New York Classical Review

Arguments over the classical canon boil down to how the output of a relatively small group of common practice period composers dominates concert programs. The canon shoves a lot of great music to the margins where it might be recorded but is rarely heard live, and it’s worth pushing a great deal of that music back toward the center. 

Thursday nigh in Alice Tully Hall, the American Classical Orchestra and conductor Thomas Crawford did just that, with the United States premiere of a 180-year-old symphony.

The ACO is a fine, period performance orchestra, so they start with one advantage—the early music/period performance practice movement has long been exploring under known names and bringing worthwhile music to light. 

Such is the case with Swedish composer Franz Berwald (1796-1868). Berwald was the leading Scandinavian composer of the 19th century, and his legacy has survived there and is preserved on a number of recordings of his four symphonies. His Symphony No. 2, which the ACO played in between Weber’s Overture to Oberon and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, was also obscure for most of the 19th century as the score was lost and it had to be reconstructed from a short score in the early 20th century.

Still, this was far more than a mere historical curiosity but a chance to hear one of the most individual voices of the common practice period. That alone was an enormous draw on s stormy night. The hall felt, perhaps, too safe and sheltered at the start of the evening, as after a lovely opening line from hornist R. J. Kelley, the opening slow section of Oberon was sluggish and a little sloppy, as if the musicians didn’t yet have their full focus. The main, faster section seemed to snap them together, as if they had to get all those runs right or be left behind, but when not at a high tempo, the playing came off as lackadaisical.

Between this and the Berwald symphony, Crawford did his usual thing of both entertaining and enlightening the audience by introducing important themes from both the Berwarld and Beethoven symphonies. His deceptively nonchalant manner appeals across the spectrum from neophytes to connoisseurs. 

Then the start of the Berwald symphony had some of the same sluggishness as the overture. After the slow introduction, the orchestra gradually shrugged this off. One is used to hear a lot of vitality in rhythms and accents from period performance groups, and while it took a little while for the ACO to sharpen these, in the end this was a fine, satisfying performance.

Berwald turned conventional structure inside out, taking thematic development and sonata form and rearranging them with a personal, though solid, logic. With a ton of lyricism and expression, he’s the link between Schumann and Bruckner, and his music has a sense of character that’s nearly unrivaled in the classical repertoire. Crawford and the ACO brought this out with a good, quick tempo in the opening Allegro, which emphasized Berwald’s invigorating willfulness.

The middle Andante moment was a sublime performance, each thematic section softly glowing and set in place before moving on to the next—this is a proto-Brucknerian Adagio. The performance was so fine it triggered spontaneous applause from the audience. The third-movement finale was full of energy and spirit, the orchestra absolutely at its best focus. One heard what made Berwald so worth hearing,

After intermission, the Beethoven symphony performance was even finer. Crawford’s remarks hinted as his admiration for the piece, and it truly is one of Beethoven’s finest symphonies, even if it’s overshadowed by the more canonic Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth. It’s more Mozartian than the Third, while still full of Beethoven’s personality via his fantastic harmonic and rhythmic tension.

The ACO tackled this with a wonderful sound in the slow introduction. They are more colorful and warmer than many period instrument orchestras, and Crawford never tries to make clinical arguments with things like tempo, always focusing on the flow of the music. That made for an excellent performance, again full of spirit and rhythmically alert in the subtly complex passages of the first movement and the scherzo. In the final bars, Crawford milked the slow setup to the last phrase with a teasing pause, then it was done.

The American Classical Orchestra performs Bach motets and cantatas, 7:30 p.m., February 3, 2027. aconyc.org