BSO — 2022/03/05

 This evening we get an unfamiliar piece, a new piece, and a warhorse which is a "signature piece" of the BSO, Here'a the WCRB synopsis:

Saturday, March 5, and Monday, March 14, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the Greek violinist joins the Boston Symphony as the soloist in the American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s "Shards of Silence" Violin Concerto, and Andris Nelsons conducts Ives and Berlioz’s otherworldly "Symphonie fantastique."

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

IVES The Unanswered Question
Unsuk CHIN Violin Concerto No. 2, Scherben der Stille (Shards of Silence) (American premiere; BSO co-commission)
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Hear a preview of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Leonidas Kavakos using the player above (transcript below).

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Leonidas Kavakos, who's back in Boston for an American premiere, a concerto that was written just for you. Leonidas, thank you for spending a little bit of time with me today. I appreciate it.

As usual, you can read or listen to the interview at the WCRB page.

The BSO's program page has links to the program notes as well as the following summary:

Music Director Andris Nelsons is joined by one of his frequent collaborators, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, for the American premiere of celebrated Korean-German composer Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Scherben der Stille(“Shards of Silence”). Co-commissioned for Mr. Kavakos by the BSO, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, and the London Symphony Orchestra, the concerto receives its U.S. premiere in March 2022 at Symphony Hall. Chin won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2004 for her first violin concerto. A staple of the BSO’s repertoire for generations, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique virtually defined the emotional intensity of musical Romanticism while also vastly expanding orchestral virtuosity. Opening the program is the American composer Charles Ives’s mysterious, innovative tone poem The Unanswered Question (1908), which features a striking solo trumpet part.

There is a tepid review in the Intelligencer. I can't find a review in the Globe.

I always like to give new pieces a chance. My brother will call from Tokyo at 8:00 this evening, so I'll miss the live broadcast this evening, but I'll listen to the rebroadcast on March 14. I'm also looking forward to hearing "The Unanswered Question." Ives is definitely idiosyncratic. I'm confident almost everybody will like the Berlioz after intermission.

8:00 p.m., Boston Time, this evening and March 24.