Al-Bustan, Lebanon's wintertime classical music festival, commenced on a melodic note Tuesday evening. Viennese conductor Karl Sollak led the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) through a concert of light classics and show tunes ranging from Mozart to Rogers and Hammerstein.
Periodically swapping his baton for a microphone, Sollak proved as genial a master of ceremonies as he is an energetic conductor, and he introduced his peripatetic program as an appropriate one for a festival whose 2008 motto is "Music Beyond Borders."
For those who look to Al-Bustan to fill Lebanon's ration of pleasant, inoffensive, somewhat old music, Tuesday evening's show was just the thing.
After a round of the Lebanese national anthem, Sollak launched the LNSO into a spirited rendition of the overture to George Bizet ‘s. (…)
After the brief formality of leaving the stage, Sollak and Yunus returned for a much-appreciated encore. For this purpose, Johann and Joseph Strauss' “Pizzicato Polca” was followed by the night's final show-stopping Italianate aria.

Pari tenu, pari gagné : donner de la joie, grâce à la musique, au public du Festival al-Bustan qui vient d’ouvrir toutes grandes ses portes. C’est devant un public sélect que la cantatrice Monica Yunus, accompagnée du maestro viennois Karl Sollak qui dirige l’Orchestre symphonique national libanais, au meilleur de sa forme sous sa vigilante houlette, a offert un programme tout en teintes gaies et pastel parlant d’amour, de rêves heureux, de liberté, de volonté de vivre…
Dans un panaché d’arias bel cantistes, modernes, classiques et romantiques, et un bouquet d’ouvertures célèbres, les musiciens sur scène ont fait miroiter toute la foisonnante magie d’un voyage sonore aux multiples facettes. Un voyage toutefois bien sage, sans éclat particulier ou virtuosité fracassante…(…)
Tonnerre d’applaudissements pour cette joyeuse virée d’une farfelue randonnée sans frontières…

Assuring idiomatic authenticity on the podium was the Vienna-born maestro Karl Sollak. He had chosen the all-new program with the same sort of loving attention to detail that marked his conducting. His spoken introductions were in much the same spirit, classy and informative without patronizing the crowd. That's important in concerts of this type, which must work harder to charm listeners who cannot claim the waltzes and polkas of Johann Strauss Jr. with anything like the proprietary affection of the ineluctably nostalgic Viennese.
Of course, it helped enormously that the orchestra—most of whose players are members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra—could absorb so much unfamiliar music in only two rehearsals. These highly adaptable musicians took well to the easy elegance, fluidity and sensitivity of Sollak's conducting. He, in turn, had them speaking the distinctive Viennese musical dialect fluently enough to fool a native.

I found these performances superior to those by the Vienna Symphony, no less, last fall. Much of this owes to the orchestra's (to all intents and purposes the Lyric Opera Orchestra) remarkable ability to absorb unfamiliar music in a bare minimum of rehearsal time.
But the major credit must go to Karl Sollak, the Vienna-born conductor who taught these players to speak musical Viennese with an accent almost as authentic as his own. Why this superbly gifted young maestro has yet to achieve a podium career in America comparable to what he has achieved in Vienna and other European cities is a mystery. His conducting had both elegance and grace, with a light touch that complemented the relaxed, genial remarks he offered from the podium.
Sollak is a master of those subtle inflections of phrasing and rhythm that together produce what is generally considered to be Viennese style; he conducts them like the miniature masterpieces of Viennese dance music that they are.

His pacing was superbly varied according to the mood of the waltzes, with impressively handled transitions. Polkas were sprightly without being rushed. In fact, Sollak's interpretations were superior to those of Seiji Ozawa, who led the Vienna Philharmonic on this year's televised concert.