MUSIC REVIEW: BSO at Tanglewood Aug. 6-8

TANGLEWOOD
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
AUG. 6-8, 2010

 

Review by Clarence Fanto

 

(LENOX, Mass., Aug. 8, 2010) — Perhaps the Boston Symphony is out to prove something this season at Tanglewood. Despite the absence of its greatly-missed captain, music director James Levine, the orchestra is performing at a consistently high level. With only a few exceptions, concerts have been consistently rewarding and though all sections share the credit, the brass players deserve special mention for precise, exciting playing that adds an extra dimension to each performance.

 

That said, much credit also goes to the guest conductors and the last-minute substitutes recruited by management as well as an array of top-flight instrumental soloists and singers.

 

This past weekend typifies the season's impressive standards. A veteran maestro, now 82, inspiring the orchestra to dynamic, interpretively profound heights even in standard repertoire.  A young assistant conductor who's bound for glory unless discrimination against women on the podium thwarts her ascension to the podium of an important orchestra. And three soloists who are either top-ranked or heading in that direction.

 

On Saturday evening, Korean-born Shi-Yeon Sung bade farewell to the BSO as her three-year term as one of two understudies to the music director expires. Because of Levine's many infirmities and missed appearances during that time, her opportunities have exceeded the average for an assistant conductor.

 

The players respond well to her clear leadership and assured baton technique. Her penchant for a wide dynamic range and desire to push the envelope on tempo markings, whether slow or fast, was on display in Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (the original 1919 version), a vivid performance that captured the fiery, colorful character of the ballet score. A similar approach had informed her reading of the curtain-raiser, the brief Act 3 prelude to Wagner's Lohengrin.

 

In between, Sung demonstrated a keen ability to match the orchestral accompaniment to soloists' proclivities. At 30, violinist Hilary Hahn remains a compelling performer, just as she was as a teen prodigy. She negotiated the peaks and valleys of Sibelius's challenging Violin Concerto with aplomb, especially in the outer movements where her extraordinary technique easily rose to the occasion.

 

A failed violinist who mourned his inability to master the instrument, Sibelius may have been trying to punish those who achieved success and dared to traverse his half-hour obstacle course. The bittersweet slow movement, containing perhaps his most romantic lyric passages, is one of the greatest rewards of this fine score.

 

Hahn eschews sentimentality, refusing to linger over the most delicate moments, and this style of playing (a direct descendant of Jascha Heifetz's fire-and ice approach) may seem devoid of feeling. But her jaunty romp through the finale, which she has compared to rock 'n roll and British musicologist Sir Donald Tovey has likened to a "polonaise for polar bears," triggered a prolonged ovation that rewarded listeners with a moving encore, the Sarabande from Bach's Violin Partita No. 2.

 

Copland's atmospheric Quiet City gave BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs and English horn Robert Sheena a spotlight to demonstrate their flawless technique and sensitive interpretive skills. Sung — who now returns to her home in Berlin to pursue conducting opportunities in Europe — matched them with a haunting and poignant interpretation that also served to showcase the string section.

 

Among the great old masters of the baton, Christoph von Dohnanyi, now 82, seems only to ripen with age. His Friday night performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, the Pathetique, pulled out all the stops but never approached coarse emotionality. The first and third movements were filled with tightly coiled energy and high-wire tension; the waltz-like second-movement was balletic and graceful and the triumphant third-movement march yielded some of the BSO's most thrilling playing of the season — with special kudos to principal timpanist Timothy Genis.

 

After a buoyant performance of Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture as the evening's opener, the occasionally ingratiating Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14 sounded curiously understated in a rather charmless performance by the normally reliable Richard Goode. Less technically assured than his usual high standard, Goode seemed to be having a rare off-night.

 

Sunday's matinee introduced the young German violinist Arabella Steinbacher to Tanglewood audiences; her calling card was the iconic Beethoven Violin Concerto, with magisterial backing from Dohnanyi. Steinbacher's style, the polar opposite of Hahn's, is notable for warmth, creamy tone and remarkable technical skill — her first and third movement cadenzas were stunning and her overall approach to this oft-played concerto reflected a fiery temperament that stood in fascinating contrast to Hahn's cool, at times detached, playing.

 

Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 has become a perennial favorite in recent years; Dohnanyi emphasized the bumptious Czech rhythms of this bucolic, rustic work but there was no lack of grace and many scintillating turns of musical phrase. The brass, strings, winds and timpani all blended in a rousing conclusion to a BSO weekend that featured performances at genuine festival level, a tribute to  Levine's commanding leadership over the past seven years.

 

 

  

Clarence Fanto reviews music for Berkshireliving.com and is a contributing editor to Berkshire Living.