MUSIC REVIEW : Ohyama Saves Baroque Finale With Mozart

It was Mozart to the rescue Thursday evening at Copley Symphony Hall. During the concert’s opening half, guest conductor Heiichiro Ohyama led a rather dispirited reading of two Baroque works and a rarely heard trumpet concerto by the 18th-Century Czech composer Jiri Neruda. But the orchestra’s lively, even elegant, performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”), K. 504, after intermission redeemed the program for those who trekked downtown in the rain to hear the final installment of the symphony’s Classically Baroque series.

Ohyama appeared more at home with Mozart’s dramatic idiom--he was clearly more animated on the podium--as he crafted a cohesive and vital symphonic tapestry. The brilliant outer movements benefitted from his lightness of touch and attention to subtle details. In the tranquil middle movement, he coaxed a lyrical blend from the winds and strings.

The orchestra’s size, about 35 players, proved an ideal balance that allowed the brass and woodwind lines to assert themselves with Mozartean good humor. With the customary modern use of 60-80 players for Mozart’s symphonies, these instrumental colors usually wash out under the weight of so many strings.

Principal trumpet Calvin Price made a convincing argument for the obscure Neruda Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat. More elegant but less flashy than the more familiar Haydn or Hummel trumpet concertos, the Neruda work proved the right vehicle for Price’s clear, unforced trumpet sound. Price soared through the concerto’s lyrical themes, but faltered in some of the cadenzas’ virtuoso passage work.

Ohyama and the orchestra spent the opening movements of Vivaldi’s D Minor Concerto, Op. 3, No. 11, ironing out problems of coordination and tempo.

In particular, the lower strings lagged behind the pulse. If this Baroque gem seemed particularly unpolished, concertmaster Igor Gruppman’s delicate, well-focused solo in the Largo section provided a welcome respite.

But Ohyama’s overall interpretation of the Concerto, a work J. S. Bach admired sufficiently to transcribe for organ, was nevertheless pedestrian.

The Baroque muse evidently did not rally Ohyama in Handel’s A Major Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 11, but the composer’s rococo wit and frequent contrasts managed to keep the performance vital.