Word: haitink
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...Boston Symphony recently hosted guest conductor Bernard Haitink and pianist Andras Schiff in music of Brahms and Beethoven. These pieces were preceded by some rather tepid Tippett, the ritual dances from The Midsummer Marriage. That music will receive no further comment, except that the reading was rather soporific from an ensemble that so prides itself on favored-stepson status with the late British composer...
Brahms' First Symphony concluded the program. This composer was not always so beloved in town--in the 1890s, it was proposed that a sign above the rear of Symphony Hall should read "exit in case of Brahms." No one ran for the door, however, as Haitink masterfully mustered a grandiose yet precise reading. At the risk of iconoclasm, his technique is much clear and less irksome than Uncle Seiji's. To be fair, however, the first movement lost focus en route to the slinky final recapitulation...
...with a drawn-out progression of three chords, which add an overarching solemnness to the otherwise warm and lighthearted mood of the piece. Mozart develops his musical ideas in a straightforward way, referring only once to the music within the opera. Filling in for BSO Principal Guest Conductor Bernard Haitink, Andrew Davis carried off a fabulous execution of this overture. The orchestra achieved a beautiful, warm tone, but still managed to capture all the playfulness of the piece...
...Haitink's finale constituted nothing less than a triumph. The "alpenhorn" theme flowed majestically through the Shed and Lawn, as did the brass chorale that follows it. Haitink's initial reading of the main theme (the one derived from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) seemed last at first. The tempo, however, reaped its reward in the development, instead of the usual disconnected and episodic character of that section. Haitink's interpretation was brisk and lively. He could only be faulted for his treatment of the piece's climax--the return of the chorale--which he sprinted through with inappropriate disinterest...
...could certainly gain immense quality and repertoire from a music director of Haitink's skills. It's true that Seiji Ozawa hasn't been talking about retirement, but Haitink gave the orchestra glimpses of Herbert von Karaian's Berlin Philharmonic, Carlos Kleiber's Vienna Philharmonic and George Szell's Cleveland Orchestra. If they could also strengthen their sound with a few more powerful players, the BSO would catapult itself back to the stature it knew under Charles Munch--that of the foremost symphony in the nation...