BSO/Classical New England — 2021/09/25

 Sibelius tonight (and others).WCRB gives the essentials, plus an interview with the conductor, on their BSO page:

In an encore broadcast from 2019, John Storgårds leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Finnish music past and present, including works by Saariaho and Sibelius, Saturday night at 8pm.

John Storgårds, conductor
Martin Helmchen, piano

Kaija SAARIAHO Ciel d'hiver
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 6
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 7

Encore broadcast from January 26, 2019

Hear an interview with conductor John Storgårds and CRB's Alan McLellan about this program in the audio player above.

TRANSCRIPT:

Alan McLellan [00:00:00] I wanted to ask you about yourself. You've had a career as a violinist as well as a conductor. How did you get from violin to conducting?

John Storgårds [00:00:08] It was stepwise thing because I was, already as a student, I 

Here's what I wrote about it (minimally edited):

This week the BSO gives us three works by Finnish composers and one by Mozart. The orchestra's program detail page has the usual links to background information, including all the program notes. It also provides this synopsis of the concert:

Making his BSO subscription series debut, conductor John Storgårdsleads pianist Martin Helmchen in Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The Finnish Storgårds also brings three Finnish works to Symphony Hall, beginning with Kaija Saariaho's gorgeous study of orchestral color Ciel d'hiver ("Winter Sky"), an arrangement of a movement from her earlier, symphony-like Orion. Jean Sibelius's final two symphonies, nos. 6 and 7, are two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature. Though very different from one another, both demonstrate the composer's distinctively rich orchestration and organic, fluid transformations of material.

(Some emphasis added.)

Whether the Sibelius symphonies are "two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature" and "very different from one another" are matters of opinion, and mine differs from that of the writer of those words. To me, these symphonies were not nearly as engaging or interesting as his earlier symphonies. There was nothing very unpleasant in them, so they are certainly easier to listen to than a lot of 20th century music, but at one point I was reminded of what a critic said of a symphony of Bruckner: it's like a walk in the forest — you see nice things, but nothing happens. In other words, I found them dull. Perhaps I will feel differently if I can listen to them again during the rebroadcast on February 4. The Saariaho piece could have seemed dull too, but for whatever reason, it didn't. I thought it lived up to its name.

The reviewers don't agree with me about the Sibelius being dull, although the Globe doesn't seem to think they are very different from one another. Other than thinking that the Mozart concerto, while well performed, didn't belong with the other three works, the reviewer was very happy. The Intelligencer gives extensive analyses of the Finnish pieces (expressing more positively my Bruckner comparison). Overall, the review is positive, with some specific reservations.

By the way, there were women freelancers playing second flute, third horn in the Saariaho, and second, third, and side horns in the Sibelius. There was also a freelance tympanist for the Saariaho and the Sibelius 7th. In the 6th, percussionist Kyle Brightwell did the honors on the kettledrums, and gave an interesting contrast to the stranger. Throughout the symphony, young Mr. Brightwell could be seen almost constantly checking the tuning of his instruments by putting his ear close to the surface of a drum and tapping it with a finger. Usually, it was okay, but occasionally, he adjusted the tuning with a mechanism at the top of the instrument. The interloper, OTOH, apparently didn't have perfect or absolute pitch, so he relied on a little electronic device to check the pitches of the drums, and he felt no need to keep checking. He checked them before the symphony began, and only once during the piece.

Anyway, I think the concert, even if it isn't quite at the "must hear" level, is worth listening to when WCRB provides it on air and over the internet at 8:00 p.m. EST [this evening].

There you have it — not the greatest concert ever, but worth hearing. Enjoy.