DSO Couples Beethoven and Mozart Favorites

Pianist Francesco Piemontesi attentive to DSO conductor Jader Bignamini (screen shot from last night’s YouTube video of the webcast)

Yesterday my wife and I enjoyed our latest dinner with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) conducted by Jader Bignamini. The live-stream presented a straightforward “meat and potatoes” program (to go with our dinner meal) with Ludwig van Beethoven in the first half of the program and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart occupying the second. The program had the usual overture-concerto-symphony format; and the concerto soloist was pianist Francesco Piemontesi.

His concerto selection was Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 15 (first) piano concerto in C major. While this was a rather early piece, Beethoven provided a rich palette of instrumental sonorities from the orchestra accompanying the soloist. Piemontesi had a solid command of every one of the composer’s notes, extending them with his own cadenza. Sadly, the latter came across as an effort to upstage the composer, making for a rather unbalanced account of the overall listening experience. Indeed, from the listener’s point of view, the encore may have come across as more engaging than the concerto. That encore was the Adagio movement from Mozart’s K. 332 piano sonata in F major (which was not announced under the assumption that everyone recognized it).

Fortunately, the overall balance was more secure in the instrumental account of the overture, Beethoven’s Opus 62, “Coriolan Overture,” composed for a performance of Coriolan, the 1804 tragic drama by Heinrich Joseph von Collin. It would be fair to say that this is music that seethes with intensity. Fortunately, Bignamini knew how to convey that intensity without overplaying his hand. As usual, the camera work was as cognizant of the score as the conductor was, leading the viewer through the sources of the diversity of sonorities.

That diversity was just as evident to both ear and eye in the performance of Mozart’s K. 550 (40th) symphony in G minor. Indeed, it was the camera work that brought freshness to music that most listeners first encountered in childhood. The camera crew clearly “knew the score” as well as Bignamini did, not to mention many, if not most, of the listeners. Thus, it was the “visual journey” that breathed new life into one of the oldest of old favorites.

In other words, while the offering may have been “meat and potatoes,” the “seasoning” made for a thoroughly engaging (and possibly memorable) listening experience.