Boston Symphony Orchestra Thrills at the Berlin Music Festival with American Program

2023-09-05 21:53:09

Berlin (MH) – For the first time in five years, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has performed at the Berlin Music Festival. With its chief conductor Andris Nelsons, the ensemble offered a quasi-American program on Tuesday. The orchestra presented itself with almost perfect sound. In particular, the horns required in all three works were unbelievably strong.

Boston Symphony Orchestra

With the two-movement “Makeshift Castle” by the 35-year-old New Yorker Julia Adolphe, a commissioned work was initially on the program, which the BSO premiered in Tanglewood in 2022. While the first movement, with various effects, was missing a line, the painterly second movement made more of an impression.

The highlight of the evening was the Concerto in F by George Gershwin, who was also born in New York, thanks in part to the virtuoso Jean-Yves Thibaudet on the piano. Under Nelsons’ direction, the orchestra was not just his companion, but an equal partner. Both the soloist and the Bostonians shone with precise jazz rhythms and a wide range of tonal colors. Also worth mentioning is the performance of the solo trumpeter, who created a perfect jazzy sound. Immediately following the last note, cheers broke out in the hall.

After the break, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet music “Petrushka” was played in the revised version that was written in Los Angeles in 1946/47. The orchestra also played these “Burlesque Scenes in Four Scenes” as if from a single source and without sensationalism. At the end there was a lot of applause and cheers.

The Latvian Nelsons has been Principal Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2014. In 2018 he also became conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and brought his two places of work together at the Berlin Music Festival: with the BSO and the choirs of the Leipzig Gewandhaus he interpreted Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.

The Berlin orchestras – the Philharmonic, the German Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester with its new chief conductor Joana Mallwitz and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester – and international orchestras, ensembles and soloists start the new season with the music festival. This year, more than 60 compositions are on the program until September 18th. The venues for the 2023 Music Festival are the Great Hall and the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie Berlin, as well as the Gethsemane Church for a concert.

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