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Nov. 13--If Ludovic Morlot isn't careful, he will forever be stuck with the label "prince of the substitute conductors."
Friday night at Symphony Center, the talented and upwardly mobile young French conductor added the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the growing list of major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony, he has bailed out this year when other conductors have canceled their engagements on short notice.
Morlot, 32, who is the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony, was making his CSO subscription-series debut, replacing the flu-plagued Riccardo Muti. One's disappointment over the loss of Muti was offset somewhat by Morlot's capable showing, which confirmed the positive impression he left a year ago when he led a CSO MusicNOW concert.
The remarkably boyish-looking Morlot has this slouchy adolescent carriage when he takes the stage but finds his spine on the podium. He did so in Schumann's "Manfred" Overture, whose Byronic Sturm und Drang was projected with exceptional feeling and clarity.
Much the same gift for elucidating orchestral textures told in his crisp accompaniment to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C (K.467), using a chamber-size orchestra.
Local listeners long accustomed to Daniel Barenboim's unabashedly romantic approach had to regard soloist Jonathan Biss' view as either a bracing corrective or affected purism. I found the performance frustrating: fastidiously well played but so reserved as to lack color, drama and a sense of spontaneous unfolding.
This was dainty, walking-on-eggshells Mozart that strove to apply period-instrument manners to modern performance. Biss' legato playing was a marvel. In the opening movement, he found the right weight and balance for every chord, run and flourish. So far, so stylish.
Doubts crept in with the central Andante (the so-called "Elvira Madigan" movement): so hushed that one had to strain to hear it. What was meant as a delicate and tender reverie came off as merely effete.
The finale, marked Allegro vivace assai (fast, very vivacious) emerged as a breathless Presto, flawless in execution but too rushed to allow anybody to savor the music's joie de vivre. When I wish to hear this gifted pianist at his considerable best, I'll turn to his EMI debut disc of Schumann and Beethoven, or, better still, a stunning all-Schumann recital, due out shortly.
The real litmus test of Morlot's podium abilities was Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Many a reading of this big Russian warhorse has been ruined by overkill. But Morlot steered a secure balance between drama and decibels, brilliance and bombast. Everything was lucid and admirably organized.
The only time when the music's expressive urgency was quashed was in the indulgently slow "tempo di valse" portion of the opening movement.
jvonrhein@tribune.com
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