Mozart galore

We had an abundance of Mozart for this 4 April 2010 afternoon concert. The best item of the concert was the first piece, Mozart's famous Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - played with loving care for detail, phrasing and colour by the MPO strings and guest conductor Christian Arming (who was making his DFP debut). Next up was also soloist Barnabas Kelemen (who was also making his DFP debut in Mozart's Third Violin Concerto). Playing a Guarnerius del Gesu violin on loan to him from the state of Hungary, Kelemen's performance was too robust for my liking. It was un-"Grumiaux" like altogether [The Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux is one of the best interpreters of the Mozart concertos on CD].

Nevertheless, the audience loved Kelemen's performance and he had to perform 2 encores (Paganini's First Caprice Op 1 - which was astoundingly delivered and also Bartok's Solo Sonata (last movement)) to satisfy the KL audience. In the second half, we were treated to a good performance of Mozart's penultimate symphony (No 40) but Arming's interpretation sounded slightly too "bloated" with its many polyphonic lines clashing for attention.