BSO's Casual Gershwin

Miss Ionarts and Master Ionarts, on the concert reporting beat

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra often offers a slimmed-down version of their weekly programs, called the Casual Concert, presented with no intermission on Saturday mornings at 11 am. This past weekend, it seemed like as good a time as any to pile Master Ionarts and Miss Ionarts into their car-seats to see what it was all about. On the surface, it was not really all that different. While a few in the audience wore shorts and/or T-shirts, most people were dressed about as casually as they are for a regular evening concert, while a few others still dressed more formally. On stage, the orchestra "dressed down" to jackets and ties, but Marin Alsop and this week's soloist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, wore what they generally wear. Whatever one may have expected in terms of changes in audience behavior, the same sense of decorum associated with concerts remained. Well, the audience did applaud after the first movement of the Concerto in F, understandably enough, and we are happy to report that not a finger was wagged.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, pianist

Thibaudet must tire of playing these two Gershwin concertos -- his recording of Rhapsody in Blue with the BBC Symphony Orchestra showed up again on his recent Movie Album. One had the sense, listening to this performance of both of them back to back, of Thibaudet searching for something new in the way he played them. While he did drive himself over and past many of the denser passages, as if daring himself to push the envelope, he did not hit on something truly striking, as Fazil Say did with the BSO a few years ago. His strength was in the suave, bluesy side of the works, as Thibaudet coolly explored every riff and twinkle of this mixture of jazz and Ravel. Alsop followed that lead, justifying her programming of Gershwin on a non-pops program in her earnest introduction to the concert. It is what it is, so enjoy it.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Soloist, BSO play Gershwin with vim (Baltimore Sun, May 24) Ronni Reich, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Washington Post, May 26)

What was promised in the promotional materials was the original 1924 orchestration for the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, by the Paul Whiteman Band (really a swing orchestra), but the program notes claimed this was the later orchestral arrangement. Ferde Grofé was the mastermind behind transferring Gershwin's score for two pianos to that original Whiteman Band arrangement, as well as two revisions in 1926 and 1942, for chamber and full orchestra. Grofé later went on to teach orchestration at Juilliard, among many other things. Listening to the premiere performance, or most of it, online (Part 1 and Part 2) is an enlightening experience. Among other things, you can hear Whiteman's clarinet player, Ross Gorman, on the now iconic opening glissando, a touch that was improvised by Gorman and later added by Gershwin to the score. The BSO played with polish and verve, with a smooth opening solo from the clarinet and well-behaved trumpet lines. The group was not always exactly together with Thibaudet, but not to any disconcerting degree. The verdict from the younger members of the Ionarts family was unanimous: they listened attentively and bopped along to some of the bouncier parts. Fortunately, at a Casual Concert it is alright for a small child to giggle softly when delighted.

Next week, under the baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra undertakes a program of South American music called The Inca Trail. On Friday (May 30, 8 pm) at Strathmore, and on Saturday (May 31, 8 pm) in Baltimore.

Adès Leads the BSO

Thomas Adès, composer (b. 1971)

We have been generally impressed by the music of British composer Thomas Adès, from his piano music to his unforgettable recent opera, The Tempest. For a composer not yet 40, he has received some heady accolades, and his turn at the podium of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was one of the more keenly anticipated events on my calendar this month. During the Saturday night performance at Strathmore, Adès confirmed those expectations, not only with his new violin concerto but with some dashing and sharply etched Beethoven. It fell to Adès to notch off the last two symphonies in the BSO's Beethoven cycle before Marin Alsop concludes the season, predictably, with the Ninth Symphony (June 19 to 22).

The orchestra was reduced to classical proportions for the Beethoven, with a compact assortment of strings (with concertmaster Jonathan Carney away this week, associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins took his place). The pairs of winds and timpani were separated by a short distance at the back (of course, the arrangement may not have been decided by Adès). Adès' precise, jumpy style of gesture is part of how he uses his body as an expressive device, sometimes lunging, twisting, hunching down. With a careful control of the relative weight of each section, Adès allowed the wind solos or accents to be heard and marshaled those reserve resources for booming crescendi. The first symphony had a balletic slow movement, emphasizing the con moto over the cantabile, and a decidedly scherzo-like menuetto with parallels to the rhythmic distortions in triple meter heard later in the Eroica. Although underplayed, the first is an impressive achievement for the 30-year-old Beethoven, with many nods to symphonic tradition and just as many hints of more ground-breaking changes to come.

Other Articles: Anne Midgette, The BSO, Awkward Now and Then (Washington Post, May 17) Tim Smith, Beethoven frames Ades' rich concerto (Baltimore Sun, May 17) Molly Sheridan, Composer Thomas Adès, Trading Pen for Baton In BSO Performances (Washington Post, May 15)

The playing of the BSO continues to excel, with only a horn slip here and there and an early trumpet entrance to criticize. If the first was welcome, the fourth symphony, reserved for the second half, is my personal favorite of the less-played corners of the Beethoven corpus. After a gloomy Adagio introduction, the first movement was fleetly paced, with that same control of dynamics underscored by the reinforcing tone of the trumpet. Adès torqued up a sense of tension leading to the recapitulation by extending the muted rolls on the timpani. The second movement seemed overly agitated, as Adès insisted repeatedly on a restless edge to the driving accompanying motif in the second violins. He slowed down to something closer to the right tempo at times, especially to luxuriate in exposed wind passages, including a particularly fine high clarinet solo. In the closing measures of a joyfully relentless fourth movement, Adès prolonged the solo lines that delay the triumphant conclusion (in the score those lines are not marked with any tempo change, although they are set off from one another by fermatas).

The centerpiece of the evening was a new violin concerto by Adès, op. 24, given the title Concentric Paths. Premiered in Berlin in 2005, the work is a flirtation with minimalism, or at least with the technique of motoric repetition in overlapping cycles or phases. The first movement, Rings, opens with an oscillating motif and is oriented toward the treble colors, with some tinkling percussion that briefly reminded me of the Banquet scene from The Tempest. British violinist Anthony Marwood, who also plays as part of the Florestan Trio, assayed the solo part's stratospheric challenges with the ease one would expect from the musician who premiered the work. In the weighty second movement, Paths, a spiraling series of chords cycled its way through the orchestra, weaving around the solo line, with the menace of bass trombone, tuba, and double bass and the dull thud of pitchless percussion. The third movement, Rounds, had the feel of a cross-footed bossa nova. It was not what one might call a masterpiece, but it would be worth hearing again.

