Mozart by Osmo-sis

Posted at 8:09 AM on August 22, 2008 by John Birge
Filed under: The blog

Last week the New York Times ran a terrific feature about Minnesota Orch music director Osmo Vanska, who took both his baton and his clarinet to the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City this week. New comes this review of Osmo's Mozart in today's New York Times:

"On the podium Mr. Vanska was, as always, far more assertive. Mozart's Symphony No. 38... benefited from grandly operatic opening gestures, carefully configured string and woodwind balances that gave chords a real bite and kept passage work transparent, and, most of all, a zesty approach to phrasing that kept the music fresh and vibrant. There were moments when some of Mr. Vanska's frequent shifts of balance might almost have seemed manipulative or contrived. Yet the results...made such concerns seem beside the point."

Read the whole thing here.