Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
July 26, 2019
by Michael J. Moran
Before spending the rest of the weekend with the Tanglewood
Music Center Orchestra for a complete performance of Wagner’s “Die Walkure”
spread over three concerts, Music Director Andris Nelsons led the BSO on a
gorgeous Berkshire Friday evening in a varied program of little heard music by
three other composers.
It opened with Shostakovich’s second symphony, “To October,”
commissioned by the Soviet government in 1927 to commemorate the tenth
anniversary of the “October Revolution.” Reflecting the state’s openness under
Lenin to experimentation in the arts, the first of the twenty-minute piece’s
two movements begins, in Harlow Robinson’s words, with “a riot of conflicting
rhythmic patterns, building to a cacophonic din.” The second movement features
a chorus singing proletarian verses by Alexander Bezymensky and shouting
“October, Commune, Lenin” at the end. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus, prepared
by their conductor, James Burton, were spirited and rousing, with colorful
backing from Nelsons and the BSO.
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| Paul Lewis |
English pianist Paul Lewis, a frequent guest at Tanglewood
since his BSO debut in 2012, next played Mozart’s twelfth piano concerto.
Written in 1782, its major key signature (A) and modest orchestration make it a
sunnier piece than many of the composer’s later and better-known concertos. But
he intended it as a vehicle for his own virtuosic playing, and Lewis met the
technical challenges of its three movements handily, while conveying its
emotional content through delicate phrasing and clear articulation. Nelsons and
the BSO were warm accompanists.
The chorus returned after intermission to join the orchestra
and conductor in a brilliant account of Ravel’s complete 1912 ballet “Daphnis
and Chloe.” The ballet is rarely danced, and its vivid full score is less often
presented in concert than the second orchestral suite Ravel derived from it.
The chorus’s wordless vocals in many of the ballet’s twelve sections enhance
the already lush orchestration to diaphanous effect.
Nelsons carefully balanced the enlarged orchestra with the
voices so that even the softest passages, some for chorus alone, were fully
audible in the vast Music Shed. The result was an exhilarating triumph for all
the musicians, with special kudos to principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe for her
distinguished solo work.