Next weekend, the BSO will focus on the music of Gershwin (May 22 to 24), with Marin Alsop back at the podium. Jean-Yves Thibaudet will play both the Concerto in F and the original orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue, made for the Paul Whiteman Band. Throw in Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin for good measure.

Witches and Wizardry with the BSO

Yuja Wang, pianist (photo by Christian Steiner)

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened this week's series of concerts last night to a well-sold house in the Music Center at Strathmore. A major part of the excitement about this program was the latest appearance of the sensational young pianist Yuja Wang. Returning to the BSO after a well-received 2005 outing with the first Liszt concerto, Wang's ferocious technique has become seasoned and more formidable, as was displayed during her Terrace Theater recital in January. This time, it was the compact and daring first piano concerto (D-flat major, op. 10) by Sergei Prokofiev, and if it was an uneven performance, it was not due to Wang's technique. Plowing through the masses of notes with urgency, she pushed the tempo of the first movement (Allegro brioso) from the start. There were not many noticeably dropped notes, it seemed, until the third movement, where the issues of pacing and alignment between soloist, conductor, and orchestra became most pronounced.

Guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier clearly had the BSO feeling energized, but his unusual gestures and unorthodox beat proved confusing among sections throughout the evening. This was most disastrous at the return of the first-movement theme toward the end of the third movement, which took considerable time to settle into the right tempo. The balance between the orchestra and the Strathmore Steinway, which seemed too mellow in voicing for the work, was weighted toward the former direction. Wang can pack a wallop for such a slight young woman, but there was much wizardry from her hands that was simply lost in the wash. Most regrettably, the audience, although clearly impressed by the show, did not have enough stamina in its applause to coax an encore from Wang. To get an idea of what we may have missed, watch the video embedded below.

UPDATE:
Yuja Wang played two encores at the Friday performance, including the Mozart-Volodos.


Sarasate-Horowitz, Carmen Fantasy, played by Yuja Wang
(see also her Mozart-Volodos, Rondo alla Turca)
The headline of the program was saved for the second half, Berlioz's incendiary Symphonie fantastique, op. 14. This is music of theatrical appeal, the combination of the composer's hallucinatory autobiographical program and his legendary mastery of orchestration. Falling desperately in love with English Irish actress Harriet Smithson, only to be rejected, Berlioz worked out his frustrations by writing a symphony about his obsessive love and bizarre opium-induced dreams of murdering her, being guillotined for his crime, and watching his soul tormented during a Black Mass celebrated by a coven of witches, including his beloved. Against all odds, Smithson later heard the work and sought out Berlioz. Although they eventually were married, they divorced not long afterward -- who could have seen that coming?

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor (photo courtesy of IMG Artists)

Here Tortelier used no score, which allowed a greater freedom of communication with the players but also tends to reinforce idiosyncratic interpretative choices. In the first movement, the Tempo I marking at measure 28 was not really observed until the Plus vite tempo was re-established at the marking sans rallentir (measure 49), and the long rest (three measures dramatically marked SILENCE at measure 231) seemed cheated. Quibbling aside, the playing was often richly colored and arresting, especially the first statement of the idée fixe (the melody that represents the object of the artist's love throughout the piece), over percussive string attacks, and the confusion of sounds in the wild passion of the recapitulation. The coda, marked Religiosamente (Tout l'orchestre aussi doux que possible), could have been much closer to ppp. The second-movement Bal was a feverish dance, a waltz to drive you mad (before Ravel's La Valse), and the English horn and off-stage oboe duet in the pastoral third movement was pleasingly rustic (quite demanding for the oboist filling in for the principal, reportedly on maternity leave).

The memorable parts of the symphony, of course, are the opium hallucinations in the final two movements. Tortelier turned in a "forced march" to the scaffold, set at a harried pace that seemed to unsettle the brass a little, leaving the performance less solid that it should have been. As is most commonly done, the two ophicleide parts were played by tubas, a change that Berlioz himself sanctioned in later revisions of the score. I missed a little more splat from the third trombone on those low B-flats in the blaring sections conjuring revolutionary bands, but the dynamic indicated is only mf. The fifth movement was the high point, with bone-chilling bells tolling, the gloomy strains of the Dies Irae, and cackling solos from the E-flat clarinet and other woodwinds for the witches.

Other Reviews: T. L. Ponick, Fantastic sounds on piano dazzling (Washington Times, April 26) Anne Midgette, The BSO's Freaky 'Favorites' (Washington Post, April 28) Tim Smith, Vibrancy of Tortelier, BSO resonates loud and clear (Baltimore Sun, April 28)

The opening of the concert was given to an attempt to revive the neotonal music of Richard Yardumian, with the revised version of the Armenian-American composer's Armenian Suite. If, as the program notes by Janet E. Bedell put it, the piece does refer to the "sad history of the Armenians, especially in the early 20th century when hundreds of thousands were slaughtered by the Turks" (just don't call it a genocide!), it gives a fairly saccharine view. Bedell also inform us that "in our post-serial, neo-Romantic era, [Yardumian] seems ready for rediscovery," coinciding with recent pronouncements that serialism is indeed dead. If the music of Elliott Carter is to be succeeded by facile, bottom-drawer fluff like the Yardumian suite, we will be the poorer for it. A couple of percussion swells, brass fanfare, some Hollywood string writing -- it could have been the soundtrack of a grand historical drama on the big screen. Please put it back in the drawer where you found it.

This concert will be repeated tonight (8 pm), Saturday (8 pm), and Sunday (3 pm), in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

We Love Princesses: Cinderella

Cinderella, Bob Brown Puppets

On Saturday morning, Master Ionarts and Miss Ionarts climbed into their car seats for the trip to Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The latest children's program from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra featured a performance of Prokofiev's Cinderella, with a show by the Bob Brown Puppets troupe. If February's puppet show concert of The Firebird was geared toward Master Ionarts, this program had Miss Ionarts written all over it. If it is pink, wears a dress, and could possibly be a princess, Miss Ionarts loves it.

