BSO — 2021/10/09

 Strauss and Mozart are on this evening's program. WCRB gives us the basics and some extras (video and a chance to hear or read an interview) on their BSO page:

Saturday, October 9, 2021
8:00 PM

The twin sisters take center stage in Mozart’s elegant Concerto for Two Pianos, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s "Death and Transfiguration," Saturday night at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christina and Michelle Naughton, pianos

STRAUSS Love Scene from Feuersnot
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
MOZART Concerto in E-flat for two pianos, K. 365

To hear a preview of the concert with the Naughton sisters and CRB's Brian McCreath, click on the player above (transcript below).

Watch a performance of the Naughton sisters at CRB's Fraser Performance Studio:

Transcript of Christina and Michelle Naughton's interview with CRB's Brian McCreath:

And this from the BSO performance detail page:

Andris Nelsons is joined by Philadelphia-based sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton for Mozart’s Concerto in E-flat for two pianos. Mozart probably wrote this elegant and brilliant concerto for himself and his sister Nännerl to play in about 1779; they had been performing together as siblings since early childhood. Maestro Nelsons continues his multi-season exploration of Richard Strauss’s music with both the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. A rarely heard scene from the composer’s legend-based 1901 opera Feuersnot— music not performed by the BSO since 1911—opens the program, followed by the composer’s beautiful and profound symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration.

I wish I had read the program note about "Death and Transfiguration" before I heard it on Thursday. It starts quietly and soon there comes a loud blast. I thought, "That must be death, transfiguration to follow." Instead it went on and on. It turns out the loud blast wasn't actually the man's death but something that starts him reflecting on his life of striving for the ideal through childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. Only after that long recapitulation* does death actually come followed by the transfiguration in which the ideal is finally grasped.

*Strauss suggests that the one who has stiven for the ideal may be an artist. This has me thinking that he later wrote a tone poem called "Ein Heldenleben," a hero's life (imagining himself to be the hero). This piece could be subtitled "Ein Kunstlerleben," an artist's life (with Strauss as the artist, perhaps).

Neither of the publications I go to has published a review. I found no fault with anything in the performance. Where I sat I had a reasonably good view of one of the keyboards, and the only way to tell who was playing was by sight. At times they even switched in mid-phrase. All in all an impressive BSO debut for the Naughton sisters. They were very well received by the small audience, and they gave an encore after being called back to the stage for the third time. They did it seated at one piano. It was loud and boisterous, apparently from after 1950, but nothing I recognized.

It wasn't a "must listen" concert, but there was nothing unpleasant about it. I'm glad I was there, and I think you'll like it if you listen at 8:00 this evening via WCRB.

BTW, pre-Covid, they used to rebroadcast the concert on the second Monday following the performance. There is no mention now of that happening, so I suppose that's no longer standard operation procedure. There is a section on the right side of the home page for "Past BSO Broadcasts." It lists the three most recent broadcasts. So if you miss something live, or want to hear it again, you can go there.