What made the classical era in music classical? In part it was the way, for a few decades toward the end of the 18th-century, that music clearly defined its own world. It needed no recourse to external programs for explanation or to religion for inspiration. The music of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven seems self-contained, as if it developed out of its own laws rather than the imposition of any others.
Because of Gerard Schwarz's imaginative programming Friday at the Mostly Mozart Festival night in Avery Fisher Hall, there was a sense of just how short that era was. Mr. Schwarz's conducting also made the the orchestra sound like an earnest, committed and polished group - as it has not under a number of other conductors this season.
One of the classical era's early boundaries was represented by Leopold Mozart's Trumpet Concerto in D, written in 1762. The music, of course, had much of the skill that the composer was teaching his prodigious son at the time. But its structure was nearly rococo; the Adagio's flourishes and ornaments pointed to a world of sentiment that the music leaned on for much of its effect. The soloist, Stephen Burns, played crisply and brilliantly, vocally shaping each line. The clarity would have made the music sound almost classical if the virtuosic playing hadn't been a trifle too brilliant in its accomplishments.
Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, of course, represented the core of the classical world. And that is how its soloist, Rudolf Firkusny, treated it. The pianist's tone was as limpid as his phrasing. Each statement had its counterstatement; each musical moment, however unexpected, had its ground in what proceeded. The music's own internal sweep, though, was often muted under Mr. Firkusny's elegant care.
Cherubini's Symphony in D marked a late boundary of the classical era, composed in 1815. It strained at its forms, lacking the manners and balance of earlier music. The Italianate work was full of sudden breaks in texture, extravagant dance steps and fascinating overwrought melodies. The work did go on a bit, but Mr. Schwarz gave it a performance that was true both to its classicism and its Romantic operatic tendencies.
Mr. Schwarz attained a similar balance with Prokofiev's 1917 work, the ''Classical'' Symphony in D. It was focused, good humored, wry and ironic. The Symphony is not ''classical,'' of course. Far from being self-contained and generated out of its internal logic, like many other works of this century, it is dependent on the past for giving it foundation and on modernist attitudes for giving it energy.Continue reading the main story