Spring Break
BSO lend depth to concerto, symphony
Two editors discuss Schumann and Shostakovich after witnessing the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform.
by Hannah Kirsch
Deputy Editor
Arts | 3/18/08
Posted online at 1:07 AM EST on 3/18/08
The Boston Symphony Orchestra's concert last Friday featured Garrick Ohlsson playing Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, conducted by Daniele Gatti. Joel Herzfeld and I sat down to discuss the concert.
H: Well, what did you think about the symphony?
J: I was really confused at some point. ... I think you even noticed it, when he introduced the bass and, I don't even know what it was ... a woodwind or something?
H: Oh! No, the piano!
J: It was! It was a piano back there!
H: Yeah, it's a piano back there, isn't that great? I played the symphony first semester freshman year, and I'd forgotten they throw a piano back there. I love his instrumentation, because he uses every instrument as fully and as hard as he can, like you said about the violins. He clearly likes dragging a piano into the middle of an enormous orchestra with the gong and harps. ... It's everything he can get in there.
J: It's also really loud. The timpani at the end were pretty powerful; that was cool.
H: It's just so, so angry. He's angry because he couldn't compose what he wanted for fear of death. And he was scared, and he was young, barely 30. I think what you said with the strings, going over and over and not letting up on that high note, that's his anger. I saw you laughing during the second movement, when the violin soloist came in.
J: She's so good. I was just laughing in delight. What I also thought was really cool was in the third movement, when the violins had that very, very low tremolo. I thought that was really well done; I'd never seen that before. And then the cell phone went off.
H: Also, the guy sitting behind us should've taken a decongestant before he went to the symphony. I could have killed him.
J: Oh, and did you dig our conductor's hair?
H: The way it moved?
J: Yeah! I loved the way it flapped, and I loved the way at the end when he got really excited, and he thrust his conducting stick right into his hair and flapped around. ... I'd heard that fourth movement and also the second one before, I believe.
H: Well, what did you think about the symphony?
J: I was really confused at some point. ... I think you even noticed it, when he introduced the bass and, I don't even know what it was ... a woodwind or something?
H: Oh! No, the piano!
J: It was! It was a piano back there!
H: Yeah, it's a piano back there, isn't that great? I played the symphony first semester freshman year, and I'd forgotten they throw a piano back there. I love his instrumentation, because he uses every instrument as fully and as hard as he can, like you said about the violins. He clearly likes dragging a piano into the middle of an enormous orchestra with the gong and harps. ... It's everything he can get in there.
J: It's also really loud. The timpani at the end were pretty powerful; that was cool.
H: It's just so, so angry. He's angry because he couldn't compose what he wanted for fear of death. And he was scared, and he was young, barely 30. I think what you said with the strings, going over and over and not letting up on that high note, that's his anger. I saw you laughing during the second movement, when the violin soloist came in.
J: She's so good. I was just laughing in delight. What I also thought was really cool was in the third movement, when the violins had that very, very low tremolo. I thought that was really well done; I'd never seen that before. And then the cell phone went off.
H: Also, the guy sitting behind us should've taken a decongestant before he went to the symphony. I could have killed him.
J: Oh, and did you dig our conductor's hair?
H: The way it moved?
J: Yeah! I loved the way it flapped, and I loved the way at the end when he got really excited, and he thrust his conducting stick right into his hair and flapped around. ... I'd heard that fourth movement and also the second one before, I believe.
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