1. Sir Andrs Schiff playing Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and []
Sir Andras Schiff performed for the Celebrity Series in November.
1. Sir Andrs Schiff playing Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Mozart
Sir Andrs Schiffs Celebrity Series recital in November was part trip down memory lane, part celebration of all things related to J. S. Bach. But above all, his survey of very great music from the 18th and 19th centuries (because, as Schiff put it, Life is too short for not-very-good music) was a demonstration of an artist at the height of his powers. Recitals of 150 minutes in Jordan Hall dont often feel like theyve ended too soon. This oneenchanting, entertaining, revelatorydid.
Joana Mallwitz conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Hilary Scott
2. Music of Kodly, Tchaikovsky, and Schubert. Joana Mallwitz/Boston Symphony Orchestra
Its not every season that the BSO get to claim a brilliant American debut. This year was an exception with Joana Mallwitzs first concerts on these shores. The German conductor brought with her more than the usual hype from across the pond but she proceeded to live up to every word of it, leading a towering performance of Schuberts Great C-major Symphony as well as some zesty Kodly and, in partnership with the equally impressive Anna Vinnitskaya, a ferocious, kinetic Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.
The Danish String Quartet. Photo: Robert Torres
3. Danish String Quartet playing Haydn, Shostakovich, Britten, and Nordic folk music
There are only two kinds of music, Duke Ellington once opined. The good kind and the other kind. The Danish String Quartets January appearance bore out his dictum with terrific accounts of canonic works, followed by an absorbing survey of (mostly) Nordic folk tunes, and culminating in a time-stopping encore of Cant Help Falling in Love With You. What was more impressive: how well all this disparate music functioned together as a program or the astonishing rapport of the musicians onstage? Thankfully, we dont need to choose.
Igor Levit
4. Igor Levit playing Beethoven
Levit is a musician whose offbeat ideas sometimes get the better of him. But on this night, in which the pianist tackled the last three Beethoven piano sonatas in succession, he was firmly in his element. For flexibility, balance, and sweep, his were extraordinary, lucid, eminently right interpretations of these pillars of the keyboard repertoire.
Photo: Winslow Townson
5. Music of Stravinsky and Ads. Thomas Ads/Boston Symphony Orchestra
The BSOs long relationship with composer-conductor-pianist Thomas Ads is the artistic equivalent of a legacy that keeps paying dividends. Both of his appearances in town this year were memorable, but the finest came in March, when Ads paired Stravinskys rarely-heard Persphone with the local premieres of the Inferno and Paradiso sections from his new ballet Dante. An homage to that authors Divine Comedy as well as to Franz Liszt, the latter score proved as irresistibly fresh, inventive, and dazzling as any Ads has writtenand an electrifying reminder of how invigorating and vital contemporary music can be.
Photo: Robert Torres
6. Handels Israel in Egypt. Jonathan Cohen/Handel & Haydn Society
The Jonathan Cohen era at the Handel & Haydn Society began in style in October with a performance of Handels 1739 oratorio depicting the biblical Exodus from Egypt. The performance was thrilling both chorally and instrumentally and the soloistsdrawn entirely from the companys rankslargely impressed. Taken together, the occasion marked an auspicious new beginning for the venerable 208-year-old group.
Benjamin Zander conducted the Boston Philharmonic in Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde with soloist Sarah Connolly. Photo: Hilary Scott
7. Music of Schubert and Mahler. Benjamin Zander/Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
Mahlers symphonies are no stranger to Symphony Hall. But his song cycle Das Lied von der Erde is: the Boston Symphony has only presented the work twice this century (and not since 2013). The Boston Philharmonic last assayed the score even further back, in 2004. Accordingly, the ensembles April concert, which paired Das Lied with Schuberts Unfinished Symphony, promised to be an event. It proved as much, with Benjamin Zander leading a reading that was, by turns, winsome, reflective, and, in Sarah Connollys touching delivery of the concluding Der Abschied, evincing Zen-like poise and focus.
