BSO — 2020/01/18

There is new music (pretty good, IMO), familiar Mozart music, and unfamiliar Tchaikovsky music in this week's Boston Symphony concert. The performance detail page (for once listing the pieces in the order they will be performed — now that wasn't so hard, was it?) tells us:

Making his subscription series debut with these concerts, BSO Assistant Conductor Yu-An Chang, who is from Taiwan, leads the world premiere of a new BSO-commissioned work by the prominent Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-sun Lee. Austrian pianist Till Fellner makes his second appearances with the BSO as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, the biggest, most symphonic, and most contrapuntally intricate of his concertos. Compared to his five other symphonies, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 (the nickname “Polish” was not the composer’s own) is rarely performed; the BSO last played it in Symphony Hall in 1995. The symphony is, unusually, in five movements, three of which are strongly dance-oriented.

(All emphasis added.)

The title of the new piece is "Formosan Triptych," and there is plenty of descriptive material available via links from the performance detail page, WCRB, and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.

I couldn't be there on Thursday, but I exchanged my ticket and attended the Friday afternoon performance, which I enjoyed. The "Formosan Triptych" was never unpleasant to listen to. I caught some of what the program notes mention ( e.g., horn player Jason Snider and tuba player Mike Roylance blowing through their instruments), but other things I could only guess at. Even if the criticisms in the Intelligencer are fair, I wasn't at all unhappy with what I heard in the Mozart and Tchaikovsky. BTW, the conductor was very animated, using big, fluid gestures to direct the orchestra.

The review in the Globe expresses dissatisfaction with how the Tchaikovsky was performed, but likes the Mozart. Of course, with a world premiere, a critic is in no position to say they got it wrong, and the reviews are mainly descriptive. As hinted earlier, the Intelligencer's reviewer was dissatisfied with how both the Mozart and Tchaikovsky were performed. On the Intelligencer's front page, you can also find interview articles with Ms. Lee and Mr. Fellner.

I think you'll like this concert, so I recommend listening over WCRB at 8:00, Boston Time, this evening, and again (same time) on Monday, January 27.