Playing the Perelman Theater with the stage in its shallow, chamber-music configuration, Astral Artists and Symphony in C teamed up Thursday night for one of their "Rising Stars" concerts. You couldn't argue with the premise. The three young soloists are the kind of personalities you're happy to catch now; deep talent abounded.
Whether the artistic achievement of the evening was worth the trouble and expense of bringing an ensemble into the pricey Kimmel was less clear. Rossen Milanov led a small ensemble sounding exposed and often unpolished in a group of Mahler songs with the sturdy baritone Jonathan Beyer. Here's where the scrim of distance - the longer stage - would have flattered. Small, creaky instrumental hesitations multiplied, and the overall impression was of an orchestra struggling for mastery.
For his part, Beyer captured musical effects to mirror texts in three songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn), though he was less successful in imparting "Um Mitternacht" from R�ckert-Lieder with a compelling artistic statement. Emotional layers remain to be discovered.
The program - C.P.E. Bach, Mahler, Weber, and Mozart - felt disjointed, unless you heeded the common thread of boldly emergent personalities. Bassoonist Harrison Hollingsworth certainly was one. You didn't need to make excuses for his instrument, generally overlooked as the stuff of concertos, in Weber's Andante and Rondo alla Ungarese for Bassoon and Orchestra. Part of the appeal is visual. He waves the instrument, bounces, and for high notes stretches his frame as if fetching them from some remote shelf. But the authentic joy is his command of manipulation. He sees phrasing as an invitation to color, and color he does to a pleasingly developed degree.
Ilya Poletaev was an intriguing case. Somewhat limited by the small sound of a harpsichord borrowed from the Curtis Institute of Music, he was nonetheless impressive in C.P.E. Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D minor (Wq. 23). In Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor (K. 466), he played on a Steinway grand and soared. There was no one aspect to this playing that was radical, but in total it was an interpretation of considerable individuality. The tone was unfailingly gorgeous. His cadenzas were inventive and erudite without putting a foot outside the classical era. And while he took a lot of liberties in the second movement, they functioned not as mere ornament, but as fleeting avatars of a lively imagination.
Contact music critic Peter Dobrin at pdobrin@phillynews.com or 215-854-5611. Read his blog at www.philly.com/philly/blogs/arts
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