This concert opened with the young Bulgarian guest conductor Danail Rachev, whose wild hair invites comparison to Gustavo Dudamel, leading a performance of the Mazurka from Delibes' Coppélia. Rachev gave capable, solid leadership on the podium and provided interesting, child-appropriate narration. The puppet stage was set up on the left side of the proscenium, hiding much of the violin section, with the genial narrator, Rheda Becker, to the right. The puppets were large, colorful, and appealing to both of the Ionarts children, from the large storybook that turned into backdrops to the transformation of the ash girl into the princess in her pumpkin carriage. Miss Ionarts spoke most about Cinderella afterwards, while Master Ionarts liked the Prince's dog, Humphrey, and the light bulb that appeared over the dog's head when he had an idea.

What these two puppet concerts with the BSO have shown is that modern music -- Stravinsky and now Prokofiev -- can be just as appealing to children as earlier, more tonal music. It is a challenge that more living composers should take: can you compose a 25-minute score for a puppet show that children won't hate and adults would still find interesting? Philip Glass, Pascal Dusapin, Hans Werner Henze, Kaija Saariaho? Anyone? Actually, John Adams said something related to this last September. This fine concert concluded with another non-puppet performance, of Chopin's Grande Valse brillante (as orchestrated by Glazunov for Mikhail Fokine's Les Sylphides). For children's concerts like this, the Ionarts clan does not mind the drive to Baltimore at all.

MacMillan Leads BSO

James MacMillan, conductor and composer

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season-long exploration of the Beethoven symphonies is drawing to a close. This week, it was Scottish composer James MacMillan's turn at the podium, after Marin Alsop (nos. 5 and 6) yielded the floor to John Adams (no. 7) and HK Gruber (no. 8), with Thomas Adès (nos. 1 and 4) still to come. Alsop has kept arguably the two most beloved Beethoven symphonies, nos. 3 and 9, for herself to conduct, in the last few weeks of the season.

MacMillan opened the second symphony, a dark-horse favorite of mine, with a brash first movement, emphasis definitely on the brio of the fast section, even speeding up the tempo at the opening of the development. The long second movement also proceeded at a good clip, a Larghetto approaching Andante, but suffered from a limited dynamic range at the soft end. The rollicking tempo preferences impacted the third movement the most, as the orchestra struggled to keep the B section clean at that demanding pace. Only in the final movement (Allegro molto) did MacMillan's haste seem appropriate, although even there the running notes of the main subject were cluttered at times, leaving little room for the coda in terms of speed. The BSO mostly rose to the challenge, with furious and technically thrilling playing.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Musical evening is Second to none (Baltimore Sun, April 5) Mark J. Estren, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Washington Post, April 5) T. L. Ponick, Affecting MacMillan thrills (Washington Times, April 5)

The concert began with two of MacMillan's own compositions, a little overture called Stomp (with Fate and Elvira), composed for the 25th anniversary of the London Symphony Orchestra's Barbican Center in 2007. We have generally been impressed with MacMillan's music at Ionarts, and this short work provided much more substance that its occasional nature might suggest. MacMillan ingeniously wove one of his signature Gaelic tunes together with themes from the other two pieces also on the program at its premiere, the fate theme of Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony and Mozart's K. 467 piano concerto (the so-called "Elvira Madigan"). The piece relied heavily on the low brass, and those players responded with verve and crackling sound (after all, they went home early). The Mozart quotations were often obscured as the sound clustered, as if the score were being smeared on a wall.

Less successful was MacMillan's second piano concerto, a score that was actually created not for the concert hall but for the New York City Ballet. Without the corresponding visual diversion, the musical ideas held attention for only about two-thirds of the work's duration. Again there were jigs and other Gaelic tunes, both clumsy and elegant, as well as quotations from older music, hallucinatory bits from the heroine's mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor. British pianist Rolf Hind was more than equal to the technical challenges, the romping flat-handed clusters and even the drum-like pounding on the body of the Steinway. It was a set of fascinating noises that could have benefited from a few more clarifying edits.

Compare James MacMillan's piano concerto with John Corigliano's piano concerto next week, when Marin Alsop conducts the Eroica symphony and two works by Corigliano (April 17 to 19). The composer will speak on the Composers in Conversation series next Wednesday (April 16, 7:30 pm).

Blogger Makes Good

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Washington Post, March 29, 2008

Marin Alsop, conductor
André Watts, piano
Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 6 in D Major and Notturno in B Major (op. 40)
Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

Alsop Leads Rouse's Flute Concerto

Christopher Rouse, composer

On Saturday evening in Baltimore's Meyerhoff Hall, Marin Alsop, in her spotlight on “living Beethovens,” led the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Christopher Rouse’s 1993 Flute Concerto. Alsop, in her remarks to the audience, labeled the work “one of the last century’s greats” and spoke of Rouse’s use of dissonance and consonance interspersed with clips played by the orchestra. In particular, Alsop “finds the consonant more painful than the prior dissonant” material found in the Elegia third movement -- a memorial to two-year-old James Bugler, murdered in 1993 by two ten-year-old boys in England. The outer Ànhran (Gaelic for ‘song’) movements featured BSO principal flutist Emily Skala playing a wistful tune over plaintive strings.

