The New York Times
February 5, 2009

Return of an Old Friend, a Favorite Subject in Tow

Allan Kozinn

Some of Kurt Masur's most memorable performances during his tenure as the New York Philharmonic's music director were of Mendelssohn's music, with his own edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a particular highlight. His affinity for Mendelssohn is natural: before (and during) his Philharmonic years, Mr. Masur was director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where Mendelssohn was among his predecessors.

But more to the point, the melodic inventiveness and the graceful emotional currents that drive Mendelssohn's work have always been a strong lure for Mr. Masur.

So inviting him back to Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday evening to celebrate Mendelssohn's 200th birthday (a day late, but still) was a wise move. A reprise of his "Midsummer Night's Dream" would have been welcome, but Mr. Masur instead offered a varied program that touched on several sides of Mendelssohn: a dramatic overture, a concerto and a big choral rarity. And the Philharmonic played with the painterly warmth and depth it had during Mr. Masur's time, before Lorin Maazel transformed it into a neon sign.

The curtain raiser was the "Ruy Blas" Overture, a showpiece that makes a peculiar point: that Mendelssohn could produce an electrifying piece almost against his will. He resisted writing this piece for a Victor Hugo play that he described as odious, yet in the end he agreed, composing it virtually overnight. With its solid brass choirs and vigorous, dramatic string writing, it sounds powerful and cohesive, not hastily cobbled together.

The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter was the soloist in the E Minor Violin Concerto, and her reading embodied many of the characteristics of her recent recording of the work for Deutsche Grammophon, most notably her hard-pushed tempos. They did not always serve the music well. In the score's opening pages, for example, Ms. Mutter rushed through music that you really wanted to savor.

Still, her speed-demon account of the finale was as exciting as this piece gets. And the velvety tone and thoughtful dynamic shaping she brought to the Andante yielded a richly communicative performance.

Mr. Masur devoted the second half to "Die Erste Walpurgisnacht," a setting of Goethe's poem about an ancient celebration of Walpurgisnacht (a folkloric German festival on April 30), in which the pagan Druids outsmart their Christian conquerors by pretending to be demons. It's an odd work, but its colorful orchestral and choral writing evokes the festivities vividly, with short bursts of attractive solo vocal writing to advance the plot.

The strong, well-matched soloists were Jorma Silvasti, tenor; Christine Knorren, mezzo-soprano; Albert Dohmen, bass-baritone; and Thorsten Grümbel, bass. The Westminster Symphonic Choir was at its robust best.

Before the performance Mr. Masur offered a moving tribute to the composer Lukas Foss, who died on Sunday at 86. After noting that both Mendelssohn and Mr. Foss had been born Jewish in Germany, and that both suffered discrimination there (posthumously in Mendelssohn's case), Mr. Masur described Mr. Foss as "one of the greatest human beings I ever met" and asked for a moment of silence in his memory.