BSO — 2023/02/18

 The newest piece from the BSO this evening was composed in 1939. As always, we start with WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, February 18, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 27

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the Boston Symphony for Saint-Saëns’s virtuosic Egyptian Concerto, and Israeli conductor Lahav Shani leads the BSO in his Symphony Hall debut with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s dazzling Symphonic Dances.

Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

To hear a preview of Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Sym

The BSO's performance detail page tells us just a bit more about each piece  and provides the usual links:

Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, making his Symphony Hall debut, and elegant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian, a brilliantly virtuosic but tuneful Romantic-era work for which Thibaudet is an ideal interpreter. Sergei Prokofiev’s delightful First Symphony was conceived as a 20th-century successor to works by Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ingeniously constructed, brilliantly colorful Symphonic Dances was his last finished work. 

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Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical (15)

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian (29)

---- Intermission----

RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances (33)

The reviews are in. The Globe likes the way all the music was performed. The Intelligencer is maybe a notch less fulsome but still quite favorable.

I misread the season preview brochure and thought that this concert was one I wasn't especially interested in, so I decided to stay home. It was nice to relax, but I'm sorry I missed the show. Interestingly (to me) the brochure from last spring said the piano concerto would be by Aram KLhachaturian, another 20th Century piece. I don't see any explanation of the change, but maybe they thought it would make the concert "too much of a muchness," and opted for the 19th Century concerto instead.

Enjoy this evening and on the 27th.