"this performance ... was vivid, brilliant, breathtaking"

Dec. 3, 2005 performance reviewed by Karl Henning.

Even in the context of this gala 125th season, the recent BSO concert was a special event. It was a dazzling reminder that it is not simply (simply!) that the Boston Symphony has been a sine qua non for Boston's musical life for a century and a quarter; but that the history of the BSO is intimately bound together with that of the great creators of music throughout the twentieth century.

For this program featured four pieces commissioned specifically by the BSO, four masterpieces themselves spanning 72 years - major works by four composers whose collective stylistic breadth made Saturday's program a Concise Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Music.

James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra
photo: Michael Lutch

And a musically demanding concert it was, too; Levine and the Symphony have much to pride themselves in from this recent performance, and not only frp, the rich history in which it is their privilege to bask.

The Dutilleux Symphony No. 2, "Le Double" (first performed 11 Dec 59) was the piece on the program newest to this listener. The orchestra played this with a conviction and clarity which begged the question, Why is this piece not Standard Rep? I should group Dutilleux together with Boulez and Messiaen, not because of any similarity in musical surface (there isn't, much) but in each finding personal integrity in discovering a manner of music which springs from Debussy, remains French in character, and yet absorbs the lessons of that musically wild era, the mid-twentieth century. There were deliciously voiced harmonies, wonderful textural games played between the large orchestra and the twelve soloists (who immediately surrounded the conductor), and a connected line of narration. A great piece, the "sleeper" on a program chock full of celebrated compositions.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
James Levine, conducting

Dutilleux, Symphony No. 2, Le Double
Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms
Carter, Boston Concerto
Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra

After the Dutilleux, the Stravinsky was an expert contrast, something a touch austere, though like Handel, more monumental perhaps than immediate in emotional impact. One immediate delight, though, was to hear how expertly the Tanglewood Festival Chorus were prepared in this work, which is not so easy to sing as an accomplished performance may lead the casual listener to imagine. In a perfect world, I might wish that the marvelous coda to the third movement had been at a somewhat broader tempo, in line with the composer's 1948 revision; but this performance was nonetheless glorious, and it gives one goosebumps to hear this piece in Symphony Hall, and reflect that this is the orchestra which asked Stravinsky to write this piece.

Elliott Carter is a marvel: the fellow just keeps writing. In some musical circles, the mere mention of his name can have an effect not unlike the reaction to be observed of goldfish, if you were to drive an SUV into their aquarium. But I really enjoyed the Boston Concerto, whose formal outlines struck my ear as a good deal plainer than that of some other recent works of his. Another dimension, to even a greater degree than the other pieces on the program, is the sheer delight in beholding so fine an orchestra as we have in Boston, negotiating such a challenging score not merely capably, but musically.

And again, a more striking juxtaposition than the Bartók following the Carter could hardly be imagined. Special essays in the program leaflet by Steven Ledbetter and BSO bass trombonist Doug Yeo illuminated by turns the larger benefit of the musical world in Bartók's return to composition prompted by Koussevitsky's commission, and one very practical problem which sprang from the kind of instruments Bartók had been accustomed to write for.

As fine as the music-making was in the preceding three pieces, and notwithstanding the demands such a full program made on the players, the BSO truly saved the best for last; for this performance of the Concerto for Orchestra was vivid, brilliant, breathtaking.

If the BSO commissions four such musical works over the next 72 years, the city of Boston will be the envy of the world.