Music Reviews : Violinist Sergiu Schwartz Plays Bruch With Mozart Camerata

The Mozart Camerata, still sporting the title “Classical Orchestra,” laid claim to dreams of Romantic proportions Saturday night at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Those dreams, however, did not come true.

Bruch’s G-minor Violin Concerto provided the fantastic subject, a supremely Romantic and frequently played work. Perhaps if music director Ami Porat had agreed to a vehicle more closely aligned with an earlier style, or perhaps if he had chosen a relatively unfamiliar concerto, the contrast between imagination and reality would have been less glaring.

In this case, however, the Camerata simply lacked the power to partner effectively, especially when faced with a partner as exciting as violinist Sergiu Schwartz.

Schwartz is the consummate heroic figure--young, dark, handsome and possessed of a lion’s share of talent, commanding stage presence and abundant technique.

He brought an aggressive mastery to the piece, which emerged searchingly expressive even in the most fleet of passages. Moreover, in the Adagio, Schwartz chose a simple, serious approach, permitting Bruch’s sustained melody to speak unhindered.

But the orchestra offered pale assistance. In the climax before the closing hush of the second movement, for instance, during which the violinist should struggle to rise above an overwhelming orchestra, there was no competition at all. True, Porat had augmented the wind section, but this only proved detrimental to internal balance and underlined the inadequate size of the string section.

The uncorrected program listed the concerto as Beethoven’s, Opus 61. That work would have undoubtedly presented a happier showcase for the strengths of this 37-member orchestra. Indeed, the other works of the evening, Beethoven’s “Coriolanus” Overture and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1, did highlight positive attributes.

Porat demands great precision from the Camerata. Conducting with an expressivity sometimes bordering on pantomime, he drew exacting clarity in the fugal interplay and pizzicato passages of the Allegro con Fuoco of the symphony.

The conductor extracted an impressive control of dynamics as well--evident in overall range, in the subtlety of well-shaped phrases and in focused use of accent. “Coriolanus” shone with a masculine verve marked by such control.