Bernard Haitink
Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s final recording is the conductor at his best. Bernard Haitink helmed a great performance of Mahler’s Symphony no. 1.
Pianist Murray Perahia’s return this weekend, with Schumann’s A minor Concerto, seemed tailor-made on paper: he’s one of the world’s great chamber musicians and this concerto plays to all his strengths.
BSO’s conductor emeritus Bernard Haitink may be best known for his interpretations of Austro-German repertoire, but, on Saturday night, he channeled his inner Francophile.
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.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is a piece the BSO trots out with greater regularity of late than most orchestras (as Tanglewood aficionados are aware, it’s been the traditional summer closer each August for about a decade now) and, while such familiarity may not exactly breed complacency, it certainly runs the risk of so doing.
Music Commentary Series: Jazz and the Piano Concerto — Balancing Acts at Symphony Hall
What makes pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet an ideal interpreter of Ravel’s Concerto in G is his understanding of and appreciation for jazz.
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