Remarkably, Rouse made sure that the flute soloist soared above the orchestra at all times, and the BSO was careful never to overwhelm the soloist. The energetic second and contemporary jig fourth movements balanced the concerto perfectly, creating truly unique textures between the fluttering winds and flute soloist, among others combinations. Skala’s simply beautiful playing was exquisitely reinforced by the close coordination of her BSO colleagues. Rouse’s virtuosic music is remarkably listenable for modern audiences, who were highly receptive at both the National Symphony’s performance of his Second Symphony last January (some friends purchased a subscription because of the Rouse), and Saturday evening in Baltimore where the composer received a generous ovation.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, The BSO barrels through Beethoven (Baltimore Sun, March 8) Mark J. Estren, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Washington Post, March 8) BSO sells Rouse's flute (Washington Times, March 8)

The program began with the Leonore Overture No. 3. Later in the Fifth Symphony Alsop, who was seemingly attempting to fuse the first two motifs as one gesture, began at a vigorous clip, leaving the orchestra stuck in the notes and at times scrambling to keep up with her. Glorious music making followed, once issues of tempo were resolved, with the cello section providing supple lines in the second movement, and brilliant statements with the basses in the third movement fughettta. The fourth movement was grand, though Alsop did not give sufficient bite to certain dissonant chords near the coda. It was pleasing to experience a program pairing a "living Beethoven" with the real thing.

The BSO’s new Dvořák CD is now for sale (review forthcoming), and the 2008-2009 season has just been announced.

Alsop Conducts Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin and Marin Alsop in City Lights image by Charles T. Downey (with apologies to Charlot)

Friday evening, Marin Alsop led the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the film score of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931) during a screening in the Music Center at Strathmore. Alsop pointed out in her introduction that as screen writer, score writer, director, distributor, and the film’s star, Chaplin, having spent two years and eight months on the work, considered City Lights his greatest accomplishment.

Controversially released after the advent of “talkies,” City Lights opens with speeches by dignitaries -- a guy in a suit and a lady with a giant hat -- dedicating a new urban statue. Instead of the speakers’ actual voices, the orchestra created witty see-sawing noises followed by the unveiling of the statue. When its cover was lifted in front of a crowd of thousands, there slept the Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) in the lap of one of the statue’s characters. Beyond the film’s many comical sub-plots that incited gregarious guffawing from the full house, the chivalrous love story between the Little Tramp and the beautiful blind flower girl brought tears to many an eye. Slapstick was balanced with a serious love story.

Other Reviews: Joe Banno, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Washington Post, March 3)

With the musical score precisely attuned to each movement, including that of Chaplin’s eyebrow, Alsop led the orchestra through a score “la-lahed” by music-loving Chaplin to arranger Arthur Johnson. Kudos to the percussionist who cued his whistles exactly with Chaplin’s chronic whistling hiccups -- Chaplin accidentally swallows a whistle during a boozy party -- that interrupted a vocal presentation. Bustling roaring 20s tunes were contrasted with the sweet violin tune (La Violetera by José Padilla) of the blind flower girl. The tune is poetically heard as a duet between two violins at the end of the film when Chaplin reunites (he had been in prison… long story) with his love, the blind flower girl, no longer destitute and able to see.

The next program by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will combine Beethoven's Leonore Overture and Fifth Symphony with a new flute concerto by Christopher Rouse, on Thursday at Strathmore (March 6, 8 pm) and Friday through Sunday in Baltimore (March 7 to 9). Composer Christopher Rouse will speak in the Composers in Conversation series on Wednesday (March 5, 7:30 pm) at the Meyerhoff.

The Kids Love the Firebird

Firebird

The cultural programming for children in the area occasionally goes beyond the welcome, but sometimes predictable routine of the Kinderkonzert. One such exception to the rule happened on Saturday morning, when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra partnered with the Enchantment Theater Company to present an abridged version of Igor Stravinsky's 1910 ballet The Firebird. The troupe of five actors and puppeteers, led by Artistic Director Landis Smith, wore masks and pantomimed the actions of some characters and manipulated colorful puppets for others, at the apron of the stage in Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Master Ionarts and Miss Ionarts both made the journey to Charm City with me and two friends to experience this unusual retelling of the Russian folk tale.

The story captivated the generally well-behaved and large, if not full audience. Miss Ionarts, of course, liked the Princess (and her unicorn) the best, with her plaintive oboe theme, as explained by guest conductor Gregory Vajda. Master Ionarts was most charmed by the colorful firebird, that took form as two different puppets, one with flame-like wings extended while in flight, the other with wings folded and bright plumage showing. Both children ended up sitting on my lap during the Prince's confrontation with "The Magician" (Koschei the Deathless), frightened by the ominous brass and the costume's claw-like fingernails. When the magician transformed himself into a giant demon, with an enormous head and two massive claws carried by two other puppeteers, both kids shrunk down in fear. They also jumped about a foot when he lunged menacingly to the sound of a sharply accented chord from the orchestra.

The BSO gave a polished, shimmering reading of the score, excerpts from the 1919 suite version, which they played complete at Carnegie Hall last weekend under Marin Alsop. The program opened with another piece of Russian music, Glière's Russian Sailors' Dance from The Red Poppy. It is the sort of music with instant appeal for little ears -- active, fast-paced, and regular -- and provided a chance to settle into the sounds of the orchestra. A guided tour of a few excerpts from The Firebird by Gregory Vajda, with an introduction to the story from Enchantment Theater Company's Landis Smith, opened the door to a fairytale world, equal parts terror and wonder.

The next Musical Adventures program (ages 3-6) from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra features Prokofiev's score for Cinderella, with the story told by the Bob Brown Puppets and narrator Rheda Becker (April 12, 11 am). Concerts for older kids (ages 7-12) are scheduled for March 8 and May 10.

U.S. Premiere, Mackey’s Marimba Concerto

Photo of composer Steven Mackey by Alice Arnold

Last night, Marin Alsop led the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and percussionist Colin Currie in the U.S. premiere of Steven Mackey’s mesmerizing Time Release. Exploiting the unique resonance and plethora of overtones of the marimba, Mackey, a professor at Princeton University with a background in rock music, structured the work so that the orchestra reinforces the rather short life of the marimba note. Mackey remarked that his aim was to create a musical synthesis of the type found in Mozart’s piano concertos, where “the music is not the vehicle for the instrument but rather the two are merged so that my primary awareness is how the music sings.”

