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SEEN AND HEARD
INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
Nielsen, Mozart and Brahms:
Richard Goode (piano), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt,
Symphony Hall, Boston, 14.3.2009 (KH)
Nielsen:
Helios Overture, Opus 17 [FS 32]
Mozart:
Piano Concerto № 18 in B-flat Major, K.456
Brahms:
Symphony № 4 in E Minor, Opus 98
Carl Nielsen’s music is not so widely known as it deserves in the
US. (Two concertgoers seated next to me had never heard of the
composer at all.) As an undergraduate I played his Clarinet
Concerto, and it was an immediate (and enduring) favorite. The
first recordings of Nielsen I ever heard, were by Herbert Blomstedt
conducting the San Francisco Symphony.
Nielsen began composing the Helios Overture in March of 1903,
while in Athens with his sculptress wife, Ann Marie. As a
northerner who likes his occasional visit to sunnier climes, myself,
I have no difficulty imagining the inspirational effect of the
Mediterranean sun upon the Danish composer (who was possessed of
considerable facility even under normal conditions). The overture
broadly follows the sun’s journey across the sky, starting with
barely imperceptible sustained tones in the lower strings, like the
subtle increase of brightness in the sky at dawn, which one’s eye
does not mark as it happens, but perceives after a while. One by
one, the horns enter quietly, building a chord not on the
traditional interval of the third, but on the perfect fourth. The
first of the upper winds to come in is the solo oboe (m. 27). As
Nielsen wrote it, it is a great gift to an oboist and Mr Wakao
(assistant principal) played with an especial sweetness. All of the
winds were in characteristically fine form. The strings were crisp
and athletic in their fugato at the start of the development. The
whole piece has an ebullience testifying to its birth in the lap of
Athena, and the orchestra brought out all its splendid joy.
Mr Goode played a most affable Mozart concerto (K.456, one of five
which he wrote in the key of B-flat) with a combination of grace,
drive and a surety of attack which projected very well in the Hall.
(And for the Mozart, Blomstedt set down the baton and conducted
simply with his hands.)
Every music-lover has a number of pieces (many of them standard rep)
which he loves, which he has heard many times because he loves them,
and which he continues to love even after hearing them many times.
Sometimes, you dread hearing the piece live, for fear the
performance will not live up to the best, or even up to a ‘range’ of
excellence.
Heaven (along with the BSO archivists) knows how many times the
Brahms Fourth has rung out in Symphony Hall, but there was nothing
even remotely business-as-usual in the tone of Saturday’s
performance. Under Blomstedt’s direction, the Boston band played
the E Minor symphony with a freshness and vitality which were
infectious. The orchestra have been playing well of late, but the
brilliance in the Brahms was astonishing. The Andante moderato
(second movement, for which again the conductor set the baton down
to conduct ‘manually’) had an especially lustrous warmth; and the
Allegro giocoso (third movement) bristled with a joyous energy.
The whole was, without exaggeration, the most exciting performance
of a Brahms symphony this reviewer has witnessed.
It was a great pleasure to learn that Blomstedt would be coming to
Boston. And it was a surprise to learn that he had made his Boston
Symphony subscription series debut only in 2004 (he had conducted
the BSO in their summer series at Tanglewood in 1980). The
music-making at Symphony this Saturday was nothing short of
electrifying; the orchestra responded with both an immediacy and an
additional brilliance which is not always the case with a guest.
The oftener Blomstedt visits Boston, the better we shall like it.
Karl Henning
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