BSO — 2018/02/03

Two pieces from around 1900 make up the first part of this week's program. After intermission we get something from this decade. The BSO's program detail page has the usual links to background information and tells us this about the program:

Former New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert leads a recent work by California-based composer John Adams, his Scheherezade.2, a work composed for violinist Leila Josefowicz. Adams's four-movement work is a 21st-century response to the Arabian Nights paralleling Rimsky-Korsakov's 1888 symphonic score. Opening the program is Jean Siblelius's atmospheric tone poem En Saga ("A Saga"), which features many of the composer's characteristic touches of orchestration and folk-music-influenced melody. Claude Debussy's Jeux ("Games"), was enormously influential for later composers in its luminous and nuanced orchestration.

(Some emphasis added.)

My mother told me that my paternal grandmother used to say, "A little Sibelius goes a long way." Maybe it seemed so in the 1930's to someone born in the 1880's, but when I began to hear his music, I was pleasantly surprised. IMO it's quite good in the context of its own time, to say nothing of later composers' work. I found "En Saga" quite enjoyable. "Jeux," on the other hand, was unimpressive to me. Fans of Debussy might like it.

As for "Scheherazade.2," it did nothing for me. The music was a pretty good fit for the scenario — loud and soft, fast and slow, as appropriate — and it enabled the violinist to show her technical prowess. I enjoyed watching one of the percussionists playing the hanging gongs and a set of hanging polished pod-shaped pieces of wood. John C. Adams is a well known and respected composer of our time. Perhaps his best known work is the opera "Nixon in China," which is imagines the thoughts of several of the participants in Nixon's historic trip. It has some musically interesting pieces in a "minimalist" style. (I also like Nixon's explanation to his wife of why he didn't send many letters during his navy service in WWII: "The Pacific Theater was nothing to write home about.")  But "Scheherazade.2" just wasn't attractive to me as music.

The reviews are respectful, but difficult to summarize. It's fair to say they're supportive of the concept of Scheherezade.2 and admire Ms. Josefowicz's playing. They spend a fair amount of space describing the work. The Globe's reviewer was unimpressed by the playing of the Debussy but liked how they played "En Saga." The Intelligencer, with the freedom of an on line publication, has much more to say about the first two pieces, and was content with how both were performed.

The only piece on the program I really want to hear again is "En Saga." My brother's phone call will keep me from listening to "Scheherazade.2" during the live broadcast this evening, but if I'm free on March 12 I'll listen to the rebroadcast to see if it is more satisfying on a second hearing.

You can hear the whole concert this evening, starting at 8:00, Boston Time, and again on March 12 at 8:00 p.m. EST. WCRB will broadcast and stream it at both those times. Note the interviews with conductor and violinist which are linked on the page about this concert, as well as other information about programming, also linked.