BSO photo from Feb.28 concert
Classical Radio Boston broadcasts Boston Symphony Saturday-evening subscription concerts live from Symphony Hall. Not this one it seemed, for all the searching that I did at the time, but it was recorded and is now in CRB’s archive, link below. So I am glad to catch-up with a few words. Thomas Adès’s Aquifer (for Bavarian Radio SO & Simon Rattle) is a recent and striking work, so, following Rattle it was good to hear the composer conduct it, very rewarding in fact, with the Boston Symphony in virtuoso form. Adès’s well-established ‘Concentric Paths’ Violin Concerto is a complex creation, multi-layered, requiring considerable coordination between soloist and orchestra. Here, Augustin Hadelich, who has recorded the piece, and the composer-conductor fused together meaningfully. (Hadelich’s seasoned encore was Louisiana Blues Strut by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.) Adès’s conducting repertoire is now quite extensive and includes Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies (which he has recorded for Signum). Therefore this Boston ‘Pastoral’ was the expected swift affair if played with poise by an orchestra that can turn on a sixpence to meet a conductor’s wishes, Adès avoiding rush and ruthlessness while being detail-conscious and conjuring a glowing ‘Thanksgiving’ final movement.