MUSIC REVIEW : Mainly Mozart Festival a Mostly Ordinary Event

David Atherton wrapped up his Westgate Mainly Mozart Festival in style Sunday night. A strong all-Mozart program, lively performances from the players, and a full house in Davies Festival Theatre provided ample reasons for the British maestro’s air of self-assurance and confidence on the podium.

In this farewell program, two of the festival orchestra members favored the audience with solo turns. Concertmaster William Preucil’s performance as soloist in Mozart’s “Turkish” Violin Concerto was conventional and rather small-scaled, although it was still polished and brimming with conviction. His sweet, agile sound flourished in the intimate middle movement, where he ably captured the composer’s transcendental introspection.

Although flutist Jean Larson’s solo was limited to the single movement “Andante for Flute and Orchestra,” K. 315, she made the most of her opportunity. Her playing Sunday confirmed the favorable impression she made in a festival chamber concert last week: the silver-toned Texas flutist can spin out a sinuous melody with grace, charm, and apparent nonchalance.

Perhaps to demonstrate Mozart’s development as a symphonist, Atherton commenced his program with the composer’s First Symphony, K. 16 (written when he was 8 years old), and concluded with his penultimate Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550. Even though this First Symphony is little more than a curiosity, the conductor took pains to make the most of it, demanding precise articulations and assiduous adherence to its naive, rococo contrasts.

If only Atherton had delved as deeply and patiently into the great G Minor Symphony. He took an aggressive stance, demanding a Beethoven-like grandeur rather than cultivating the undercurrent of turbulence that propels this complex, late Mozart work. He was satisfied with high energy and tight discipline, but there was little poetry beneath all of that brio. And, although this approach may have generated a few more decibels for the unsympathetic acoustics of the open-air theater, it brought out an unflattering, hard-edged timbre in the strings.

This reviewer’s evaluation of the festival’s inaugural season remains equivocal. While it was well-organized and well-attended, its musical achievements were embarrassingly modest. If the level of performance never sank below professional respectability, it rarely soared or strayed from the norms of traditional Mozart interpretation.

The La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s annual SummerFest, to cite the record of another well-run festival, has provided the crucible for some spine-tingling performances and daring interpretations of major works of the repertory.

In terms of repertory, Atherton’s choices cry out for improvement, especially if the festival is to continue next year. The festival’s title may have been “Mainly Mozart,” but the rest of the repertory was surprisingly miscellaneous. Although Atherton’s programming did not stray beyond the Classical period--creative choices might have juxtaposed neo-Classical 20th-Century works--not a single major work by Beethoven or Haydn complemented the Mozart repertory.