A hazily beautiful quality is sustained through the work’s four movements, allowing it to sail through a myriad of textures. Novel aural combinations of flute and marimba were most magical, while Currie’s periodic musings on instruments beyond the marimba – almglocken, cowbells, Peking opera gong, kick drum, samba whistle, etc. – provided spice. With a style full of detail, Scottish-born Currie performed every note and phrase with care, allowing nothing superfluous. Incidentally, during solo marimba interludes, Maestra Alsop reveled in the moment by exhibiting hints of her side-to-side podium dance. One is keen to experience Mackey’s current project: a violin concerto (to be premiered in St. Louis) for Leila Josefowicz, a violinist Alsop and the BSO captivatingly worked with last season.

Other Articles: Tim Smith, BSO shines in standards and Mackey concerto (Critical Mass, February 8) Mark Mobley, Orchestra tries a different beat (Newark Star-Ledger, February 8)

A high-Romantic cartoon, Strauss’s comedic tone poem Till Eulenspiegel, featured superbly uniform, no-nonsense playing from the BSO. Performances exuding this much sober conviction will always garner top marks. Till’s snickering laughter was all the more fun because of the intense technical focus and cool virtuosity of the BSO musicians, as well as the mutually respectful rapport between Alsop and the orchestra. Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite shared the somewhat fragmented second half of the program. While Debussy’s placid beauty pleasurably complemented Mackey’s Time Release, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite perhaps overloaded the program in terms of contrasting styles – the audience had been warmed up for a symphony.

This concert repeats tonight (February 8, 8 pm), in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and Saturday night (February 9, 8 pm), at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.

Dip Your Ears, No. 91

Corigliano, "Red Violin" Concerto, Violin Sonata, Bell, Denk / Alsop / Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

I don’t particularly adore Joshua Bell’s sweet, emotionally equivocal violin playing, nor was I entirely enamored of John Corigliano’s “Red Violin” Concerto when I attended the concert at which this performance was taped. But even with all caveats, this recording is well worth anyone’s ear who isn’t afraid of tonal contemporary music.

Starting over a gentle solo violin section quickly supported by flittering strings, occasionally soft woodwinds, the concerto allows the violinist to meander about before he is interrupted by martial interjections, orchestral whip-lash, and cacophonous rumbles. Out of the ruins of this rises the movement anew, led by a solitary, optimistic clarinet. At the live performance there were moments when Bell disappeared behind the orchestra that suggested balance problems, rather than composer’s intent.

Sure enough the mixing table - or takes from the two subsequent performances in June 2006 - fixed most of that and the four movement concerto comes across as much improved as a result.

The nervous second movement (Pianissimo Scherzo) with enthusiastically gentle percussion participation, sounds like music that desperately wished to bark but was kept on too short a leash. The Andante Flautando is broad and rich to which the BSO responds with a very pleasing, sonorous sound. It might be best described as giving the impression of several Zbigniew Preisner scores being strung together, but that's not a damning point at all, since Preisner wrote some really good film music. But the film music origins of Corigliano's concerto certainly become obvious here.

I won’t say that I have changed my mind about the Philip Glass, John Adams, or Daniel Brewbaker violin concertos doing more for me, but I’m very glad to have Corigliano’s work now for repeat listening - and well balanced, too, from which it benefits handsomely.

Also included is the Sonata for Violin and Piano which I already liked in performances of Elmar Oliveira with Robert Koenig (Artek AR00352) and Maria Bachmann with Jon Klibonoff (BMG/RCA 64298), but am equally to happy to hear from Bell and Jeremy Denk (who, of course, is actually famous for his blog).



From April 17th through the 19th Marin Alsop and the BSO present a program featuring two works by John Corigliano - "To Music" and his Piano Concerto. The second half of the program is another chapter in Alsop's 2007/2008 Beethoven cycle and tackles the "Eroica" Symphony.

Marin Alsop Keeps It Traditional

On Saturday night, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gave its first performance of the New Year in its home away from home, the Music Center at Strathmore. It was a program that had drawn concerned remarks from the area's two major newspaper critics, including Anne Midgette's first review as Interim Classical Music Critic at the Post, but the concert hall in North Bethesda was sold out and filled to capacity. There were no living composers to confront in this week's program. Once a pedestrian Magic Flute overture led in name only by BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow Joseph Young was out of the way, there was only Marin Alsop and two major works of the standard repertoire.

For the first, Shostakovich's first violin concerto (A minor, op. 99), she shared the stage with soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. A brutish force of nature with a violin in her hands, Salerno-Sonnenberg stalked and stomped her way through much of the piece, slashing at the shrieking multiple stops in the extended cadenza leading to the fourth movement, for example, with athletic abandon and a tone that was occasionally rabid. She seemed a little wild, veering unpredictably ahead of Alsop and the orchestra at points in the second and fourth movements. The quiet opening of the concerto, an understated Nocturne, contains some of its best moments, and here Salerno-Sonnenberg summoned beautifully hushed sounds, as in the night-bird dialogues with piccolo and celesta. This was moving Shostakovich, although Salerno-Sonnenberg did not have all of the technical details in place (she seemed to have a cough) and there was something Russian missing. It is hard to define but it is definitely there in the recordings by David Oistrakh, who premiered the work, and Maxim Vengerov (with Mstislav Rostropovich).

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Different sound for familiar BSO piece (Baltimore Sun, January 12) Anne Midgette, Taking the Pulse Of Classics, BSO Finds A Modern Beat (Washington Post, January 12)

Marin Alsop had a focused and precise approach to the Shostakovich, keeping her podium dancing to a minimum as she struggled to keep the fast passages on the rails at times. She may never be able to match the intensity and cool confidence with Shostakovich of her predecessor, Yuri Temirkanov. For the second half of this concert, she programmed a masterpiece of the 19th century. Alsop's Brahms has not impressed me that much, in concert or on disc, but this rendition of Antonín Dvořák's eighth symphony was exciting and convincingly played (certainly more so than the last time it was under review, during Rostropovich's ill-fated final appearance with the NSO). The work opened, with that luscious cello melody, in an atmosphere heavy with fate and exultant with triumph, with bird calls and folk inflections from the Czech countryside in the second movement.