Gyorgy Ligeti
8. Ligeti 100. New England Conservatory of Music.
By all accounts, Gyrgy Ligeti had a memorable residency at New England Conservatory in 1993. It was fitting, then, that students and ensembles from NEC presented such engaging performances of some of the Hungarian mavericks hits as part of the BSOs weeklong celebration of the composers centenary in November. The evenings selectionshighlighted by a bracing account of the Chamber Concerto and a rare outing for the riotous, gleefully anarchic Aventures and Nouvelles Aventuressounded fresh, unpredictable, and zany as ever. One could only imagine that the exacting Ligeti, had he lived to see the day, would have loved every second of it.
Daniil Trifonov and Joshua Bell performed for the Celebrity Series. Photo: Robert Torres/CS
9. Joshua Bell & Daniil Trifonov playing Beethoven, Prokofiev, Bloch, and Franck
The Celebrity Series emphasis on blockbuster recitals sometimes hits, sometimes misses. This time around, the combination of two of the most electrifying instrumentalists of our day triumphed from the start. There was dynamic Beethoven, haunting Prokofiev, soaring Bloch, and, to crown the night, a galvanic performance of Francks A-major Violin Sonata that simply had to be heard to be believed.
Earl Lee conducted the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Newton. File photo: Jag Gundu
10. Music of Bartk, Bunch, Biber, Price, and Wiancko. Earl Lee/Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
Boston Symphony assistant conductor Earl Lee made a terrific impression in this concise and wonderfully varied program of music for strings. Leading Pro Arte, he drew lean, limber performances of dance-themed works written across three-and-a-half centuries that made, for a brief spell on a beautiful spring afternoon, the concept of time superfluous.
Honorable Mentions
The BSOs second program of the new year featured the Symphony Hall debut of conductor Karina Canellakis, whose command of demanding, relatively unfamiliar repertoire (Dvo?ks late tone poem The Wood Dove and Witold Lutoslawskis Concerto for Orchestra) was as impressive as her ability to draw out playing of real delicacy and nuance from the orchestra. Add to this the fireworks Nicola Benedetti brought to her account of Karol Szymanowskis Violin Concerto No. 2 and we had the makings of an ideal night at the symphony.
BSO music director Andris Nelsons has led a number of impressive presentations of operas-in-concert during his tenure. This time the offering was partial: the Overture and Venusberg Music, plus Act 3, of Wagners Tannhuser. Even so, the singing (Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role, Amber Wagner as Elisabeth, and Christian Gerhaher as an unforgettable Wolfram) was splendid and the orchestral playing burnished. One left Symphony Hall hoping Nelsons might someday lead the whole of this incomparably rich and tuneful Wagnerian effort in Boston.
Frank Bridge is a composer whose output has been almost entirely overshadowed by his reputation as Benjamin Brittens teacher. So it was particularly welcome to hear Benjamin Grosvenor and the Dorics team up for a thrilling, altogether compelling performance of Bridges Piano Quintet in April. Like the Haydn and Beethoven quartets with which it was paired, this is music of real personality, style, and immediacya brilliant showcase of the composers voice, as well as a perfect vehicle for the extraordinary musicians who brought his score to life.
The BPYOs eleventh season was, atypically, devoid of guest instrumental soloists. Instead, its programs mined (with the exception of Mahlers Resurrection Symphony in May) the purely orchestral canon and nowhere more impressively than on this March outing of Bartks Concerto for Orchestra and Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 5. A virtuoso workout by any measure, both pieces were dispatched with a confidence, brio, and professionalism that, as often is the case with this ensemble, belied the youth and presumed inexperience of the players.
Endings, Anniversaries, and a New Beginning
2023 saw the disbandment after 47 years of the Emerson String Quartet, who gave their final Boston concert in January, as well as the deaths of composers Kaija Saariaho and David Del Tredici, pianist Menahem Pressler, and New England Conservatory icons Russell Sherman and John Heiss.
For several prominent local ensembles and organizations, it was also a year of celebration.
