Polished sheen: Boston strings impress in Strauss

Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall

By Mark Pullinger, 26 August 2023

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“not a hair was out of place, every chord was carefully balanced”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 25 August 2023

Adolphe, Makeshift Castle (European premiere)

Strauss R., Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op.24

Prokofiev, Symphony no. 5 in B flat major, Op.100

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Andris Nelsons, Conductor

A Evgeny Kissin tour de force in Boston

Kevin Wells, 25th April

Andrey Boreyko makes an impressive debut with the Boston Symphony, where Evgeny Kissin performs in not one, but two piano concertos.

****1

Andris Nelsons and the BSO arrive in New York, with baggage in tow

Cameron Kelsall, 9th April

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

***11

Herbert Blomstedt conducts Brahms with the Boston Symphony

Kevin Wells, 5th March

Herbert Blomstedt demonstrates the “singability” of Brahms in his latest appearance with the Boston Symphony, concluding with the autumnal glow of the Fourth Symphony.

*****

An earthbound Missa Solemnis from Boston Symphony Orchestra

Cameron Kelsall, 11th October

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of Symphony Hall, Andris Nelsons returns to the work that opened the venue on 15th October 1900.

***11

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony perform Debussy and Mahler

Kevin Wells, 4th October

Andris Nelsons celebrates Symphony Hall’s 125th anniversary with two works contemporaneous to the hall’s first season: Debussy’s Nocturnes and Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 (both premiered in 1901).

***11

As usual, Beethoven ushers out the BSO season at Tanglewood

Cameron Kelsall, 24th August

The season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony loses its intended conductor but remains enjoyable, if somewhat under-rehearsed.

***11

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Polished sheen as the Boston Symphony strings impress in Strauss