Alsop has burnished the string sound to a warm tone you could wrap yourself in, exactly what is needed for this music, and the clarion trumpet calls leading to the fourth movement were spot-on. The third movement was on the fast side of grazioso, with a skippy, light-hearted trio, and the fourth movement was crisp and tightly knit in spite of the fact that Alsop was mostly ignoring the ma non troppo part of the tempo indication. The only drawback of this driving approach, which certainly provided many thrills, was that the accelerando that closes the work did not have room left with the tempo already so brisk. All of this constitutes encouraging signs for Alsop's planned Dvořák cycle with the BSO.

Next month, Marin Alsop will conduct an interesting program combining music by Steven Mackey, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Strauss (February 7 and 8, in Baltimore only). Steven Mackey will speak as part of the Composers in Conversation series at the Meyerhoff that week (February 6, 7:30 pm).

RELATED:
Marin Alsop will appear on Charlie Rose's show on PBS tomorrow night (January 15), in the same episode that also features an interview with Alex Ross. Check your local listings for air times. (Hat tip to Critical Mass)

Taking Stock of Marin Alsop

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Fall 2007: Joe Banno, Marin Alsop Conducts the Gala Concert (Washington Post, September 17) Charles T. Downey, Composer in Conversation: John Adams (September 27) Michael Lodico and Charles T. Downey, Marin Alsop Conducts the BSO Season Opener (September 30) Charles T. Downey, John Adams, conductor (October 6) Charles T. Downey, Tan Dun, conductor (October 15) Tim Smith, HK Gruber, conductor (Critical Mass, October 19) Michael Lodico, Alsop Leads Ohlsson and the BSO (October 26) Tim Smith, Günther Herbig, conductor (Critical Mass, November 6) Tim Smith, Arild Remmereit, conductor (Baltimore Sun, November 15) Tim Smith, Alsop Conducts Kernis (Baltimore Sun, December 1)

Alex Ross's new piece in The New Yorker this week (Maestra, January 7) takes a look at the first half-season of Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony. Alex went down to Baltimore twice to see Alsop conduct the BSO, but what he does not say is that she has actually conducted only one other program (plus the gala opening concert) all this fall (we ended up not reviewing the Kernis program but did cover the season opener and the Garrick Ohlsson program). Not that any music director conducts every week of his orchestra's schedule, but that is about half the number of National Symphony Orchestra programs conducted by Leonard Slatkin, for example. The good news is that Alsop will be on the podium much more regularly in the second half of the season, with ten programs under her baton, a much higher percentage.

True, Alsop has put her mark on the entire season, by programming so much contemporary music and by bringing so many contemporary composers to conduct their own works. To the right are links to our reviews, and for those programs we did not cover, links to newspaper reviews. Marin Alsop has been good for Baltimore, but the change she has caused has less to do with her repertoire choices (some hardly challenging living composers -- Tan Dun? Kernis? HK Gruber? Mark O'Connor? -- and a lot of Beethoven) and more to do with the breath of fresh air she brought to a stifling institution. By all reports, the musicians feel energized and excited, and she has given the BSO audience some much-need glitz and verve by bringing Baltimore some national attention.

In spite of the tepid choices so far, the dialogue with living composers has been at times brilliant, when the music is of interest. It is not that the BSO did not play John Adams before -- in fact, they played Adams as recently as 2006. The focus on the work of Adams was singular: he spoke in a public forum with Alsop, she conducted his music, and the following week he conducted his music. Musicheads like me had the chance to experience pieces live we had heard previously only on disc. What one misses in the wake of Yuri Temirkanov is a sure hand with more traditional repertoire. The rest of the season will give us a greater opportunity to judge the overall impact of Marin Alsop's tenure in Baltimore.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will join the BSO under Marin Alsop this weekend, playing the Shostakovich violin concerto, on January 10, 11, and 13 (Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore) and January 12 (Strathmore). Ionarts will be in attendance.

RELATED:
Marin Alsop has won the 2008 Theodore Thomas Award from the Conductors Guild. [Critical Mass]

Some Recent Naxos Releases (I)

William Bolcom, Complete Works for Cello, N. Fischer, J. Kierman, A. Moore (8.559348, released October 30, 2007)

When reviewing new music it is always helpful to know the composer's other works as much as possible. Trying to get a handle on William Bolcom's music has included recent reviews of his opera A View from the Bridge and his song cycle Songs of Innocence and of Experience. This new recording of Bolcom's compositions for cello contains several delights and opens windows on the composer's personality and style. Capriccio has very dissonant sounds alongside a zippy Brazilian Gingando, complete with a 3-3-2 rhythm section in the last movement. The first cello suite, a somber and biting work for the unaccompanied instrument, is drawn from music Bolcom originally composed for Arthur Miller's 1995 play Broken Glass (add the subtitle to the suite now). Recorded by a team now associated with the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University -- two faculty members and one recent alumna -- the performances are strong and have benefited from personal contact with the composer. According to the note by cellist Norman Fischer, the performing editions heard here are based on annotations directly from the composer, changes that will likely be incorporated into revised editions of the scores.

Bartók, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Bournemouth SO, M. Alsop (8.660928, released November 20, 2007)

We have lavished much praise on Bartók's opera A Kékszakállú Herceg Vára, from the staged version at Washington National Opera last season to a 2005 concert version and many others. It is an essential opera of the 20th century, historically speaking, and even more essential because it is dramatically compelling and, to these ears, musically gorgeous, not at all the kind of dissonance one might expect from the name of Bartók. In terms of my favorite version, Éva Marton and Samuel Ramey (CBS Masterworks) outpaces Jessye Norman (DG), both of which suffer from having one of the singers not working in Hungarian as a native language. (The Kertész recording from Decca Legends, while fine, has neither role sung by a Hungarian.) That is far from the only criterion, of course, but Hungarian singers, as well as Hungarian orchestras and Hungarian conductors, tend to have an edge in this work, having generally been introduced to it in the womb.

Add to the host of other versions, many of them no longer widely available, this generally good recording from Marin Alsop's tenure in Bournemouth, with two relatively young singers. The Hungarian Judith, Andrea Meláth, and Czech Bluebeard, Gustáv Beláček, are not the best one could imagine for either role, but they are featured well against Alsop's amply proportioned orchestral fabric. The producer notes that the sound has been engineered to make the singers seem like they are progressing spatially through the seven doors, which strikes me as unnecessary for a concert recording. At Naxos rates ($9.98), this disc edges out the versions mentioned above, but only by a couple dollars since just about all of them can be found at reduced prices.