Odyssey Opera marked its tenth birthday while, in October, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra opened its 45th season and the Celebrity Series its 85th. Meantime, Boston Baroque and Collage New Music concluded their respective semicentennials in the spring.
A smaller anniversary, but notable, came in the fall when Andris Nelsons began his tenth season as the BSOs music director. Hes in august company: the only other conductors to accomplish that feat were Wilhelm Gericke (over two separate appointments), Serge Koussevitzky, Charles Munch, and Seiji Ozawa. A decade on, Nelsons seems to have settled comfortably into his job, even as unbalanced orchestral playing and interpretive unevenness have increasingly become hallmarks of his appearances.
For a partnership thats brimming with potentialand consistently exhibiting purpose and energyone need only look to the Handel & Haydn Society which, as noted above, began a new chapter in October with the start of Jonathan Cohens tenure as artistic director.
The two programs hes led thus far, both of oratorios by Handel, confirmed the wisdom of his selection: neither performance wanted for drama, vigor, or electricity. One looks forward to Cohen carrying this spirit into the purely instrumental realm (well get a little bit of that in his March visit), but hes already ensured that the countrys oldest performing arts ensemble is the picture of musical vitality.
Opera here, there, and everywhere
Some years it feels like Boston is a place where opera companies come to aimlesslywander the citys cow paths. Not in 2023, though, thanks to some good luck as well as smart creative and repertoire choices.
Maybe the most conspicuous stroke of fortune came in May, when Boston Lyric Operas presentation of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels Omar coincided with the announcement that the score had won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Later in the year, the companys efforts at social relevance led it to continue its series of revisionist productions of operas by Giacomo Puccini. This falls well-intentioned but sometimes clunky update of Madama Butterfly attempted to address that works checkered dramaturgical history by updating the action to 1940s California and an Arizona internment camp, while also tweaking key aspects of its plot. Despite its hiccups, the adaptation was well-cast, -sung, and -played
BLO is usually on stronger footing with its less-interventionist presentations in non-traditional venues. Indeed, they struck gold in March with a double-bill of Bartks Bluebeards Castle and four songs by Alma Mahler at The Terminal @Flynn Cruiseport in South Boston. Naomi Louisa OConnell and Ryan McKinney offered gripping portrayals of Bartks doomed couple and David Angus led a reduced BLO orchestra with security and refinement.
Elsewhere around town, Odyssey Operas presence was limited to a single night in 23, but their February production of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollmans Awakenings hauntingly raised big questions while not settling for easy answers.
Meanwhile, Boston Baroque gave Christoph Willibald Glucks infrequently performed Iphignie en Tauride a hearing in April. Though the venueGBHs Calderwood Hallwas unideal, the economical staging, excellent instrumental contributions, and wonderful singing (highlighted by soprano Soula Parassidis focused account of the title role) were invigorating.
Likewise refreshing was White Snake Projects September offering of Monkey, a Kung Fu Puppet Parable. True, the libretto and score werent flawless. But they were entertaining and the larger work somehow managed to deftly weave into one singing, puppetry, martial arts, video projections, and references to various cultural totems (The Wizard of Oz, 70s and 80s action TV shows) one doesnt normally encounter in the opera house.
An Excellent New Hall
Bostons a place where, as poet David McCord once put it, the past is physically as well as traditionally a part ofmodern life. Thats emphatically true of the citys big concert halls and venues, which have histories as storied as their edifices are imposing and seating usually uncomfortable.
More recent (and smaller) spaces, like Longys Pickman Hall, have winning acoustics, if not commensurate aesthetic appeal. The Gardner Museums Calderwood Hall excepted, one has to head a bit farther afield to find both of those things, either to Rockports gorgeous Shalin Liu Performance Center or, now, to Groton Hill Music Centers astonishing Meadow Hall.
The latter opened a year ago and, this season, the Celebrity Series is presenting four recitals there. I attended the first, in October, and the venue proved a find. Its bright, airy, without a dead or dry spotand this in addition to excellent sight lines and ample parking. Whats more, the experience cemented what photos of the hall had been suggesting for months already: in just about every way, the place is a gem.
