Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
August 20, 2013
by Michael J. Moran
Many orchestral musicians have long professed their love for
playing chamber music. In a nod to this time-honored tradition, 17 members of
the BSO presented a wide-ranging program dedicated to the memory of Elliott
Carter, who died last November a month short of his 104th birthday.
Two short pieces by Carter opened the program. The first, a
jazzy ten-minute “Woodwind Quintet” in two short movements, written in 1948,
sounded very different from the starker, more challenging four-minute “Figment
III” for double bass solo, written in 2007, which followed it. The five
woodwind soloists were impeccable, and double bass player Edwin Barker was
entertainingly virtuosic.
The first half of the concert closed with the original
chamber version for 13 instruments of
Copland’s Suite from the ballet
“Appalachian Spring.” BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger led a ravishing
account of this classic score, which sounded even more transparent than usual
in this scaled down version. Special kudos were earned by flutist Elizabeth
Rowe and clarinetist Michael Wayne, whose sensitive playing made the most of
the familiar big tunes.
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| Photo by Hilary Scott |
While the first half of the evening showcased some newer and
younger BSO members, the half following intermission belonged to an older
generation, as 90-year-old pianist Menahem Pressler and three elder statesmen
of the BSO took the stage. In 2012 Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag wrote his haunting
two-minute “Hungarian Impromptu” for Pressler, a member of the Beaux Arts Trio
from its 1955 Tanglewood debut through its disbanding in 2008.
Pressler’s delicate performance of the Impromptu led without
pause into a genial rendition of Mozart’s Quartet in E-flat, K. 493, to close
the program. The partnership of BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, violist Steven
Ansell, and cellist Jules Eskin with Pressler yielded a vigorous opening
Allegro, a lush but restrained Larghetto, and a joyous closing Allegretto.
The obvious pleasure that all the musicians took in each
other’s company was echoed in the three standing ovations they received from an
appreciative audience at the end of this memorable musical soiree.
