{"id":15928,"date":"2014-02-14T04:31:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T08:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=15928"},"modified":"2014-03-15T17:40:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T21:40:00","slug":"haitink-and-the-bso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=15928","title":{"rendered":"Haitink and the BSO"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Bernard Haitink led the Boston Symphony this week in a pair of concerts at Carnegie Hall. He made his debut with the BSO in 1971 and became its principal guest conductor in 1995 and conductor emeritus in 2004. This is his 60th season as a conductor. He was principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony from 2006-10, chief conductor of Amsterdam\u2019s Royal Concertgebouw for 27 years and now its conductor laureate, and next month he leads the Berlin Philharmonic to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut with that ensemble. He turns 85 in three weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a time when Americans could experience his vital, direct music-making mainly on records, where\u2014in the cold environs of an empty hall\u2014his artistry didn\u2019t always flower. \u201cHow can I conduct Mahler at 10 in the morning?\u201d he asked rhetorically when we were talking more than 40 years ago about making recordings. He wasn\u2019t performing any Mahler with the BSO this time around, but he will lead the New York Philharmonic in the Third Symphony\u00a0on May 15, 16, and 17. Chances are, that will be a concert you won\u2019t want to miss.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s concert was one of those. American composer Steven Stucky describes his nine-minute Funeral Music for Queen Mary (after Purcell) <\/i>as mostly \u201cstraightforward orchestration,\u201d but it was obviously more than that and very affecting for it. Haitink\u2019s graceful, buoyant collaboration with Murray Perahia in Schumann\u2019s Piano Concerto was the evening\u2019s treat. For years it has been subjected to interminable, \u201csensitive\u201d interpretations, but this performance restored my faith in Schumann; I haven\u2019t heard its like since the 1948 EMI recording with Dinu Lipatti, Herbert von Karajan, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Brahms\u2019s Fourth Symphony, which followed, unfolded in one unbroken line, with Haitink determined to avoid the luftpausen<\/i>, ritards, and undue emphases of others less trusting of the composer\u2019s score. What a pleasure, for instance, that the flute variation in the final movement moved along purposefully rather than bogging down in wrong-headed expressiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n

During Charles Munch\u2019s tenure as music director (1949-1962), the Bostonians gained a reputation as an orchestra with a French accent, but one wonders whether that reputation still holds. Perhaps Charles Dutoit could resurrect Munch\u2019s colorful heritage in French orchestral works, but Haitink conjures distinctly less colorful timbres. Which is not to say that his understated performances in Wednesday\u2019s all-Ravel program were less than enjoyable. Alborada del gracioso <\/i>could have used more rhythmic snap and color, but the diaphanous orchestral shimmer in the song cycle Sh\u00e9h\u00e9razade <\/i>was superbly judged, perfectly balanced with Susan Graham\u2019s subtly sensuous singing. <\/span><\/p>\n

After intermission, Haitink led a virtually flawless, if not terribly exciting, performance of the complete Daphnis et Chlo\u00e9. <\/i>Perhaps he felt that ballet tempos were most suitable for a performance of the complete score\u2014as I suspect did Pierre Monteux, the work\u2019s first conductor, when he recorded the work in 1959 for Decca. At any rate, the sections marked Vif <\/i>(\u201clively\u201d) and the concluding dance (Anim\u00e9<\/i>) lack energy in both conductors\u2019 renditions. Certainly neither approaches the two orgiastic renditions by Munch (1955 and 1961) on RCA.<\/span><\/p>\n

The playing in both concerts was everything one could wish, and the wordless singing of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Daphnis <\/em>moreso.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My week\u2019s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):<\/span><\/p>\n

2\/14 Metropolitan Opera. Borodin: Prince Igor<\/i>. Gianandrea Noseda, cond. Oksana Dyka (Yaroslavna), Anita Rachvelishvili (Konchakovna), Sergey Semishkur (Vladimir Igorevich), Ildar Abdrazakov (Prince Igor Svyatoslavich), Mikhail Petrenko (Prince Galitsky), Stefan Koc\u00e1n (Khan Konchak).<\/span><\/p>\n

2\/15 Carnegie Hall. St. Petersburg Philharmonic\/Yuri Temirkanov; Julia Fischer, violin. Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2. Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n