Symphony Hall, Springfield, MA
October 19, 2024
by Michael J. Moran
This concert’s title derives from the two works on the program’s first half, by Massachusetts
composers at the turn of the 20th century, who were members of both the “Boston Six” and the “New England School.” After an enthusiastic season-launching national anthem, with audience participation, Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen led the SSO in an equally upbeat account of “Jubilee,” the first of George Whitefield Chadwick’s four 1904 “Symphonic Sketches.”
composers at the turn of the 20th century, who were members of both the “Boston Six” and the “New England School.” After an enthusiastic season-launching national anthem, with audience participation, Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen led the SSO in an equally upbeat account of “Jubilee,” the first of George Whitefield Chadwick’s four 1904 “Symphonic Sketches.”
In spoken comments, the effusive Chen proved an avid booster of Springfield (“my new favorite city”), noting that the only one of Chadwick’s “Sketches” inspired by a scene in Springfield (“A Vagrant’s Ballad”) would be far less appropriate for tonight than the celebratory “Jubilee.” Newly appointed as the SSO’s Artistic Advisor, she also shamelessly coaxed applause for the musicians, which the large, appreciative audience needed no prompting to give.
 |
| McDermott & Chen |
Next came the piano concerto by the first successful American female composer, Amy Beach, who, also a skilled pianist, gave its 1900 world premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Internationally acclaimed American pianist Anne-Marie McDermott joined the SSO in a bravura performance of this large-scale 40-minute showpiece in four movements.
McDermott brought dazzling technique and emotional depth to a dramatic opening “Allegro moderato,” a playful “Scherzo (Perpetuum mobile): Vivace” that was in constant motion, a lush and poignant “Largo,” and an exhilarating “Allegro con scioltezza” finale that was as nimble and quick as its title. Chen and the SSO offered colorful support.
Her scintillating encore – both Bourees from Johann Sebastian Bach’s first English Suite – showcased McDermott’s easy command of the classical repertoire.
The concert ended with a forceful account of perhaps the most famous symphony by any composer, Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1808 fifth symphony, in which Chen’s energetic leadership drew particularly inspired playing from the orchestra. The iconic four-note motif that begins the opening “Allegro con brio” had visceral power. The flowing “Andante con moto” was alternately sensitive and grand. A suspenseful “Allegro” third movement led without pause into the triumphant finale (also marked “Allegro”), which erupted in a blaze of glory.
The SSO’s next concert will be “Echoes of the Americas,” a program of Latin American classical music, with conductor-violinist Guillermo Figueroa and composer-pianist Miguel del Aguila, on November 16.
