Focus on the 18th century: ISO programs music featuring solo violin

The venerated sixth music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra once gave a

Baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan

newspaper interview in which he casually labeled what he and the orchestra were up to as "entertainment."

Raymond Leppard never hesitated speaking his mind publicly, but after reading that interview I asked him why he labeled the art of classical music a form of entertainment. He shrugged: "It was just to epater le bourgeois," he said, using a phrase connected with decadent art movements in the late 19th century that translates as "to shock the middle class." He knew he was striking a blow against stuffiness.

To consider high art as designed to entertain is much more acceptable to me now than it used to be. The evolutionary cognitive scientist Steven Pinker concluded that music had no adaptive purpose in human development and pungently described it as a treat developed for the purpose of pleasure: "auditory cheesecake." I'll go with that. 

This weekend's program in the ISO's Classical Series is certainly entertaining. It can be a trap to try drawing boundaries between "profound" music and music that doesn't require either listeners or musicians to delve deep. With the buoyant guest conductor Nicholas McGegan on the Hilbert Circle Theatre podium, the invitation was to take musical nourishment lightly. That was easy to accept, with thanks. 

Kevin Lin began his ISO tenure during Covid.

There was plenty to appreciate without being dismissive of what was played. There was chiefly the opportunity to hear concertmaster Kevin Lin as a concerto soloist. The vehicle was Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 3 in G major, K. 216, one of five the maturing Austrian composer wrote in 1775, when he was 19. So happy 250th birthday to this work! The large audience could help itself to a slice of sugary exuberance, expertly played.

Lin's phrasing was sensitive to the overall shape of each movement, and he brought full value to the gorgeous tone of his borrowed Stradivarius violin (on loan from the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis). He made the most of new cadenzas written for him by ISO chief librarian James Norman, who took a bow at the end at Lin's invitation. The first-movement example was especially fascinating with its mounting elaboration and its difficulty drawing forth the soloist's top-flight virtuosity.

McGegan was a sympathetic partner in guiding the orchestra in synchronization with Lin. In the concertmaster's chair was Lin's stand partner, Peter Vickery, who thus got his own chance to shine in the showcase Tchaikovsky provides for the concertmaster in "Mozartiana," which followed intermission. And so he did: more entertainment of a high order.  

The suite as a whole was a little more loose-limbed than ideal. As much as Tchaikovsky wanted his treatment of Mozartian themes to be a fond tribute to his predecessor, there were chances for the crisper side of Tchaikovsky to show up, yet it never did. At the risk of sounding like a stout champion of the baton as a must for conductors,  I think McGegan's eloquently waving hands might have been responsible for the slight imprecision. The main thrust of the work, its amiability and decorative import, got ample representation, however.

But wait, as a late-night TV ad might say, there's more: Lin's encore, with the orchestra's help under McGegan's genial control, was the heart-melting pas de deux from the Russian composer's music for "Swan Lake." That classic ballet will have Lin and his colleagues in the pit, under the baton of Jack Everly, for Indianapolis Ballet's fully staged performance March 28 and 29 at Clowes Hall.

To open the concert, the best known of J.S. Bach's four suites for orchestra (No. 3 in D major) was played in bright, balanced fashion. The famous Air that makes up the second movement had just the right pace; its familiar beauty tempts some conductors to make it heavy and slow. The select concertino group had a clear profile in episodes that link the work to the concerto grosso form. The trumpets sounded magnificent in the outer movements. 

In short, Friday's concert was marvelous entertainment. The program will be repeated at 5:30 this afternoon.