MUSIC REVIEW : Salieri Gets Spirited Hearing at Festival

Before the movie “Amadeus,” few people could identify the obscure 18th-Century Viennese composer Antonio Salieri. But, although most cinema fans now recognize the composer’s name (and believe the fiction that a jealous Salieri brought about Mozart’s untimely demise), Salieri’s music remains relatively unknown.

At Wednesday night’s concert of the Westgate Mainly Mozart Festival, music director David Atherton attempted to alleviate some of this musicological ignorance. Along with several Mozart offerings and J. S. Bach’s “Air on a G String” from the Third Orchestral Suite, Atherton programmed Salieri’s Triple Concerto in D Major.

Compared to Mozart’s modest, two-movement Horn Concerto in D Major, K. 412, which was executed with uncanny precision by horn player Jerry Folsom, Salieri’s Triple Concerto for violin, oboe, and cello is hardly a turkey. Salieri’s carefully calculated concerto may be long-winded and a bit simplistic--especially the bare-bones orchestral accompaniment--but Mozart’s earliest extant Horn Concerto is not exactly the successor to J. S. Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” either.

Fortunately, Atherton selected three fluent soloists for the Salieri work. Oboist Peter Bowman had the most prominent role, which he executed with stylish facility and a steady, well-focused timbre. Violinist Martin Chalifour and cellist Anthony Ross each displayed a light, clear touch, and Chalifour’s tone sounded sweetly ingratiating. To this rare concerto the trio of soloists brought ample conviction and maintained a judicious balance among their parts. Atherton conducted the work energetically, without a trace of condescension.

Comparing the Salieri opus to Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A Major, however, clearly justifies Salieri’s inferiority complex. Although this is one of Mozart’s earlier symphonies, its thematic unity and unquestionable sense of development unequivocally testifies to the composer’s genius. To Atherton’s credit, Wednesday’s performance illuminated its brilliance and celebrated its subtle construction. In the outer movements the chamber orchestra sounded robust and sharply defined. But, in the slow second movement, the violins savored its gentle cantilena with laudable finesse and subtlety.

Atherton opened the concert with a spirited reading of Mozart’s Five “Contradances,” K. 609, and followed them with “Air on a G String.” While this amiable chestnut was treated respectfully by conductor and orchestra, its function on the program remained questionable.

Like the other chamber orchestra concerts in this festival, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre was close to filled. For its inaugural year, Atherton’s festival is thriving at the box office.