Classical Music
The return to the standard repertoire, which, since January, has been the orchestra’s primary focus, is safe, unassuming, and (potentially, at least) creatively stifling.
John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby gets its long-overdue Boston premiere, as does Jan Dismas Zelenka’s 1739 Missa Votiva. Handel’s Jephtha returns to the Handel and Haydn Society after a century and a half, and the Walden Chamber Players explore music from Cuba.
Generally in New England we’re outspoken about nearly everything – politics, social issues, sports – so why not the arts?
In my experience, few leave an Evgeny Kissin concert disappointed.
Next season’s stale programming certainly derives from the BSO’s lack of a music director guiding and shaping the overall course of the season.
Indeed, for much of the latter part of his career, Colin Davis was that rarest of breeds, a conductor seemingly without ego, one who made music simply for the love of it.
Sunday’s concert had the Discovery Ensemble and conductor Courtney Lewis playing with uncommon vigor and focus: this was one of the most exciting symphonic performances that any local orchestra has given this season.
“Once people hear this music they do indeed come back for it – it is pleasing on so many levels: it soars, it soothes, it excites, it transports.”
The Boston Camerata proffers a constant sense of discovery and rediscovery, of unusually lively musicianship and scholarship, and a sprightly sense of the humanity – and the snarly complexity – behind the music it performs.
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