ENOX, Mass., July 6 — By all appearances, Seiji Ozawa's 29-year tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony ultimately became burdensome for everyone concerned. But no one should think that the orchestra, once relieved of that burden, will immediately blossom.
That message came through loud and clear at the opening concert of a Tanglewood season without — or almost without — Mr. Ozawa on Friday evening.
Auspices were good. The weather was glorious, as was the music: Mahler's splendid "Resurrection" Symphony, which might itself have been taken as an omen by Mr. Ozawa's many detractors.
But the performance, glibly conducted by the veteran Spanish maestro Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, was alarmingly uneven. The woodwinds and brasses, apart from being accident-prone, resisted blend. The trumpets in particular were often dismally inaccurate and wan.
To put the kindest face on it, perhaps the players lost focus during their recent Boston Pops season and two-week vacation. In addition, Mr. Frühbeck set unusual challenges with his hasty tempos. Yet one hesitates to think what may become of this band in the more than two years that it goes basically untended before James Levine arrives as music director in 2004.
Certainly, the repertory was not unfamiliar. The "Resurrection" was an Ozawa favorite throughout his tenure. Like his mentor Leonard Bernstein, he programmed it on grand occasions: after the opening of the reconstructed Carnegie Hall in 1986, for example. He last performed it at Tanglewood in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Bernstein himself gave the Tanglewood premiere in 1948.)
Mr. Frühbeck — who is also to open the orchestra's regular season in Boston in September with Verdi's Requiem — conducted the symphony from memory and with obvious command. Yet he seemed disinclined to peer beneath the surface.
The funereal opening movement seemed instead a grim and determined quick march, something more appropriate, perhaps, to the first movement of Mahler's Sixth Symphony. A languid, halting treatment of the more lyrical themes afforded both too little and too much compensation.
In like manner, the next two movements passed briskly and uneventfully.
Matters improved a bit in the fourth, a haunting song, largely because of the meticulous yet soulful work of Sara Mingardo, an Italian contralto with a dark and lovely tone. John Ferrillo's oboe solo well matched her effort.
But Ms. Mingardo lacked some of the heft needed in the great choral finale. Elizabeth Futral, on the other hand, brought a soaring sound to the soprano role, with something of a stentorian operatic quality where angelic purity was needed. Still, she deftly handled those two stunning moments where the voice emerges seamlessly from the chorus.
The saving grace, and a big one, was the work of that wonderful Tanglewood Festival Chorus, beautifully prepared, as always, by John Oliver. It contributed mightily to a spectacular ending worthy of a better performance and rang in the ears long after.
As for Mr. Ozawa, although his tenure officially runs through next month, the orchestra has already expunged his name from the listing of members and, in most instances, from its logo in the program book. The personnel roster is headed only by Mr. Levine, music director designate, and Bernard Haitink, principal guest conductor.
Be that as it may, Mr. Ozawa returns next weekend for his final concerts as music director. His parting word comes on Sunday with Beethoven's stirring Choral Fantasy, so again, Mr. Oliver's great chorus, which Mr. Ozawa used so avidly in the huge, blockbuster performances at which he excelled, is sure to mingle in the echoes.
