Review: Oregon Mozart Players’ second candidate for artistic director “comfortable in his audition”

By Daniel Buckwalter

It was an engaging evening all around.

The Oregon Mozart Players on Oct. 19 introduced David Amado — the second of three conductors in OMP’s search for a new artistic director, dubbed the Artistic Director Festival — with works by Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven in front of an appreciative audience at Central Presbyterian Church.

Pärt’s Frates was lush and prayerful, and the third movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major was lively (also featuring the expert solo play of violinist Sunmi Chang) while Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major was a spirited affair, especially its well-known third movement.

And Amado looked comfortable in his audition, which is perhaps not a surprise for someone who has been on the podium as a guest conductor of some major symphonies and served for 20 seasons as music director of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Since 2016, he has served as music director for the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in Vero Beach, Florida.

He spoke to the audience after Frates, noting that he was “bachelor number two” in OMP’s search. He then spoke easily with the audience about the pieces of Pärt, Mozart and Beethoven.

The music took center stage, though, and I was particularly struck by OMP’s sensitive play of Pärt’s Frates. There are several arrangements of the piece, and OMP chose the arrangement for percussion and strings.

As with other compositions by Pärt, an Estonian who is 89 years old, there is a layered as well as haunting and sad thread to this piece. It sounds simple, the conversation between the strings and percussion, but that conversation is penetrating because it is soft, controlled and melancholy.

It also is a wonderful piece to play in the sanctuary of a church, a spiritual composition fitting for a man who draws inspiration for his work from the Orthodox Christian church.

You can draw inspiration from well-played music by OMP again on Nov. 23 when Daniel Cho, the third and final conductor in the Artistic Director Festival, takes the podium at Central Presbyterian Church.