Boston Symphony Orchestra Presents the Cello at Its Finest

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 18 May 2023 15:13

Written by Jack Angstreich

Boston Symphony Orchestra photo by Fadi Kheir

At Carnegie Hall, on the evenings of Monday and Tuesday, April 24th and 25th, I had the pleasure of attending two outstanding concerts presented by the excellent Boston Symphony Orchestra under the distinguished direction of Andris Nelsons.

The first program opened splendidly with a superb reading of Maurice Ravel’s exquisite Alborada del gracioso. The celebrated soloist, Gautier Capuçon, then entered the stage for an admirable performance of the New York premiere of Thierry Escaich’s compelling, impressively scored Les chants de l’aube for Cello and Orchestra, which was composed this year on a co-commission from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and this ensemble (who have “an ongoing partnership”). Robert Kirzinger, in his note for the program, reports that:

With his new cello concerto, Escaich now has an association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) as both composer and performer: He made his BSO debut as an organist in January 2020, performing Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Timpani, and Strings under Alain Altinoglu’s direction at Symphony Hall.

And:

He wrote his concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra Miroir d’ombres for the brothers Renaud (violin) and Gautier (cello) Capuçon, who premiered the piece with Orchestre national de Lille in Belgium in 2006. That concerto led to commissions for solo concertos for both Renaud and Gautier, both of whom Escaich has known for many years through the Paris Conservatoire. The concerto for Renaud was written first but will receive its premiere in 2024.

The second half of the event was at least equally remarkable, a marvelous account of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s extraordinary Symphony No. 2. The initial movement’s introductory Largo conveys a longing that intensifies in the powerful Allegro moderato that constitutes its main body. The ensuing Allegro molto is exciting—indeed, at times even manic—although with more measured, moody, song-like passages, and ends quietly. The unabashedly lyrical Adagio is rapturously beautiful, a summit of musical Romanticism and the more variegated finale—marked Allegro vivace—is dynamic, even rambunctious.

The following evening’s concert was as memorable, beginning with a sterling rendition of the lovely, rarely heard Luonnotar of Jean Sibelius, featuring the wonderful soprano, Golda Schultz. Renowned soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter then joined the artists for a fine realization of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s charming, too infrequently played Violin Concerto No. 1. The opening Allegro moderato is effervescent but with serious moments while the Adagio possesses the elevated quality so characteristic of the composer’s enchanting slow movements and the concludingPrestois exultant and propulsive.

The closing half of the event was also brilliant. The violinist returned for a luminous version of the New York premiere of Thomas Adès’s striking Air (Homage to Sibelius), co-commissioned by Roche (as part of Roche Commissions for Lucerne Festival), Mutter, Carnegie Hall and this ensemble. About the work the composer has written that it is:

...actually an enormous canon or a series of canons at the 10th. They rise and at the same time descend, so that with so many modulations you end up arriving again at the point where you started, but transformed into something else. Anne-Sophie’s part is the freest agent within this mix.

The highlight of the concert, however, was a magnificent iteration of Sibelius’s stunning Symphony No. 5. The evocative and mysterious first movement has moments of austere grandeur, building to a thrilling finish and the succeeding Andante mosso, quasi allegretto is dance-like in rhythm and faintly pastoral in character. The finale opens suspensefully and soars majestically; after an enigmatic section the music slowly moves to an astonishing climax.

The artists were enthusiastically applauded on both nights.

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