Chamber Orchestra: Brossé, Beethoven and Gatto

Dirk Brossé has included his own compositions on his programs ever since he became music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2009. This could have been a recipe for disaster, but he's done it now for two seasons and he hasn't produced a clunker yet. All of Brossé's pieces have been well crafted and enjoyable.

Brossé opened the first concert of his third season with a piece he composed in 2003, under a commission from the government of his native Belgium to celebrate the tenth anniversary of King Albert II's ascension to the throne. In his opening remarks, Brossé seemed a bit embarrassed by the fact that Belgium has a king, but he shouldn't be. A constitutional monarchy like Belgium's can be a useful institution.

Sire even takes on some depth when you note that King Albert II was born in 1934 and spent much of his childhood coping with the upheavals of the Second World War. It's a beautiful piece, with a touching opening violin solo for the concertmaster, and it ends on a measured note of triumph suitable for an institution that represents national continuity.

Woodwind showcase

Brossé followed his pièce d'occasion with Haydn's 96th essay into the symphonic form. The opening sounded a bit too grandiose for my taste, but overall Brossé gave it a lively, well-proportioned reading.

Haydn's 96th Symphony showcases the woodwinds. Nicholas Masterson distinguished himself in the important oboe solo in the first movement and joined first flute Edward Schultz and first bassoon Michelle Rosen in the big cadenza at the end of the second movement as well as the trio in the minuet movement.

American debut

The guest soloist provided the pièce de resistance that ended the afternoon. Lorenzo Gatto has been winning plaudits from European audiences since he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory in 1998, at the age of 12, but this was his first appearance with an American orchestra.

Gatto is a violinist in the grand tradition, but he never lets his mastery of the flashy stuff overpower the taste and musical sensitivity that he brought to the Beethoven violin concerto. At many moments in the concerto the soloist must shift between jagged passion and lyrical sweetness; Gatto always produced a perfectly executed fade.

Beethoven's violin concerto ranges from the dramatic to the solemn, and Gatto handled all of it with grace and understanding. He even proved he can produce one of the most difficult effects in the violinist's repertoire and create the illusion that he's playing two instruments at once.

Wartime heroine

The concerto's orchestral parts contain some of the most beautiful melodies that Beethoven ever composed, and the Chamber Orchestra players gave them the treatment they deserve. Overall, this was one of the most memorable performances of the concerto that I've heard.

Gatto's appearance connected the end of the concert with the beginning. Brossé's piece begins with a violin solo as a reference to King Albert's strong relationship with his grandmother, an amateur violinist who founded the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition, which Gatto won in 2009.

She also happens to be the Queen Elizabeth who gained international renown for her actions during World War I and who received recognition from the Israeli government for her efforts to save Jewish children during World War II. That doesn't have anything to do with music, but it may be worth a mention anyway.