Itzhak Perlman joins BSO at Strathmore

No one attends an Itzhak Perlman concert expecting to hear historically informed performances of baroque and classical repertoire. True to form, the violinist delivered well-upholstered, old-school readings of the “Winter” and “Summer” concertos from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” at Strathmore Hall on Saturday, playing the solo parts and leading the Baltimore Symphony from his violin. He then conducted the orchestra in a comparably traditional rendering of Mozart’s Symphony No. 25.

Despite the reduced size of the orchestra (roughly two dozen players), string tone was silken and vibrato-rich in the Vivaldi, and Perlman’s playing possessed all its accustomed sweetness and warmth (although a handful of less-than-immaculate notes were surprising from a violinist known for flawless finish). The overall tone of the readings was decidedly beefy and larger than life, leading Perlman to have the harpsichord amplified, an unfortunate choice that resulted in a distractingly outsize keyboard part with the canned sound of a poorly amped electric guitar.

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(Akira Kinoshita/Courtesy of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) - Violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman delivered the “Winter” and “Summer” concertos from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” at Strathmore Hall on Saturday.

Players were added, and the harpsichord jettisoned, for a moderately paced, neatly proportioned performance of the Mozart work. This is a symphony that comes to fizzing life when period-instrument ensembles rip through it at lickety-split tempos. But with Perlman’s modern sonorities and comfortable, middle-of-the-road approach (and his observing of repeats in the score that stretched the music’s youthful inspiration to the breaking point), this perfectly respectable reading outstayed its welcome.

The concert concluded with Perlman conducting Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. If he found little new to say in this warhorse piece, his interpretation was poised and affectionately molded, with a balance of glowing, saturated string tone and character-rich work from the BSO’s winds.

Banno is a freelance writer.