considering the size of the choral forces -- Muti enlisted no fewer than 100 voices -- it was remarkable how clearly the chorus (splendidly prepared by director Duain Wolfe) was able to articulate the Latin text, over a dynamic palette weighted toward soft and softer. As a matter of fact, the choral singing was well-integrated and quite beautiful throughout, carefully attuned to Muti's reverential view of this setting of the Latin mass for the dead.
How many other large choral bodies could turn on a dime as the CSO chorus did in the "Confutatis" section, the sopranos dropping to a supplicating hush at the flick of Muti's wrist? How many other choruses could cut with such precision through the blazing trumpets and thundering timpani of the Day of Wrath?
The maestro's very molded approach to phrasing drew equally alert and responsive playing from the orchestra, its dark timbres reinforced by discreet use of Orchestra Hall's pipe organ.
The vocal quartet, all Muti regulars, consisted of soprano Rosa Feola, mezzo-soprano Alisa Kolosova, tenor Saimir Pirgu and bass Michele Pertusi. All four sang sensitively, with a sense of Mozart style consistent with Muti's, although Kolosova's distinctly Slavic vocal production put her at a disadvantage when it came to blending well with her more Italianate colleagues.
More of Mozart's music, this time bearing a pronounced Austrian accent, arrived in the form of a warm and gracious reading of another tragic work, the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, by the veteran Viennese pianist Rudolf Buchbinder.
Soloist and conductor first collaborated at CSO concerts in June 2013 and apparently hit it off so well that Buchbinder was promptly reengaged. There were a few moments on Thursday when you wondered whether their match of sensibilities was in Mozart's best musical interests -- the odd discrepancy, for example, between Muti's vigorous orchestral exposition in the opening movement and the pianist's comparatively restrained entry, for example.
Things went smoothly from then on, however, particularly in the Allegretto finale where Buchbinder's springy rhythmic articulation and wonderfully "present" tone were set off by the crisp woodwind dialogues. The CSO's accompaniment provided the pianist with the lyrical frame his fluent pianism required.
Also on the music director's plate this term, Muti will lead a public rehearsal of the Youth in Music Festival Orchestra as the concluding event of the biennial Chicago Youth in Music Festival. The event, 7:30 p.m. Monday at Symphony Center, will be devoted to selected movements from Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony, played by an advanced ensemble of high school and junior high school musicians. The festival represents a partnership of the CSO's Negaunee Music Institute with community music schools and youth orchestra programs. Tickets are free, but must be reserved by calling 312-294-3000.
The CSO subscription program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $38-$280; 312-294-3000, cso.org.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
