In its chamber music textures, Shostakovich's 15th couldn’t provide greater contrast to Rachmaninov’s rainforest of notes in this Slavic double bill from Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony.
In Germany, the Christmas Oratorio is performed with the same frequency during the holiday season as Messiah in English-speaking countries. In Boston, the BSO gives its first performance!
Mahler for beginners? Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra provide exemplary clarity and understanding of structure, but don't hit one in the chest in the way the Third can.
Playing Mahler’s Third Symphony was also meant to be an homage to Leonard Bernstein, one of the great interpreters of Mahler’s music, born 100 years ago this week.
Under Andris Nelsons' baton, the musical canvas was remarkably supple with proper light shed on Puccini’s melodic inventiveness and wondrous orchestration.
At Carnegie Hall Jean-Yves Thibaudet successfully brought forward the mercurial character of Bernstein's music, while Andris Nelsons highlighted details in Shostakovich.
Andris Nelsons' Mozart–Shostakovich pairing allowed the Boston Symphony winds to take the spotlight in the first half, leaving the strings and limited percussion to their task in the second.
Concertgoers defying sub-zero temperatures in Boston were rewarded with one of the fastest Beebthoven Fifths anyone in Symphony Hall is likely to hear.
Mahler had Walter, Mitropoulos and, most importantly, Bernstein to champion him in the US. Bruckner was never as fortunate... until now. When Andris Nelsons succeeded James Levine as Music Director of the Boston Symphony, he specifically mentioned Bruckner as a composer he would program regularly, in marked contrast to his predecessor’s antipathy.
In the recently refurbished Suntory Hall, looking remarkably fresh with a newly refitted wooden stage, the Boston Symphony sounded elegant and sumptuous.
Composers from Purcell to Pierre Boulez have written incidental music. In many cases it proves far from incidental, retaining a place in the concert hall long after the play has faded into oblivion.
With Andris Nelsons' withdrawal from Bayreuth last year, the BSO’s summer home, Tanglewood, became the venue for his Wagner with a concert performance of Das Rheingold
Since the days of Charles Munch and Serge Koussevitzky, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has always excelled in rendering the characteristics of the French musical idiom.
