It’s rare that the most significant music in a concert is a piece that isn’t played. But this week’s program at the New York Philharmonic may end up being remembered for what was omitted.
The performance on Wednesday, conducted by Jane Glover, was supposed to include Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, with the solo part taken by the orchestra’s principal oboe, Liang Wang. But he and the associate principal trumpet, Matthew Muckey, have been benched by the Philharmonic since allegations of misconduct and assault against them resurfaced last month.
In 2018, those accusations prompted the orchestra to fire the two men; the players’ union then appealed to an arbitrator, who reinstated them in 2020. Now, as another investigation has begun and Wang and Muckey have sued the orchestra, saying they’ve been wrongfully suspended, it is unclear when — and whether — either will play on the stage of David Geffen Hall again.
Rather than replace Wang, the Philharmonic swapped out Mozart’s Oboe Concerto with his Symphony No. 13 in F (K. 112). Written in 1771, when its composer was 15 and on a tour of Italy with his father, the symphony — just 13 minutes long — has that easygoing, tossed-off eloquence that’s evident even in Mozart’s teenage works. The first movement is sprightly; the second, gentle, scored for strings alone; the third, graceful. Best of all is the lively triple-time finale, which evokes the long history of courtly hunting music, with an alluring short section in minor key.
The Philharmonic had never performed the symphony before Wednesday, and under Glover’s baton it flowed with the same nimble, unaffected naturalness as the rest of the program: four pieces, including three Mozart symphonies, from the final three decades of the 18th century. Glover’s tempos throughout the concert were sensible and unexaggerated, with ample room to breathe but no dragging, and the playing was lovely — though the violins sometimes took on a slightly thin, wiry edge, highlighted by the cool clarity of Geffen Hall’s acoustics.
In the work not by Mozart — Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido,” a concert scene from five years after Mozart’s death but still very much within the world of his opera arias — the orchestra provided sensitive accompaniment for the soprano Karen Slack. Making her Philharmonic debut, she inhabited the piece’s shifting moods, from anger at a treacherous lover to vulnerability to proud resolution, with strikingly clear high notes by the end.
The other two Mozart symphonies on the program — No. 35 in D (“Haffner,” K. 385) and No. 39 in E flat (K. 543) — are far better known than No. 13. And, however charming that youthful work, they dwarf it in complexity and beauty. In grandeur, too, though Glover, returning to the Philharmonic after conducting Handel’s “Messiah” in 2015 and experienced in music of the Classical period, tended not to emphasize that quality.
These performances were modest from their openings, with the start of the “Haffner” more warm than bracing, and that of No. 39 more conversational than majestic. The fourth movement of the “Haffner,” four perfect minutes of Mozartian energy and elegance, was brisk and lyrical, rather than punchy or boisterous.
The Symphony No. 39 is one of the great trio of 1788 pieces that were the capstone of Mozart’s career in this genre. On Wednesday, the winds were tender in the slow second movement, and the lilting ländler dance of the third was played with both delicacy and good humor. The finale spoke for the concert as a whole: spirited yet comfortable.
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