REVIEW: Tanglewood "Lewis+/Gerstein+/Ehnes+"

Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

www.bso.org/tanglewood

July 24, 31 & August 21, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

Three recent concerts in Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall extended the range and repertoire offered in earlier concerts during the 2024 season.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players July 24 program opened with BSO flutist Elizabeth Rowe’s moving performance of Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Homeland” for solo flute, a harrowing 2018 depiction of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. English pianist Paul Lewis next joined BSO members John Ferrillo, oboe, William R. Hudgens, clarinet, Richard Svoboda, bassoon, and Richard Sebring, horn, in a sprightly reading of Mozart’s cheerful 1784 Quintet in E-flat, K. 452. The BSO’s Alexander Velinzon and Tatiana Dimitriades, violins, Cathy Basrak and Danny Kim, violas, and Blaise Dejardin and Oliver Aldort, cellos, closed the concert with a glowing account of Johannes Brahms’s radiant 1866 String Sextet No. 2 in G, Opus 36.

Photo by Hillary Scott

A week later, Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein was joined by American violinist Joshua Bell and British cellist Seven Isserlis in a program of French music written between 1915 and 1923. Bell and Gerstein played Claude Debussy’s violin sonata with the “joyful commotion” that the composer noted in the piece. Isserlis and Gerstein showcased the Spanish flavor of Debussy’s cello sonata. Bell and Isserlis focused their virtuosic take on Maurice Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello on its spiky modernism. In a solo piano set, Gerstein offered sensitive versions, with engaging commentary, of Gabriel Faure’s “heartbroken” Nocturne No. 13, an ethereal nocturne written in homage to Faure by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, and four haunting late works by Debussy. A bracing rendition of Faure’s piano trio ended the evening on a life-enhancing note.   

On August 21, Canadian violinist James Ehnes and Italian pianist Alessio Bax made their Tanglewood debuts as last-minute replacements for violinist Leonidas Kavakos (recovering from a shoulder injury) and pianist Danill Trifonov. Prefacing each piece with helpful commentary, Ehnes said they had selected three of their favorite sonatas. They began with a nimble account of Mozart’s brief 1778 Sonata in E minor, K.304, including a dramatic “Allegro” and a stately “Tempo di Menuetto.” Next came an impassioned Brahms 1878 Sonata No. 1 in G, Opus 78 (the only carryover from the original program). They ended with an exhilarating account of Beethoven’s towering 1803 Sonata No. 9 in A, Opus 47, “Kreutzer” (named, ironically, after a violinist who never played it).  

 

Their whirlwind encore, the jazzy “Perpetuum mobile” finale of Ravel’s 1927 second sonata for violin and piano, brought another diverse Ozawa Hall season to a dazzling close.