Review: Memorable evening for Mozart aficionados

With a click so definite it was almost audible, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin locked into a musical juggernaut for the Mozart Symphony No. 39 at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts.

They opened the symphony under their own spell from its powerful introductory chords and never stopped, playing tightly and surely. They knew it, too. The violinists were smiling at each other through the opening adagio; one bassist threw his head back after a particular grand passage, much like a rock star who’s just cut a mean guitar riff.

At times, the musicians bending in unison with the musical emphasis created a choreographed expression of their work. It was an impressive confirmation of the sound.

Amidst it all, Daniel Barenboim conducted at both his most expansive and most personal for the evening. He swept the orchestra into his batoned embrace, then leaned forward to coax the violas in a particular passage, working each side of the podium to keep every section perfectly threaded into the fabric.

This single symphony may go down as the best expression of orchestral teamwork here for the entire year.

For the record, we hope the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and music director Jorge Mester, who are fully capable of it, rise to that challenge. But Tuesday belonged to Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, an historic orchestra with lineage from the 1700s and patrons such as Frederick the Great.

Its original calling is as the orchestra to the Berlin State Opera. Staatskapelle, literally translated, means state band, and this one fulfills that demand, handling the opera house’s concert and opera series.The Staatskapelle has also forged a reputation abroad with Grammy-winning opera recordings and concert tours.

Its association with Barenboim is no less historic. He has directed the Staatskapelle from 1992, nailing the balance shift in his work from concert pianist to conductor.

Naples was the Staatskapelle’s third date on a zephyr route through San Juan, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Barenboim will stay on for concerts with the Chicago Symphony, where he is also music director.

More than an uber-achiever, however, Barenboim has turned classical music into a tool for peace. He created the West-East Divan Workshop, which brings Israeli and Palestinian music students together to work together with pros from Barenboim’s orchestras. This is as great an achievement as any perfect symphony we hear from him.

That he and the Staatskapelle can mesh so completely, given Barenboim’s frenetic schedule, is all the more impressive. They have just come off their celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday in Berlin with totally different Mozart programming than concertgoers here heard.

Still, it was a Mozartophile’s dream. The program’s first half included the Symphony No. 25 in G minor and his Piano Concerto No. 22 in E Major, with Barenboim himself as the soloist. The Symphony No. 25 is famous as one of only two minor-key symphony’s from Mozart. Or is it famous because it’s the opening action track in the movie “Amadeus”?

In either case, in the performance Tuesday the Allegro con brio came on a bit too breathless, too rushed in the string runs.

Barenboim’s conducting approach here was tight, almost angular in movement. One suspects it’s not his favorite work, and who can blame him? That Mozart was writing music this spicy at age 18 is enough to annoy anyone.

The piece seemed to jell by its second movement. The third movement Menuetto was a high point, played with a breezy touch. The Staatskapelle’s handling of Mozart’s little romp for clarinets and oboes particularly set it off. Mozart was known as an early champion of the clarinet, and his music shows an understanding of the instrument’s strengths as the bonus card in an already sparkling movement.

The piano concerto gave Barenboim a chance to show his liquid style in concert playing. Yet it was set up, for some reason, with the piano backed into the ranks of the orchestra — convenient for Barenboim’s double role as soloist-conductor, but not for ours as listeners.

How much it affected the total effect of this performance isn’t clear to these ears. But the entire piece seemed to have its high and low edges ground off. That didn’t affect this obviously enchanted crowd, a nearly full house that brought Barenboim out for three bows after the first intermission, and five after the finale.

Classical encores are rare and hard, and there wouldn’t be one Tuesday at the Philharmonic Center. Still, it was a gratifying moment to see an audience so intent on wishing one into existence.