A galactic adventure at Tanglewood: Kazuki Yamada and The Planets

Francis Poulenc described his Gloria as a “large choral symphony” and the Boston Symphony Orchestra treated the work as such in a performance at Tanglewood under the baton of Kazuki Yamada. The BSO commissioned and premiered the piece in 1961, and it has remained in regular rotation ever since, showing off some of the outfit’s strongest features to maximum effect. In this reading, the over-achieving brass section expertly threaded Poulenc’s ever-shifting focus from the sacred to secular sound world, evoking thoughts of high mass one moment (as in Gloria in excelsis Deo) and a jazz bar the next (the bluesy opening of Domini Fili unigenite). Strings and woodwinds combined for a spritely, featherweight Laudamus te.

Yamada kept the action moving swiftly and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, prepared by James Burton, rose to their customary high standard, not daunted by Poulenc’s jaunty and somewhat angular rhythms. Debuting soprano Raquel González flaunted an attractive instrument, expressive and deep in color, although her vocal production was somewhat occluded for a solo line that cries out for a bright, penetrating tone. She struggled to phrase the long-spun “Amen” that closes Qui sedes ad dexteram patris – an uneven climax after the impressive polyphonic interplay between soloist and choir earlier in the movement.

At present, Yamada occupies the Music Directorship of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – a position once held by the BSO’s current leader, Andris Nelsons. The CBSO has been viewed for decades as a launchpad for notable conductors, and if Yamada’s bold, idiosyncratic style at Tanglewood is any indication, he’ll surely follow in the footsteps of Nelsons and the other boldface names that preceded him. In the second half of his program, he led a reading of The Planets memorable for sharp attention to detail, without skirting the mammoth nature that makes the work a perennial crowd-pleaser. His approach undoubtedly pleased those who came for thrills and chills, as well as those who view Holst’s classic as more than proto soundtrack music.

Without overdoing it, Yamada excelled in underlining the contrasts of the work’s sections, moving from an intense and rhythmically driven Mars to a tranquil and finely wrought Venus. Mercury and Jupiter both exploded with humor and energy. Tangles of strings complemented Lorna McGhee’s solo flute in Mercury, and Concertmaster Robert Cole handled solo duties with distinction. Yamada brought the orchestra’s sound down to a hush in Saturn – not an easy feat in a venue like Tanglewood – and then brought the temperature right back up for a scintillating Uranus. The sopranos and altos of the Tanglewood Festival Choir sounded appropriately otherworldly in Neptune, their wordless voices wafting in from the wings as if emissaries from a distant galaxy.