Palo Alto Philharmonic puts on a great show

The highlight of this program was Richard Strauss’ brief and rarely-heard Serenade for wind ensemble. This is a very early work, written when the composer was 16 and still trying to emulate Schubert and Mendelssohn rather than Wagner. The Philharmonic winds gave a skilled and charming performance. The music was tuneful and winsome, not a status this piece always achieves. The sound was strong without being overpowering, with woodwinds and French horns in excellent balance.

To match the all-winds work came an all-strings work, the Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3 by Ottorino Respighi. Despite its sorrowful tones and slow tempos, this suite of rewritten 16th and 17th century lute pieces came out as catchy and vigorous. The intricacy of the string lines, pointed out by Webber in speaking before the music, was a conspicuous delight.

The entire orchestra came together for Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” This music was written as a present for his new wife, Cosima. Wagner secretly assembled the musicians on the landing outside her bedroom to awaken her with this gentle, gradually lush serenade on Christmas morning, which was also the day after her birthday. The Philharmonic played the strings-only opening of the work with the original chamber instrumentation of a string quartet, switching to full orchestra when the winds come in. The orchestra was still a small one, though, 26 players in all, which made it all the more impressive when the climaxes near the end gave the rich atmosphere of a full Wagner opera, such as “Siegfried,” which borrowed material from its namesake Idyll.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A was the large piece completing the concert. This was one of Mozart’s first true masterpieces, written when he was 18. It is written for strings with pairs of oboes and French horns, typical instrumentation for an 18th century symphony. The symphony begins with a repetitious motive that’s then repeated twice, raising it one step of the scale each time. This is a procedure that would be dull in another composer’s hands but it’s beautiful and infectious because it’s Mozart. The whole symphony is full of bits like this, all wonderful. It too received a joyous and well-balanced performance, catchy and invigorating.

Palo Alto Philharmonic has an impressive season set before it. The orchestra is hoping to play Brahms’ large and pastorally attractive Symphony No. 2 in February, if it can book a hall large enough for the full ensemble necessary to play it. In April, a concert will feature a new concerto for two flutes by house composer (and viola player in the orchestra) Lee Actor. Orchestra flutist Natalie Haworth-Liu and Chamber Music Silicon Valley director Ray Furuta will be the soloists.

In May, the orchestra will feature the winners of its Concerto Movement Competition. Five young soloists on piano, cello or violin will each play a movement from a famous concerto by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff or Schumann.