Essential Atherton

Sound

SAN DIEGO’S CULTURAL POLITICS are every bit as convoluted and intriguing as the civic variety. When the merits of the San Diego Symphony’s current maestro, Jahja Ling, are being debated, someone almost invariably suggests, “The symphony has never been as good as it was under David Atherton.” Atherton led the SDO from 1980 to 1987. Two successors, Yoav Talmi (1987-1996) and Jung-Ho Pak (1998-2002), also walk in his persistent shadow.

“Under Atherton,” then, has become the magic phrase evoking some sort of golden age in San Diego’s musical history. Talmi still visits here, Jung-Ho Pak is now conductor and artistic director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, and Atherton appears annually as the leader of the Mainly Mozart Festival. Atherton’s brainchild, the Mainly Mozart organization continues to astonish with the sheer breadth of its year-round operations and the unvarying excellence of its concert offerings. This year’s summer festival (June 6-24) presents top-flight artists at venues on both sides of the border.

“But,” some purist critic might grumble, “what about Mozart played just the way Mozart wanted it——on period instruments in an authentic performing style? Atherton doesn’t do that!” (Such an approach is all the rage.)

“Pragmatism over purism,” responds the man himself. “I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules. Much can be gained by studying the performance practices of earlier times; however, a purist approach that doesn’t take into account the circumstances surrounding the original rehearsals and concerts is a cul-de-sac. When premiere performances were cobbled together at a half-hour’s notice whilst the ink was still wet on the page, I would guess they weren’t the slickest events ever devised . . . Let’s take the most salient elements of period instrument practice, particularly in regard to ornamentation, and selectively choose those which will enhance our understanding of the composer.”

But there’s more from the grumbler: “What about these ‘reconstructed’ Mozart concertos you’re serving up this summer——numbers K. 315f and K. 297b? Aren’t they just curiosities?”

“The reconstruction of the unfinished Violin and Piano Concerto is indeed something of a curiosity,” says Atherton. “Mozart only left a tiny fragment from which to work, but the what-might-have-been factor is brilliantly executed by composer Philip Wilby in a stylistically convincing manner. A festival is exactly the right setting in which to examine such a naturally flawed experiment.”

And why, on the upcoming programs that feature Mozart along with Brahms, Dvorák, Prokofiev, Schubert and Stravinsky, does Atherton include second-rate composers like Mozkowski, Spohr and Bruch? “The listener as well as the performer benefit by having clear points of reference, both in terms of style and quality,” says Atherton. “I hate programs of entirely contemporary works and always prefer to hear new pieces in the context of the best of the 20th century. Along the same lines, many delightful works in the 18th and 19th centuries only occasionally see the light of day. None of the composers you mention is in the first tier, but the pieces are well worth hearing——once.”

Few people, fortunately, seem to grumble about Mozart’s work itself. In the movie Amadeus (1984), Emperor Joseph II tells the young genius, “My dear young man, your work is ingenious. It’s quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that’s all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.”

No, there are never too many notes. And if Atherton keeps it up, we may hear every one of them.

The 19th annual Mainly Mozart Festival debuts June 6 in the new Qualcomm Hall (5775 Morehouse Drive, San Diego) and continues there and at the Neurosciences Institute, Copley Symphony Hall and Tijuana’s Catedral de Guadalupe. For tickets and information, call 619-239-0100 or visit mainlymozart.org.

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