Brahms, Sy. 4 and Hungarian Dances, London PO, M. Alsop (8.570233, released September 25, 2007)

We have had the chance to hear Marin Alsop live conducting Brahms with the Baltimore Symphony: although I was baffled by her third symphony in 2005, things seem to have improved considerably, judging by Michael's favorable review of her fourth symphony. The time difference may help explain the improvement, since the BSO had, by the time of Michael's review, moved beyond its initial opposition to Alsop's tenure as Music Director. Alsop has claimed, in an interview with our own Jens Laurson, that she is known in Europe more for her Brahms and Dvořák than her work championing contemporary composers. It is obviously better to judge Alsop's Brahms in Baltimore now, when she has buried the hatchet with the players. This recording, which concludes a complete cycle of the Brahms symphonies with the London Philharmonic (all in live concert settings), gives one a chance to appreciate Alsop's work with this most traditional composer in Europe. It is extremely hard to make a new recording of something like the Brahms symphonies that matters, and this fourth symphony does not stand out all that much. It is accompanied by something of greater interest, new arrangements of some of the Brahms Hungarian Dances by Peter Breiner, a Naxos commission. Conductors and concert programmers may want to have a listen to them for possible encore material.

Alsop Leads Ohlsson and the BSO

Marin Alsop is back in town to lead this weekend’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts. Judging from Thursday evening’s performance at the Meyerhoff, the musicians are becoming better able to read Alsop’s gestures and mind. Whereas previous performances often had Alsop persistently demanding output from the orchestra, last night’s performance showed that with time, the musicians will eagerly respond to a lighter touch. We are pleased to report further good news in that attendance was exceptional, with a large amount of good will felt from the audience, especially during Garrick Ohlsson’s encore. There was a traffic jam of concert-goers leading to the Meyerhoff before the concert, and a boisterous crowd having a chat and drink during intermission.

The concert opened with Brahms’s Tragic Overture, written as a companion to the Academic Festival Overture, which featured excellent balance and dynamic gradations. Garrick Ohlsson’s performance of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto left one desiring a more unified composition. The outer movements of the work are very similar and constantly switch back and forth between technical, modern material and Barber’s characteristic neo-Romantic style. By adding a multitude of ideas, one after another, instead of expanding on just a few, Barber’s concerto lacks cohesion as a whole and seems to be generally missing something. In fairness, the Rachmaninov-like passagework here and bitonality there is appealing on the surface. Ohlsson, appearing as a giant on stage when standing near Alsop, played very well and took over where the orchestra left off in the second movement (Canzone) by impressively matching their volume and texture so perfectly one was almost fooled. Ohlsson’s encore, Chopin’s Waltz in C# Minor was enjoyable, though with rather jolting aberrations of tempo.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Stirring, engaging program from BSO, Alsop (Baltimore Sun, October 27)

Is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor one of the BSO’s war horses? Their fluency was remarkable. The bar has been raised even higher from their opening concert last month at Strathmore. The symphony begins with a clarinet leading a chorale-like tune containing many deceptive cadences, thus giving the audience an anxious sense of a long journey ahead. Throughout the work, smooth wind lines rise through the texture and the final movement conveyed the affect of nobleness. The oboe solos of Katherine Needleman were always warm and full. One shortcoming of this ensemble is the low brass, which have a recurring tendency to splat any note above piano. Tuesday’s performance by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic featured smoother, rounder brass playing that was still full. Gentler, more beautiful attacks by the BSO brass would be generally welcome, and when there is an appropriate time to splat, it will be all the more effective.

This concert will be repeated this evening (October 26, 8 pm) and Sunday afternoon (October 28, 3 pm) at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, as well as Saturday evening (October 27, 8 pm) in the Music Center at Strathmore.

Tan Dun in Baltimore

Tan Dun, photo by Parnassus Productions, Inc. (courtesy of tandunonline.com)

For all of the breathless excitement, including our own, over Marin Alsop's appointment as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, she will actually conduct only three concerts in Charm City this fall (beginning on September 28, October 25, and November 29). This week, joining the parade of guest conductors filling in for Alsop was Chinese-American composer Tan Dun. We have reviewed two of his operas, Tea and The First Emperor, but this was the first time we have reviewed the cello concerto titled The Map, premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2004. Tan has described the piece as an exploration of his return to his natal province of Hunan, where he spent time trying to document disappearing musical traditions.

Building on the theme of folk music's intertwined history with the classical orchestra, Tan programmed a first half of Russian pieces based on or at least reminiscent of Asian melodies. The relatively late Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Folk Themes, op. 115, was conceived during Dmitri Shostakovich's visit to Kirghizstan, when he promised to write a piece based on the local folk music. The overture was premiered in Frunze, the capital of Kirghizstan, in 1963, and it is definitely a second-tier piece in the Shostakovich works list, less dissonant and plainer in orchestration than his most interesting work. However, it gained in interest considerably as part of this program, as an example of the overlap between Chinese and Russian music. The BSO sounded confident, although Tan's conducting seemed to be at odds with the direction of the musicians at times.

Available at Amazon: Tan Dun, The Map, A. Karttunen, Shanghai SO, Tan Dun (2004)

Far more familiar to audiences, although many could probably name neither composer nor title, was Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. When Igor loses his campaign against the Asian nomads known as the Polovtsi, their Khan entertains him with music and dancing. Once again, the chestnut status of these pieces seemed to fade into the background because of the context of this fascinating program, inviting the listener to re-examine the work in a new light. After an overly fast start, the pace of the first dance settled into a more comfortable pace, but Tan did not seem to have paid attention to some of the melodic lines, which were not brought to the fore. The winds shimmered exotically and the low brass and percussion shook the rafters with their big booming sound. The melody that became Stranger in Paradise in the musical Kismet purled into the house without any sentimental soupiness, which was pleasing.


