SFist Reviews: Schubert Lied, Berg Too

What Wednesday's concert proved, as did the series last week, is that Berg should be played more often; and that Schubert is getting the short end of the straw in this festival. Last week, MTT conducted the Unfinished Symphony in a rather ponderous manner. Sure, it was consistent with the rhetoric in the program: the dawn of romanticism, a precursor to some of the overwrought stuff to come later. But we enjoy Schubert better when taken as a heir to Mozart, infused with dance and lightness. This week, it was just lack of readiness which undercut Schubert.

First, we had two rondos for piano four hand with MTT and Yefim Bronfman. We should not look a gift horse in the mouth: it was a pre-concert freebie, free ice cream for the music lover. We encountered an obnoxious couple deeply ensconced in our seats: it's the pre-concert recital, it's free seating, first come first served, go to hell, they told us when we feebly attempted to claim them.

MTT gave a disclaimer, about how the hall was too big, the audience too many (but don't go away, we're happy to see you!) and the performers overdressed for chamber music. Yefim took off his bowtie on this cue. The only aspect that was true to form was that they were under-rehearsed, MTT joked. And indeed he was. Yefim, an amazing pianist, could wing it, but MTT, whose piano soloist days are far behind, sounded clumsy and tentative. Yet, during the "real" performance, MTT sat again at the piano to provide backing to Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, a lied sung by the pure Laura Aikin and with Carey Bell's luscious clarinet. And, while those two were exemplar, MTT could not keep up with the beautifully crafted sonorities, coming in a tad too clunky at the keys.

Aikin was tremendous in Berg's Altenberg Lieder, even if the backing of the full orchestra overpowered her at time. She also sung in the Lulu Suite, creeping the heck out of us with some German horror movie screams. MTT conjured an dark, otherworldly atmosphere for a compelling trek through an anguished landscape.

And a very pregnant Julia Fischer (interviewed here by Joshua Kosman) soloed in the Rondo in A major for Violin and Strings. The piece had this far-from-perfect feel that Schubert got stuck with that evening. Fischer never relents once she comes in, and she was playful and charming enough to breathe life through the loops of the rondo.