But it was encouraging to see violist Cynthia Phelps take the spotlight on Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat. This double concerto also features violinist Cheryl Staples, an always welcome soloist. Violists don't get enough love right now, and Phelps was one of the first brave performers to perform with the roving NY Phil Bandwagon at pop-up concerts during the pandemic. (Another pioneering musician, violinist Fiona Simon, was honored on Thursday when she retired after 39 years with the Philharmonic.)
Phelps and Staples harmonized beautifully with each other, but less so with the orchestra, another symptom of van Zweden's shortcomings with the Philharmonic. He failed to balance the power of this orchestra even in the generous, pristine acoustics of the renovated Geffen Hall. And in Mozart, it's difficult, but not impossible, to find that sweet spot where you like both the brightness of the violin and the subdued warmth of the viola. Brahms's Double Concerto, later included in the program, was similarly uneven, with the added problems of the mismatched soloists of the extroverted cellist Carter Brey and the less theatrical concertmaster Frank Huang.
Even more suitable for van Zweden and the Philharmonic was Shostakovich's Concerto No. 1 in C minor for piano, trumpet and strings, which featured trumpet soloist Christopher Martin in the orchestra but with some extravagant casting additions by pianist Igor Levit. Here the entire ensemble had a noticeably exciting spirit of collaboration and clarity of chamber music performance, with delightfully bursting melodies and amusing eccentric effects.
At the center of it all was Levitt, who seemed to be able to make anything he wanted out of a piano. Clever pedal action and the intuitive, instantaneous style of a jazz player allow him to pack a range of symphonic colors into a single instrument, expressing playful lightness and an avalanche of destructive vastness within the same passage. .
A week ago we had another notable guest soloist. Violist Antoine Tamestit was making his Philharmonic debut, performing Sofia Gubaidulina's Viola Concerto, the orchestra's first. The 1996 concerto also featured a chillingly insightful interpretation by van Zweden. After opening with a rapidly escalating cadenza, Tamestit took on the character of a Charon-like guide through a barren landscape with no respite or escape in sight. What further accentuated the uneasy atmosphere was the fact that the main string quartet tuned their instruments a quarter note lower than the rest of the ensemble.
Gubaidullina's concerto was paired with Mozart's Requiem as a hint of salvation, followed by his short motet “Ave Verum Corpus” as a coda. The Mass had talented soloists in the pure-voiced soprano Amanda Forsythe, the gorgeous mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, the clarion tenor Nicholas Phan and the vibrato-happy bass baritone Michael Sumuel. But as a group, their sound was too distinct to blend smoothly. Van Zweden, leading the Philharmonic with the great singers of Musica Sacra, reverted to his old habit of setting the score on fire, which robbed sections like the inferno Dies Irae of their weight. In the end, the piece sounded less impressive than the guest conductors.
Before the concert I heard “St. Matthew Fashion.” But instead, this Requiem was representative of van Zweden's tenure. No harm was done, but nothing noteworthy either.