Word: previn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin" suite opened the program by exhibiting the best qualities of today's BSO. Under Music Director Seiji Ozawa's baton, the orchestra always excels in the playing of modern French masterworks. Add to that experience the wit and insight of Previn, and the result cannot help but please...
...Suite's Prelude began with the freely flowing phrasing of oboist Alfred Genovese, who discarded the mantra-like, beat-conscious playing one often hears in favor of a more natural mood. Previn's motions were minimal and expressive, drawing cues out of the orchestra rather than grabbing them. This method resulted in slightly missed timing once or twice, but the total effect was etheral--the music became removed from the orchestra as it sought its own course...
Genovese carried this feeling into the Menuet as he rode gently above the strings' smoothness. By the end of the movement, the audience had heard the full dynamic range of the strings. And finally, in the Rigaudon, Previn elicited a bit of the flaunting playfulness missing from the Forlane...
...Previn sprang into action for the symphony, directing more vigorously than he had in the Ravel. In the second movement, which is predicated on rumbling rotations around a handful of pitches, Previn admirably prevented the BSO from sounding cumbersome. The eerie series of suggestions from the winds and keyboard instruments was neatly enveloped by the strings' rolling momentum...
...often attributed to performances of Brahms by Rudolf Serkin, was not accompanied by Serkin's occasional dryness. Ax smoothed over transitions between sections rather than making them stark, resulting in a resolute and self-assured delivery. That purposefulness continued in the second section of the first movement, in which Previn added some time for emphasis in the orchestra's tuttis...