Ben's Thoughts on 2011-12
I enthusiastically invite you on an inspiring journey that will explore some of the greatest and most profound pieces of music ever written. The soloists we have chosen are known for their willingness to throw caution to the winds and play full out, bringing intensity and open-hearted joy to their performances. And the orchestra will, as always, throw itself with loving abandon into a kind of music-making that is so alive that it will stay in your memory for years to come.
It all begins with Sibelius’s Swan of Tuonela, a magical tone poem that paints a gossamer image of a mystical swan swimming around Tuonela, the island of the dead. The swan will be portrayed on the English horn by our principal oboist Peggy Pearson, who spins a sound that curls around our heart and brings tears to our eyes.
Then from Finland to Russia for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D. Ilya Kaler was new to us last season, but his performance of Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto in February was so riveting and his impact on the musical community during the week of rehearsals so profound, that we invited him right back to play the Tchaikovsky. It was with this piece, many years ago, that he won three of the world’s most prestigious violin competitions; it has since become his signature piece.
Then to Denmark for Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 which was written against the backdrop of the First World War and ends with the famous battle between two timpani players. Nielsen said that this symphony was his attempt to portray “that which is inextinguishable for human beings….the elemental will to live”. When we performed it seventeen years ago we were all profoundly moved: it is time for this powerful message to be heard again.
The second program introduces to Boston a rising super-star, the Croatian pianist Martina Filjak. When Christopher Wilkins, conductor of the Akron Symphony, called me after she played with his orchestra he was breathless: “This is one of the most exciting pianists I have heard! She has everything! She is like Martha Argerich!” I went on YouTube and immediately saw why Martina was the judges’ unanimous choice for the first prize of the prestigious Cleveland Piano Competition in 2009. I called her on the spot and invited her to play Bartók’s Second Concerto, one of the most thrilling and technically demanding piano concertos. On the program also will be Brahms’s autumnal Symphony No. 4 and his exuberant Academic Festival Overture, two of the faces of Brahms —the extrovert and the introvert — as a counter balance to the thorny intensity of the Bartók. Brahms’s Fourth is a pinnacle work of the repertoire, to which we return periodically, because it sets the ultimate challenge for its interpreters and teaches us so much about what it is to be human.
The third concert brings back Alexander Baillie, to portray in Lutosławski’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra the dramatic struggle of a heroic individual against a repressive society. Rostropovitch considered it the greatest of ALL cello concertos! It is notoriously challenging for everyone, but it is part of my job to broaden the musical horizons of the players in the orchestra, and those of the audience, by stretching my own. It will be a joy to welcome back Alexander Baillie, who embodies every human and musical quality that a musician should possess and will envelop us all with his warmth, unbridled passion and fervent conviction about the music. The theme of heroism will run throughout the program with Beethoven’s greatest overture, Leonore No. 3 before, and Strauss’s colossal Ein Heldenleben (a hero’s life), after intermission. What a feast for the ears and the soul!
And finally, Mahler! To experience a Mahler symphony is to enter a special world, which the BPO players and our audience know so well, since Mahler’s music has been at the heart of our repertoire from the beginning. Symphony No. 7 is his Cinderella, the least well-known and least understood of his symphonies, but I always relish the challenge to bring out its greatness. It is a perfect way to end the season, because it is the happiest, most colorful and humorous of his works. It is also the most revolutionary in its orchestration. The exotic middle movements, including the two magical Night Music movements, are amongst Mahler’s greatest inventions, but I predict that the boisterous, brash Finale will lift you right out of your seat and bring to a happy end a journey that started in the shadows of Tuonela.
The Boston Philharmonic season really is a journey, in which the musicians and the audience explore the music together. In the pre-concert explanations, like a tour guide, I will give you background information and different ways of listening to each work so you will feel right “at home”. Please join us. I will be looking for your shining eyes!
Benjamin Zander