Showing Many Colors of Mozart

With the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in July, and much of the music world obsessed with that commemoration, it might seem slightly contrary for the Los Angeles Philharmonic to suddenly mount a small two-week festival devoted to Mozart and “friends.” But for the vast majority of musicians and their audiences, there is never anything contrary about encountering Mozart’s music, and any friend of his is a friend of ours.

Most of the festival centers around the pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias, who is not only in charge of programs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this week and next with the orchestra but will also appear Monday at the Gindi Auditorium in the Philharmonic’s chamber music series (an additional orchestral concert Friday will be led by violinist and conductor Augustin Dumay, and does, in fact, include Bach as a Mozartean “friend”).

Zacharias, a German specialist in Classical and early Romantic repertory, is not unfamiliar in America, but he is far better known in Europe, thanks, in part, to the fact that his label, EMI, often only releases his CDs overseas. He is a tasteful, satisfying player who shapes every phrase with subtle, personal nuances and has an electric sense of rhythm. One could say much the same for his conducting, if it weren’t so bizarre.

For the festival’s opening program Thursday night, Zacharias began and ended with two great Mozart favorites, the ravishing Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482, and the ambitiously energetic Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”), K. 425, mature works written when Mozart was in his late 20s. The “friend” in this case was Schubert (not literally, since he was born six years after Mozart’s death, but spiritually). Zacharias played six very minor German dances by Schubert on the piano just before intermission, then conducted Webern’s orchestrations of them just after.

It was an evening to marvel in colors. Mozart was such an extraordinary musical dramatist that his abilities as a colorist can be forgotten. His palette of instrumental pigments was rich and original. He lived in a time of instrument invention and he was captivated by new sound. He bathed the E-flat concerto in the glow of winds and was especially drawn to the new clarinet. The symphony takes its outdoorsy, celebratory character from oboes, bassoons, trumpets, horns and timpani.

Our color awareness in Mozart stems lately from the early-music movement and the distinctive timbres of period instruments. Zacharias, however, takes his cues elsewhere. Watching him conduct seemed almost like spying on a visual artist; his gestures are reminiscent of a painter applying oils and of a sculptor molding materials. He has no shred of conventional technique. Instead, he acts as though the music were a physical substance to be molded in air, his hands, body, face all employed to shape phrases.

This approach favors not just attention to colors but to the whole plastic side of Mozart’s music, and wonderfully plastic music it is. It accommodates less well, however, the operatic nature of the music, particularly of the piano concerto. Here, then, Zacharias was an integrationist, creating a bouquet of exquisite hues and carefully shaped gestures that blended beautifully together. Though he leaped up and down from the keyboard to conduct like a haywire jack-in-the-box, the piano and orchestra seemed to blend seamlessly, his playing as liquid as the winds were luscious. A particularly nice touch was bringing the winds into the fanciful cadenza Zacharias wrote for the first movement.

The “Linz” was lush as well. Again there was little emphasis on drama or propulsion. This can be a thrilling symphony, full of striking and surprising effects, bold harmonic progressions and thrilling counterpoint. But Zacharias seemed more interested in phrases as if they were individuals and he had a personal connection to each one. It is thus a kind of exalted chamber music he makes, and his conducting style is such that one felt he was addressing players one by one rather than leading an army. It is not an exciting way to go about Mozart, but it is a lyrically deep way and a very beautiful one, and the orchestra, which sounded mellow yet alert, seemed to respond with joy to the sheer musicality of the approach.

The six brief Schubert dances were ditties written for one of the composer’s piano students, but Zacharias played them with nobility. Webern turned them into exquisite musical watercolors, and Zacharias’ remarkable detailing, here, was captivating.

* The opening festival program repeats tonight at 8, $10-$70, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. (323) 850-2000.