Andris Nelsons
The BSO had a well-deserved couple of weeks off following their late-summer tour of Europe, and they took some time to regain their sea-legs.
This recording is the first of a partial Shostakovich cycle Andris Nelsons and the BSO are embarking upon.
By the end of Andris Nelsons’s inaugural season he had the BSO playing with lots of energy and like they really care, night in and out.
There was new music, of which Nelsons’s an uncommonly gifted interpreter; old music that mostly sounded lively; and a big, loud, late-Romantic warhorse that let him and the BSO show off.
Saturday’s was the most electrifying, exciting, spontaneous-sounding, inevitable performance of this warhorse (Beethoven’s Violin Concerto) I’ve heard.
Ascending Light is, by far, the most serious orchestral score of Gandolfi’s I’ve heard and it succeeds to a considerable extent thanks to its expressive honesty.
The main takeaway from this first BSO album under new music director Andris Nelsons is the excellent, exciting Sibelius performance.
It’s fun to recall what’s been played locally since January and be reminded just how rich the greater Boston area’s classical music scene really is.
This was was a truly memorable afternoon at Symphony Hall, filled with interesting programming decisions and exciting revelations.
Classical Music Commentary: Kapellmeister Nelsons
We’ll have to wait and see how Andris Nelsons balances things out. But there’s no reason to suspect that Boston’s getting the short end of the stick here.
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