Reviews

Friday, 27 January 2006—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review of Atlanta Symphony Subscription Concert
By Pierre Ruhe

Roll over Mozart, Jackson Leads ASO with Confidence

CONCERT REVIEW

Her big day was swamped by the hoopla surrounding the 250th birthday of Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Gottlieb (or Amadeus) Mozart, born Jan. 27, 1756. If you believe the marketing excess --- he's our musical messiah, the divine prince of classical music, the alpha and omega of prenatal brain development and high IQ'd adults --- you are left to wonder how the world managed to exist before him.

But that's a digression from conductor Laura Jackson, who made her Atlanta Symphony Orchestra subscription concert debut, her career pinnacle to date.

Thursday in Symphony Hall, the talented young maestra delivered an all-Mozart program with the aplomb of a seasoned Kapellmeister --- despite her still learning the craft as part of a national conductor's fellowship program. She's about half way through a three-year apprenticeship with the ASO.

She was impressively well prepared for the "Idomeneo" Overture, solemn and spirited music that opens Mozart's first mature opera. She motivated the orchestra to play crisply, with a light and unified tonal approach --- not quite in the "historically informed" style but devoid of romantic lushness.

There was likewise nothing done by rote in the celebratory "Haffner" Symphony, a Classical Music Top 40 hit, which closed the evening. Her reading was sharply etched and full of character, as if she'd drawn a portrait by first sketching a few bold, essential strokes, which gave her the freedom to carefully shade and highlight each detail.

Pianist Stephen Kovacevich played the solos in two of Mozart's late piano concertos, No. 24 in C minor and No. 25 in C Major. The California-born pianist doesn't have the prettiest or most caressing touch on the keyboard, but the depth of his insights and eloquence of thought always satisfied.

In a brief chat with me the other day, Kovacevich dismissed the commonly held notion that all of Mozart's music is fundamentally operatic, that everything Mozartean has to sing. He proved his point in the tender Larghetto movement of the C minor concerto, playing with sensitivity but, unexpectedly, also with lean and angular phrasing. The music was here more akin to classical architecture than to the sensual natural world.

In the concertos, Jackson stepped back a bit to let orchestra and pianist communicate as chamber musicians. The musical bond felt intimate, ego-free and genuine.

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