MUSIC REVIEW : Mainly Mozart Concert Was Nothing Special

Were it not for the winds Tuesday evening at the Spreckels Theater, the Kingston Mainly Mozart Festival would have had little reason to toot its self-promoting horn.

The cool, professional breath that blew through the instruments of clarinetist Michael Collins and flutist Timothy Day, who performed their respective parts in chamber works of Mozart and Beethoven, freshened what was otherwise a classical music concert full of hot air.

As if to foreshadow the fact that two wind musicians would provide the evening’s highlights, an adept wind ensemble opened the concert with Cherubini’s transient and unmomentous “March for Baron von Braun.”

Mozart’s everworn Clarinet Quintet followed, featuring Collins, who has recorded this work (and whose bio was left out of the program for some curious reason). Fairly, though not evenly, supported by string musicians Martin Chalifour, Aloysia Friedman, Barbara Hustis and Dane Little, Collins gave an expert performance overall--languid and dreamy in a the early movements and kicking up into a sportive, buoyant finale.

Violinist William Preucil and violist Cynthia Phelps joined Timothy Day in Beethoven’s vivacious Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola in D Major. As a threesome, these musicians sometimes verged on disintegration, particularly in the strings, but would suddenly mesh with unshakable mastery. Like Collins on the clarinet, Day’s smooth and melodious delivery on the flute had a noble quality, although his dynamic range shied from occasionally desirable pianissimo shadings. Preucil certainly has performed with more attentiveness, and Phelps with less self-conscious oomph. Nevertheless, the trio gave a sprightly rendition, cheerfully flocked with esprit and camaraderie.

In the audience’s enthusiasm to applaud between movements, even before concluding notes, the integrity of this chamber work, in its entirety, was regrettably lost. This happened throughout the evening, possibly causing music director David Atherton to rush the downbeat to begin the final movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, which closed the concert.

Before Atherton led the 11 musicians in an essentially unrefined and forgettable performance of this popular work, he turned to his audience to announce, in schoolmasterly style, that the choice for Bach’s “missing” second movement would be the slow movement from the composer’s Sonata in G for harpsichord and viola da gamba , an instrument predating the cello.

Beautiful in itself, and beautifully performed by cellist Ronald Thomas, this brief movement has a mournful, pensive mood. However, placed between the concerto’s brisk and energetic first movement and the pulsing vitality of the third, it sat like the soggy filling of a potentially delicious musical sandwich, one that has been served time and again to far better result.

Atherton has imported accomplished musicians from all over--New York, Atlanta, Cleveland, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and so on--only to have them perform works that are not even mainly mainstream, but overplayed chamber “classics.” This is perplexing, particularly when several of his hand-picked corps have performed for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s SummerFest in programs that are infinitely more interesting, even when the works tend toward selections that are crowd-pleasing.

This is not music for the love of music, but chamber Pops lacking any sense of adventure. It has the aspect of a package designed merely to attract an audience--keep the image of the performers young looking, make it look fun, avoid any challenges, yet make it feel exclusive--just the pretentious and patronizing combination to sound classical music’s death knell.