AnnArbor.com Review of Mozart Birthday Bash

Ann Arbor Symphony pulls out all the stops for Mozart Birthday Bash


The magic that is Mozart was definitely in the air Saturday night at Hill Auditorium.
The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra offered its 14th annual Mozart Birthday Bash with an all-Mozart program capped by a stunning performance of the composer’s Requiem, his final work, with the symphony augmented by a 200-voice mixed choir and four flawless soloists.
Clearly, there’s no such thing as halfway measures for this ensemble.

The evening started out with Divertimento No. 1 for Strings in D Major, K. 136, a delightful, three-movement work characterized Saturday by extremely crisp playing. It’s hard to believe this was written essentially as background music. That was followed by the Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major with A2SO horn principal Andrew Pelletier as featured soloist. Pelletier’s performance was spot on.

The Requiem, the centerpiece of the evening, featured what seemed like a cast of thousands — vocal ensembles from Pioneer, Huron and South Lyon high schools, with singers from Measure for Measure, the Choral Union, the Vocal Arts Ensemble and Temple Beth Emeth, plus soprano Jennifer Larson, alto Sarah Nisbett, tenor John Charles Pierce and bass Stephen West as soloists. Not only did everyone look great up on stage, they sounded even better. The sheer ambitiousness of the project was admirable, and the task of getting members of all these groups to coalesce into a musical whole must have been formidable. By their sound, they were clearly well-rehearsed.


The soloists were also superb. Lawson’s rich, emotional voice, with Nisbett’s warm tone and wonderfully expressive eyes, combined perfectly with Pierce and West’s powerhouse singing. Alone, each would be impressive — together they seemed a force of nature.

Appropriately, 16 chords into the “Lacrimosa” section of Requiem, conductor Arie Lipsky stopped the show to point out that those were the final notes written by the composer before his death, then restarted the music from the beginning of the movement. The mood was such that I found myself holding my breath.

With such a large group on stage it might have been easy to overlook the musicians; however, the symphony was never overwhelmed, nor did its members seem daunted by their task. Their playing was of the quality we have some to expect from the A2SO under Lipsky’s leadership; that is, a performance of which everyone can be proud.

And speaking of the maestro, Lipsky marked his 10th year at the helm of the ensemble with Saturday’s show, and he was honored with a proclamation read by Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje. Martin Philbert, who was president of the Ann Arbor Symphony Board of Directors when Lipsky was hired, also spoke, flanked on stage by three other past presidents. He said Lipsky was chosen out of a field of 247 applicants, “many world class and some aspiring to be. But only one floated to the top.”

When it comes to birthdays such as Mr. Mozart’s, there’s no such thing as too much music.