Diane Walsh plays piano as Stephen Gunzenhauser conducts the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Friday.
SYMPHONY REVIEW
A touch of stagecraft and a little bling: The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's "Authentic Mozart" concert at the Fulton Theatre on Friday was a treat for the eyes and ears.
All the works on the program were composed by Mozart within a tumultuous three years, during which he moved from an unappreciative Vienna to a wildly enthusiastic Prague, and included some of his best-known pieces.
The concert started off with the curtain rising (unusual in itself) on the orchestra members in period costume — wigs, stockings and colorful coats. It sounds like a gimmick, but the costumes actually seemed to contribute a certain lightness of their own. (Several audience members also were dressed in period costume.)
Conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser, in an ice-blue coat with sparkling trim and pale yellow vest, started off the program with the overture to "Don Giovanni." The portentious opening chords soon yielded to a sunnier atmosphere, and the players maintained this upbeat, lively mood throughout the performance.
Another overture, this one to the light-hearted opera "Le Nozze di Figaro," kept the energy going into a fresh, invigorating performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 38, the "Prague," his grateful thank-you note to the city that made him a star. The performance was wonderful throughout, from the beginning, which seems to foreshadow the great opera, "The Magic Flute," through the flowing midsection to the syncopated finale.
Pianist Diane Walsh, wearing a crimson-and-cream costume, brought a sparkling verve to the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, known as the "Elvira Madigan" for the movie that featured its second movement in its soundtrack. She shone in the cadenzas and her interplay with the orchestra was delightful.
Walsh played a brief encore, a lively performance of a folk-inflected dance by "another Viennese," Franz Schubert.
The symphony will perform today at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.