FINANCIAL TIMES
May 9, 2003

review by Martin Bernheimer

Kurt Masur, music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991 to 2002, returned to his erstwhile podium at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, assuming the unaccustomed duties of guest conductor.

The subscription audience greeted him like an old friend and the orchestra, which has become a rather cool and slick instrument under his successor, Lorin Maazel, instantly reverted to old habits. There was a welcome degree of warmth in the playing but pitch problems prevailed and precision became a sometime thing.

The novelty on display was Concerto for Two, an 18-minute would-be joyride for trumpet, trombone and percussive supporting ensemble by Siegfried Matthus. A composer whose collaboration with Masur can be traced to East Berlin in the 1960s, Matthus wrote the piece for the conductor's 75th birthday last year.

In its belated premiere it turned out to be essentially innocuous, well-crafted and occasionally fatuous, a competitive tootling indulgence for a pair of Philharmonic virtuosos: Philip Smith and Joseph Alessi.

Some of the showpiece is improvised and much of it is supposed to be funny. The exercise abounds in flights of brassy fancy, neatly yet raucously punctuated by the not-very-busy band. A would-be climax introduces popsy-folksy diversions in which the soloists do some mugging while playing a round of "anything you can quote I can quote tougher".

The programme opened dutifully with the Genoveva Overture, a late replacement for Schumann's more demanding Fourth Symphony. No explanation for the change was offered. Everyone - well, nearly everyone - went home humming happily because Masur ended the evening with a surefire specialty: Brahms' First. The German maestro came up with no revelations and he spent little time worrying about subtle nuances. Still, one could admire his straightforward approach, not to mention his sense of proportion. This was Brahms without frills, without fuss and without exaggeration. These days in New York one must be thankful for small favours.