{"id":43461,"date":"2017-03-06T16:47:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T21:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43461"},"modified":"2017-03-06T16:47:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T21:47:30","slug":"scrutiny-a-distinctively-boston-berlioz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/06\/scrutiny-a-distinctively-boston-berlioz\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | A Distinctively Boston Berlioz In The Big Smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conductor
Conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra make memories at Roy Thomson Hall (Photo: Marco Borggreve)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boston Symphony Orchestra with\u00a0Andris Nelsons (conductor),\u00a0Emanuel Ax (soloist). At Roy Thomson Hall. March 5.<\/h3>\n

Playing standards are up everywhere, making ensembles more uniform in style and quality. Maybe. A concert on Sunday at Roy Thomson Hall by the Boston Symphony Orchestra argued for the persistence of an elite, at least when a conductor of the calibre of Andris Nelsons is on the podium.<\/p>\n

The main item was Berlioz\u2019s Symphonie fantastique, a landmark of first-person romanticism and a thesaurus of orchestral sonority that remains striking in its originality. Nelsons and the Bostonians gave us a splendidly wide array of moods and colours by observing Berlioz\u2019s expressive instructions and perhaps adding a few of their own.<\/p>\n

Seldom have we heard more eccentric stretching in the opening movement, yet all the twists and turns heightened suspense, while the sheer beauty of string sound held the ear at bay. A conductor of wide reach and calisthenic ups and downs, Nelsons seemed to keep both orchestra and audience on tenterhooks in passages leading to a sudden transition or change of tempo.<\/p>\n

The opening of the waltz, with harps and lower strings emerging from the ether, was magical; while the Scene in the Country transported us to another realm. Even the quiet tremolo of the violas that underscores the pastoral dialogue of the English horn and oboe was remarkable for its purity, as if every rank of the section was peopled by first-deskers.<\/p>\n

In this movement, we could admire Nelsons\u2019s ability to shape lyrical melody with the left hand while maintaining a clear beat with the right. Backstage timpani created a remarkably spacious effect. Lower-brass growls in the March to the Scaffold were as vivid as could be imagined, as were the bow-taps of the Witches\u2019 Sabbath. This supremely inventive finale emerged rightly as a wild amalgam of the manic and comic.<\/p>\n

Whether amused or frightened by those ferocious Dies Irae chants, the crowd, substantial but not quite full, responded warmly. Nothing less than excellence would do, since this was a brief program, opening with Beethoven\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 2 in a generally satisfying performance by Emanuel Ax. The cadenza Beethoven wrote later in an advanced style was a sequence of special interest, and the Adagio had its beauties, if not quite the otherworldly quality I was hoping for.<\/p>\n

The orchestra was somewhat scaled down, but those strings remained dominant. The small but vital wind complement scarcely made a dent. After some charming (though surely unnecessary) onstage debate with Nelsons, Ax played a solo encore, Chopin\u2019s Impromptu No. 1 in A Flat Major, beautiful throughout but admirable especially for its understated coda.<\/p>\n

This afternoon concert represented Nelsons\u2019s second performance in Canada, the first having taken place the night before in Montreal. A quick turnaround for these players! Bravo to Roy Thomson Hall for making it happen.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Symphony Orchestra keeps the audience on tenterhooks with Berlioz\u2019s Symphonie fantastique at Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":43462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,76,19,52,60,63],"tags":[5382],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/andris-nelsons-bso.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-biZ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43467,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43461\/revisions\/43467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43461"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}