San Diego Spotlight : Mozart Holds Special Place in Frankl’s Heart, Program

Whenever Hungarian-born pianist Peter Frankl plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat, K. 450, the piece evokes nostalgic memories of Frankl’s entry into the American music scene.

“That concerto was the audition piece I played for George Szell in 1967. He accompanied me at a second piano before engaging me to play with the Cleveland Orchestra. I always have a warm feeling when I play this Mozart concerto,” Frankl said from his teaching studio at Yale University.

The 56-year-old Frankl, who became a British citizen in 1967, will perform the Mozart B-flat Concerto, K. 450, with the San Diego Symphony Nov. 14 and 15 under music director Yoav Talmi.

Frankl returns to San Diego after a long absence. He had performed with the local orchestra under previous music directors Zoltan Rozsnyai and Peter Eros, both fellow Hungarians.

Like many performers and conductors, Frankl has been busy celebrating the Mozart bicentennial with performances and recordings. But he does not think that Mozart needed a year of hype from the music industry to elevate his standing.

“I think that all started with the movie ‘Amadeus,’ ” he added with an amused chuckle.

Frankl is skeptical about how much can be learned from performing Mozart on period instruments, something he does not pursue.

“Mozart was always aiming for something better than the limited instruments he had. Besides, he always thought dramatically and operatically, even in his instrumental music. That’s what you have to keep in mind when you are playing Mozart.”

Although Frankl makes his home in London, he is a visiting professor of piano at Yale University. He described the major difficulty of performing Mozart’s piano music with astute pedagogical precision.

“We are naked. Everything is audible. Something that could be easily disguised in a big Romantic piece or even in Beethoven--using too much pedal or playing a wrong accent--is exposed when you play Mozart. On the other hand, you should not be afraid of his music. Some Mozart players cautiously approach his music as if it were fragile, which loses the dramatic aspect of Mozart.”

Frankl is not just a Mozart specialist; his repertory encompasses some of the more challenging contemporary composers. In recent years, he has performed the Piano Concerto by noted Soviet composer Alfred Schnitke. Although Schnitke is popular in Germany and other Western European countries, Frankl has not been able to persuade an American orchestra to program the work for musical reasons. And, in his native Hungary, Frankl was rebuffed on political grounds for proposing to play the Schnitke concerto there.

“I was in Hungary performing with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Now that the political scene has changed there, they don’t want to hear any Russian music at all!”

Autograph time. San Diego Symphony music director Yoav Talmi will sign copies of the orchestra’s just-released compact disc for Pro Arte, Reinhold Gliere’s Third Symphony “Ilya Murometz,” following the Nov. 14 concert at Copley Symphony Hall. Recorded last May at symphony hall, the Pro Arte disc of Gliere’s best known symphony marks Talmi’s first recording with the local orchestra.

Despite claims from symphony management, however, this is not the San Diego Symphony’s first recording of classical repertory. Former music director Zoltan Rozsnyai made a recording for Vox of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Wagner’s Prelude and “Liebestod” with the orchestra when he was music director in the late 1960s.

Rozsnyai’s successor, Peter Eros, made a recording for Musical Heritage Society in 1981 of Gabreil Wayditch’s opera “Jesus Before Herod.” Wayditch was an obscure Hungarian composer who just happened to be one of Eros’ mentors. To the chagrin of local critics and subscribers, Eros programmed a concert version of the rather bizarre opera during his final, lame duck year as music director. (Thanks to Dan Erwine of KPBS-FM for the historical arcana.)

Feast or Famine? Judging from the mixed messages coming from San Diego’s major musical organizations, it’s difficult to know if these are the best of times or the worst of times. Last week San Diego Symphony executive director Wesley Brustad announced that his organization ended the 1991 fiscal year with a tidy surplus of $50,000. In a glowing press release, Brustad stated that “a few key donations in late September” not only balanced the budget, but put the symphony comfortably in the black. In an interview with The Times on Sept. 23, Brustad was wringing his hands over an expected $200,000 deficit for the 1991 fiscal year.

At the San Diego Opera, general director Ian Campbell hastily canceled a previously scheduled 20th-Century opera for the 1993 season when crabby opera patrons complained about this year’s production of “Albert Herring,” a comic opera by Benjamin Britten. It was a “modern” opera--composed in 1947--and the local opera buffs couldn’t find any recording of “Albert Herring” with Pavarotti singing the lead role. Fearing an exodus of faithful subscribers, Campbell capitulated to his complainers and gave them another “Madama Butterfly” for 1993 instead of anything that might challenge their delicate ears.

Last week the San Diego Opera was crowing about the success of the 1992 season subscription drive. Subscription sales have topped $2 million, a 14% increase over the total number of subscriptions at the end of the 1991 season. The irony is that the 1992 season includes another Benjamin Britten opera, the austere “The Rape of Lucretia.” Draw your own conclusions.