Dec. 6, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Reading the New Yorker is always an entertaining and edifying activity, and sometimes more, such as when I got a rush of sympatico from an article by Alex Ross in the Dec. 1, 2014 issue, Brushfires; Andris Nelsons energizes the Boston Symphony. The caption of the accompanying illustration reads, “On the podium, Nelsons, a galvanic young Latvian, lunges about uninhibitedly.” It remined me of my effort to describe Maestro Nelsons during his first Tanglewood concert since being named BSO Music director, the July 11, 2014 program featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter performing Dvorak’s Violin Concerto.
“There was a moment toward the end of the Violin concerto, with Ms. Muter at rest, when he almost stepped off the podium, crouching and reaching toward the violins to draw forth a soft passage. He left footprints and handprints all over the podium, like an animal marking territory.”

lexicon of the music critic

Being totally unschooled in the lexicon of the music critic, I’m pretty much left to write about the appearance of a concert, leaving the cognoscenti to describe how the music sounds in relation to how they think it should sound. Orchestras such as the Boston Symphony project a uniform, practically static image, which makes it easy for the conductor to be the focus of my attention, as he (and sometimes she) articulates his musical directives by way of gestures. And this gesticulation can range from eloquent to akward, from geriatric to gymnastic, from martial to manic.

In his New Yorker article, Ross says that “… Nelsons lunges about uninhibitedly, violating textbook rules about the wisdom of minimizing one’s gestures. I imagine that Boston players have already mastered imitations of his signature moves: the Backward Lean, the Extreme Crouch, the Trapeze Grab, the Across-the-Table Ice-Cream Scoop.”

So it is good to know that a respected music critic deems a conductor’s gesticulations worthy of more than a passing mention, and that the lexicon needn’t be staid. It feels like getting permission to be playful even while writing about highbrow stuff! Thanks to Alex Ross, I’ll take a stab at adding to the lexicon when Nelsons returns to Tanglewood next July.

[bctt tweet=”Watching Andris Nelsons conduct.”]

Article by Dave Read

Billed as Oz with Orchestra, the Tanglewood presentation of a newly restored print of The Wizard of Oz, vocals and dialogue intact and paired with the Boston Pops’ performance of the original orchestration, made for a thoroughly entertaining experience. Way more than a mere nostalgia kick, it commanded your attention, leaving no room for daydreaming. Reflections on childhood viewings had to be postponed until afterwards, when an especially animated and chatty crowd strolled back to the parking lots around 11 PM.

Like many in the audience tonight, my experience with The Wizard of Oz dates back to the days of black and white television and the annual broadcasts from 1956 onward. I dug this movie from the get-go, even as an under-age iconoclast disapproving anything my sisters liked. And tonight I responded with the unbridled joy of an over-aged optimist!

Conductor Keith Lockart’s established versatility was on full display as he used a pair of digital devices to lead the Boston Pops in their supporting role. It was a seamless collaboration between the orchestra and the movie projected on a large screen overhead. They didn’t intrude, but their playing was a welcome embellishment throughout.

Two especially noteworthy elements were the color and the choreography. It was a riot of color, which I’d describe as psychedelic if it weren’t for how sharply defined every fanciful object and background was. And the choreography was a revelation. What I would’ve called clowning around when I saw it as a kid tonight looked like deceptively artful dancing. The scene where Dorothy encounters the Scarecrow may as well be called a pas de deux. Ray Bolger had a genius that made stumbling look poetic.

True enough There’s no place like home – but neither is there anyplace quite like Tanglewood, where fondly recalled experiences from childhood can be reprinted in memory in the most delightful Technicolor fashion.

Article by Dave Read

Tanglewood was the place to be tonight for anyone interested in the breadth and depth of music – in sampling the continuum of sound available in the performance of symphonic compositions. On paper, this was a simple program, two composers, one opus and one soloist each, one orchestra, one chorus, one conductor. The resulting concert was simply splendid, leaving one at a loss to imagine a dimension of musical sound left unheard.

It began with guest conductor Stephane Deneve leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra and pianist Emanuel Ax in Beethoven’s Piano conerto No. 5 in E-flat, Emperor. It was composed in the midst of war, with Napoleon’s army bombarding Vienna, causing Beethoven to seek refuge in the cellar and cover his head with pillows to protect what little remained of his hearing. Yet this piece is the antithesis of bellicosity; what Mr. Ax and the BSO were about was certainly not war. They conspired to produce an aural space where the audience could bask in its complex brightness.

Alexnder Nevsky, from film score to concert piece

Next came Alexnder Nevsky, Cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra, with mezzo-soprano. It was composed by Sergei Prokofiev in collaboration with film director Sergei Eisenstein, to depict the exploits of Alexander Nevsky, the young prince who rallies a ragtag army of Russian peasants in the 13th century to vanquish invading Teutonic Knights. Nevesky, proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 16th century, was recently declared the main hero of Russia’s history in a popular poll.

Despite its origins as propoganda in support of Joseph Stalin’s regime, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, which he adapted from the film score, has attained a purely musical life of its own. In fact, attending this performace meant respite from the worrisome world, because it practically commandeers sensibility, one bit of musical splendor following upon another. It may depict awful historical events, but it uses beautiful sounds to do so.