Orchestra's summer repertoire is rolling

No sooner did the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer at the Mann Center begin this week than it came to a close, at least for now. After three concerts in Fairmount Park, the orchestra takes off today for Colorado, where it will perform six programs in 10 days at the semi-outdoor (and excessively punctuated) Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

The ensemble resumes its Mann season with six more concerts starting July 17.

On one level, summer is about unearthing revenue to satisfy a 52-week labor contract for musicians. On another, it's about important moments for the ensemble to meet constituents on their own ground - community organizations in neighborhoods as part of the orchestra's free neighborhood concert series, and the wealthiest slice of American orchestra lovers in Vail.

Artistic statements? At the Mann Center on Wednesday night, the orchestra looked into the question, if superficially, of its relationship with Mozart. For the visits to Vail, the neighborhoods, the Mann and Saratoga, there's a lot of repertoire-churning going on.

The truncated

La Bohème

heard this week at the Mann will be reprised in Vail; the Gershwin played in Verizon Hall was taken out into the scented gardens of Longwood a few nights later, and crosses the river into Camden later on. A spreadsheet is probably the best tool for keeping track of what the orchestra is playing, where and with whom.

Rossen Milanov's night with Mozart, however, stood on its own. The orchestra's associate conductor won't overwhelm you with revelations, but he provides a generally safe environment for musicians to express themselves if they're feeling inspired. Inspiration in Mozart's

Piano Concerto No. 22 in E Flat Major

, K. 482, came in the form of the soloist, Leon McCawley. You could hear the orchestra in places meeting his musicality, finding a shared philosophy rooted in a concept of refined sound.

The London-based pianist, who studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Eleanor Sokoloff, is a master of tone and articulation. He is able to connect a string of notes so that one seems to begin before the last one stops - yet each is distinct. He is unfailingly expressive, forming phrases that ask questions and making strikingly original statements.

The second movement was taken too slow to maintain momentum, especially when it morphs temporarily into a wind serenade. The recent presence of a substitute clarinetist from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made me grateful for what we have in this section the rest of the year. His sound often veers into something too hard-edged to blend.

Milanov opened the concert with a smart stroke - two bits of ballet music from Mozart's

Idomeneo

, K. 367. Violin licks ranged in quality from silken to slightly wanting in tone, but the score's exuberance emerged brilliantly.

Rather than reaching for something more unusual, Milanov brought out Mozart's

Symphony No. 41 in C Major

, K. 551, "Jupiter." I never turn up my nose at hearing this incredibly concentrated 35 minutes, but it gets an extra layer of value when the conductor has some performance philosophy beyond creating little pools of beautiful sound.

Milanov likes to slow down at the end of phrases, and he indulges in that strange tendency to go faster when the music is loud and slower when it is soft.

What the orchestra needs, it seems, is a little detox to rid itself of bad habits. Three weeks in Saratoga Springs with incoming artistic chief Charles Dutoit next month should take care of it.