Many people believe that when you have to struggle for something and then attain it, it is all the sweeter. And conversely, that things can come too easily and be taken for granted.
Yet Friday night's concert by guest violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra would have been magnificent under any circumstances.
Honeck led the opening of Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto glowing lyrical warmth, hues Rembrandt would have recognized (thank Brahms first for this) and powerful passages that had both grandeur and intensity.
For all the orchestra's eloquence and power, and the close rapport between Mutter and Honeck, the soloist was the commanding personality. Her line was distinguished by nuances, included weighting of notes in a long line and rubato, such as holding a note or a few notes just a shade longer than a metronome would indicate.
Her bowing was phenomenal, with arresting bite in the dotted rhythm double stops. And while I felt Mutter's vibrato was sometimes too much and too wide, her octaves with vibrato were breathtaking.
Brahms' slow movement, which was moderately paced, opens with an oboe solo so beautiful that some solo violinists resent Brahms for it. Honeck's concern for soft dynamics paid rich rewards for oboist Cynthia DeAlmeida, who had all the dynamic range for expression that any soloist could want. This solo and her others were poignantly expressive, employing wonderful coloristic variety around a solid core of tone.
For a great soloist, such as Mutter, Brahms' opening oboe solo sets the stage for her own artistry. It was distinctively moving.
The concerto's last movement was full of fire without being overly driven. The final section, marked to be somewhat faster, jumped ahead to thrilling effect, yet the new tempo didn't sound rushed. After the rest of the long and very challenging concerto, Mutter sprinted to the end as fresh as a sprinter.
The quite sizable audience that showed up -- and some subscribers did turn in their tickets -- was vociferous in its approval. Mutter's encore, the Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 1, was dedicated to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Mutter's combination of dignity and emotion was shattering.
The concert at Heinz Hall concluded with Gustav Mahler's First Symphony No. 1, which Honeck and the orchestra performed and recorded in September 2008 and played on the May 2009 Asian tour. It remains an interpretation of lyrical freshness and sincerity combined with awesome power.