Tan Dun, The Map, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, Latitude of Tan Dun's 'Map' rivets attention (Baltimore Sun, October 13) Grace Jean, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Washington Post, October 13) Karren Alenier, Tan Dun Brings the Stone Man to the Concert Hall (The Dressing, October 14)

When Tan spoke to the audience after the Shostakovich overture on the first half, he said that the concert's theme was the roots of each composer in his own time and in the musical traditions beyond the concert hall. During trips to Hunan in 1999 and 2001, Tan imitated his acknowledged hero, Béla Bartók (who also tried "to find vanished people's music"), by speaking with and videotaping traditional musicians. Those video clips, some barely different from hand-held, clutzy-zoomed home video footage, are displayed on screens on the stage with the orchestra. Following cues from the soundtrack of the video, Tan synchronized the orchestral texture to what we see and hear, creating a dialogue between the orchestra in Baltimore and the musicians recorded in China. This called for the BSO to use their instruments in orthodox ways, with the reed players, for example, answering the guanzi and a Tuija man making sounds by blowing through a buzzing leaf by playing with their reeds separated from the instruments.

The climax of the work is a recreation of a musical style that Tan saw in Hunan in the 1980s but was not able to document on his later trips, stone drumming. Three recreations by performers on the video screens play a quartet with one of the percussionists live. It was a memorable moment. Principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn had the thankless task of channeling Yo-Yo Ma and played well, although the solo part was sometimes covered by noisy percussion or the video soundtrack. At one point, Finkelshteyn had a beautiful dialogue with concertmaster Jonathan Carney, their instruments warbling on the high strings like two loquacious birds. Although this concert was much appreciated by the audience, there were lots of empty seats at the back of Meyerhoff Hall. More students out there need to take advantage of the BSO's incredible Student Advantage offers: $10 rush tickets and a five-for-$25 student subscription plan! Five dollars for a concert: that is much cheaper than a movie.

The next concerts by the Baltimore Symphony will feature HK Gruber's Frankenstein!!, with the eclectic composer conducting (October 19 at Strathmore and October 20 at the Meyerhoff).

BSO and Adams and That Other Guy

This week, composer John Adams is conducting the concerts by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, heard Friday evening in a not so full Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. For good or ill, new music director Marin Alsop was the draw for the large audiences last week. Judging by the inordinate grumbling from older patrons seated near me, many people stayed away because of Adams, although in the spectrum of living composers, his music is hardly daunting. Appearing first with a microphone, Adams honored the title of this series of concerts, "The Composer in His Own Words" (although he joked that composers "write music so we don't have to explain ourselves"), by introducing the two pieces he was conducting on the first half. He has conducted both works on recordings from around the time each was premiered.

Available at Amazon: Fearful Symmetries / The Wound-Dresser, Orchestra of St. Luke's (1989) The Dharma at Big Sur / My Father Knew Charles Ives, BBC Symphony Orchestra (2006)

It is always enlightening to hear a composer conduct his own music. It may not end up being the most loved or even best interpretation of that music, since creative distance makes objective and innovative approaches more possible, ideas that the composer may be unwilling or even unable to see. Under Adams, the BSO gave sure and loving performances of these two extremely personal works. Last week's Adams offering, Fearful Symmetries was very much in the mature Adams-minimalist style, sounding akin to Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi, for example. My Father Knew Charles Ives (2003), a tribute to the composer's father and his common heritage in New England with Charles Ives, is a more neo-Romantic work with fewer minimalist techniques. A motivic element in this three-movement symphonic poem is metallic percussion, whose tinkling sounds evoke a nostalgic past. A carnival atmosphere of parades and near cacophony reigned in the first movement ("Concord"), with the sound of bands so important to the education of the young Ives and Adams.

The second movement, a nocturne titled "Lake" (after Lake Winnipesaukee), combined a beautifully played Japanese-style oboe solo, with the microtonal bends of the traditional shakuhachi, and nicely incorporated swing sounds from the brass section echoing across the lake from a bandstand. Not acknowledged by Adams, however, were definite echoes of Britten's Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. The climax of the third movement ("Mountain") was disappointingly non-transcendent. Even more welcome than this relatively new work was the chance to hear The Wound-Dresser, from 1988, sung by baritone Sanford Sylvan, for whom it was composed. Set to some of the words from the devastating Civil War poem by Walt Whitman, written when he served as a caregiver to wounded troops in the makeshift hospitals here in Washington, the piece is a somber, extended orchestral song. Using a reduced orchestra, Adams focuses on static string sounds, featuring luminous violin solos from associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins (Jonathan Carney is away this week). Sanford Sylvan is not the most luscious baritone voice around, but he sang with clarity of text and great emotion.

Other Articles: Tim Smith, Composed and provocative (Baltimore Sun, October 4) Tim Smith, Adams conducts, invigorates (Baltimore Sun, October 6) Mark J. Estren, John Adams, Conducting Himself Admirably (Washington Post, October 6)

"The other guy on the second half," as Adams joked, was Ludwig van Beethoven, whose seventh symphony Adams chose as the complement to his own music. The composer's remarks on the symphony focused on Beethoven's discovery of an "ecstatically percussive" style through the medium of the newly created pianoforte. Not surprisingly, Adams often conducted the piece as if he were hammering out a metal sheet, creating a viscerally exciting but hardly subtle rendition that steamrollered over many of the piece's fine touches. The brisk tempo Adams imposed on the Poco sostenuto section of the first movement did not gel, followed by an explosive Vivace. The second movement grew to a full sound too quickly and was always forward-moving, impelled past any awareness of shifts between sections. This approach worked well for the third movement, where the repeated motifs were treated with rigid, minimalistic evenness. In the fourth movement, however, which is marked only Allegro con brio, the fast tempo reduced many of the notes to mush. The BSO, which in general sounded extremely confident and assured in this challenging concert, can indeed play the Beethoven 7th that fast and abrasively -- but why?

The parade of living composers at the BSO continues in next week's concerts, with Tan Dun conducting his own music and a Russian program (at Strathmore on October 11 and in Baltimore on October 12 to 14). Tan Dun will speak to the audience in the Composers in Conversation series on Wednesday at the Meyerhoff (October 10, 7:30 pm).