By Eileen Wingard
LA JOLLA, California — Assistant Conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO), Robert Zelickman, opened the matinee All-Mozart Concert at the Garfield Theater of the Lawrence Family JCC Sunday, Nov. 24, conducting, the Overture to “The Impresario,” one of Mozart’s comic operas in which a director is auditioning two singers for a role and each is trying to outdo the other. The wave after wave of sequences in the rapid-fire overture reflected that competition. Zelickman sustained the orchestral energy of the overture throughout the five-minute work.
This was followed by Mozart’s Symphony #35, the Haffner Symphony, one of the composer’s most familiar symphonies, this time, with TICO’s founder and director, David Amos on the podium.
Written when Mozart was 26 years old and commissioned by the Haffner family, the opening movement’s first clarion unison calls came through with precision, before launching into the first movement’s sonata-allegro form. The seven first violins and six second violins held their own in the many challenging, exposed passages.
The second movement, Andante, provided a relaxing contrast to the outer movements. The third movement Menuetto, in triple time, was well-defined by Director Amos and the Finale, Presto was taken and sustained at a surprisingly fast clip for this non-professional orchestra.
When movements ended, the sizable audience knew to hold its applause until after the final movement, a sign of sophisticated listeners, accustomed to attending classical music concerts.
After intermission, pianist Sonya Schumann was the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K488. This concerto is scored for a reduced orchestra of flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.
Schumann’s delicate, introspective playing reminded me of my violin teacher’s words when I was studying a Mozart violin concerto while a Fulbright Scholar at the Hochschule fur Musik in Stuttgart, Germany. He instructed me to play “MoZARTLICH.” The word, ZART, in German means “gentle, delicate, tender.” Her playing was not only transparent and precise, but it had the introspective tenderness required for this great composer, especially in the second movement’s Adagio.
Schumann also infused the last movement’s rollicking rondo theme with energetic verve. TICO’s principal flute and two clarinets as well as the bassoons and horns contributed beautifully to the success of this performance, once again, under the direction of David Amos, who reminded the audience that this was TICO’s 51st season and the orchestra and its conductors were all dedicated volunteers.
Sonya Schumann has been a pianist on the music faculty of San Diego State University since 2019. She also serves as Coordinator of the Piano Academy of the Community Music School. She received her BA from the University of South Carolina and her Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. Her local piano engagements have included the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart.
Last season, one of her students was featured as a soloist with TICO.
TICO’s next concert at the Lawrence Family JCC will take place on January 26, 2025 and will feature Beethoven’ Symphony #5 and soloist Pepe Romero with music for guitar and orchestra.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.