Rising from the ashes: Fazıl Say’s Phoenix at Tanglewood

Andris Nelsons, Lucas and Arthur Jussen

Ying Fang, Andris Nelsons, Shenyang and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and BSO

By Kevin Wells, 20 July 2022

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“the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was at the top of its game singing with wall-of-sound power”

Reviewed at Tanglewood, Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox on 17 July 2022

Say, Phoenix (Anka Kuşu), for piano four-hands and orchestra (US premiere)

Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op.45

Arthur Jussen, Piano

Lucas Jussen, Piano

Ying Fang, Soprano

Shenyang, Bass-baritone

Tanglewood Festival Chorus

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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Kevin Wells

Kevin Wells was bitten by the opera bug at 10, having heard a 1936 recording of Jussi Björling singing “Che gelida manina”. He has never been the same since. A student of voice, performance practice, the history of singing and opera, he holds advanced degrees in Italian and has lived and worked in Italy off and on since the 70s. La Scala became a second home as the Met had been during college daze. Now in his native Boston, he works as translator, tutor, and language coach, haunts Symphony Hall, and would haunt the Opera House had it not been demolished in 1958!

Rising from the ashes: Fazıl Say’s Phoenix and Brahms’ German Requiem at Tanglewood