View early media reviews, quotes, and articles about the Boston Philharmonic, and Benjamin Zander.
Huffington Post: Arts and Culture: If You Space Out During this Concert, We'll Certainly Understand
"Zander describes the end of "Also Sprach" as "enormously moving. The resolution of the calm and the heart's ease, after all the suffering in the final pages of that work, are extraordinary, in spite of the fact that the two keys are kept simultaneously -- a wonderful ambiguity." The Planets came along 20 years later and further demonstrates the way music was changing. "Holst also uses atonality," Zander notes. "In the Mercury movement, the first violin is in B flat, and the second violin in E major -- the key signatures are different in different instruments. A very 20th century piece." -Michael Levin. Read it on Huffington Post.com.
Boston Magazine: The Planets at Symphony Hall Will Change Your Life, Trust Us.
"This concert has never happened before, and it’ll never happen again. It is an experience you can only have in the concert hall. It is the powerful confrontation of two works that deal with the biggest issues available to man, played by a great orchestra, in one of the greatest—maybe the greatest—concert hall in the world, with the greatest organ of any concert hall in the world,” he says, his voice dissolving away like the “Neptune” choir. And it’s just going to happen one time."
-Kyle Scott Klauss Read it on Boston Manazine's Blog.
Boston Classical Review: Boston Philharmonic opens with epic works by Holst and Strauss
"Having studied with Holst’s daughter, Imogen, in his youth, Zander may have more familiarity with this score than most. His approach to the music is multifaceted. From the podium, he led with deliberate gestures, oftentimes doing little more than keeping time. But he keeps a close ear to the musical phrase. Entrances were handled clearly, crescendos sculpted and shaped in flowing arcs. Tempos were tight, even fleet." -Aaron Keebaugh
Read it on Boston Classical Review's site.
Boston Musical Intelligencer: BPO Pairs Two Mystical Classics
"The Planets, a suite of considerable originality and refinement, lifted off with thumping, marching “Mars”, while the orchestra, fired up for the event, let loose percussion and brass in fff. The cavernous space of Symphony Hall was filled with Philharmonic sound and Zander held the players together in the driving 5/4 rhythmic structure." -Michael Johnson
Read it on Boston Musical Intelligencer
Boston Musical Intelligencer: BPO's Musical Healing
"Though the 9th Symphony is now so familiar that it is rare to be surprised by the work, Zander managed to do just that by cleaving with fierce independence to Beethoven’s metronome markings. The result was that many of the movements were considerably faster than this listener has ever heard. For the most part, the orchestra was up to the challenge... it was an expansive, tender, furious, despairing, mysterious, and ultimately exalting rendition. -Elisa Birdseye
Read it on Boston Musical Intelligencer
Boston Globe: Zander and Boston Philharmonic Return to Beethoven's 9th
"On Monday night, the Ninth delivered by Zander and the Boston Philharmonic was a fascinating and often briskly exciting ride, even allowing for the occasional misadventure. The brisk tempo choices in the outer movements in particular helped unlock this music's primal energy and inner rhythmic drive. Yet it was in the second movement that tempo experiments turned the most radical, with Zander taking the trio section not just presto but "prestissimo," in observance of a marking in Beethoven's original manuscript." -Jeremy Eichler
New York Arts: Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic returned to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
"Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic returned to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time in nearly two decades (a concert postponed from the Boston shutdown after the Marathon bombing). Zander has for many years been concerned — even obsessed — with Beethoven’s controversial metronome markings, which many musicians feel are unrealistically fast. But coming very close to those markings, yet somehow not focusing on them, this Ninth (I attended the last of three performances) had a fleet transparency that was immediately infectious, gripping, and finally quite moving. The orchestra and the Chorus Pro Musica were both superb and polished. The proto-Mahlerian awakening had an edge-of-the-seat suspensefulness. The second movement gallop was an exciting juggernaut. The third movement Adagio (“cantabile”) was like a floating — indeed, sailing — lullaby, with a single, unstoppable pulse.The evening began with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture. Zander made the most of its dramatic pauses and wholehearted emotion. High praise to say that the Ninth Symphony lived up to this masterful prelude." -Lloyd Schwartz
Worcester Telegram & Gazette: Beethoven as you've never heard him
"You may think you've heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Think again, says Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, which will perform the famous and fabulous composition in a concert in Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St., Worcester, at 8 p.m. Oct. 3." -Richard Duckett
