An old favorite and an oddity from the BSO
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According to music director Andris Nelsons and the BSO's performance on Thursday, you don't, and you probably leave with more questions than you had going in, but that isn't a bad thing.
Take that 'William Tell' giddy-up refrain: Is Shostakovich dreaming of childhood fantasies, a la 'The Lone Ranger'? Could he be calling on something from the Tell legend itself: the brave folk hero standing up against a tyrannical ruler, or the rage and terror any parent would feel if their child might be in danger? Shostakovich never provided definitive answers, and Nelsons and the BSO reveled in those ambiguities throughout the evening's colorful performance.
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The BSO has only performed this oddball piece a few times throughout its history, and with it they paired one of the most-performed standards in the symphonic repertoire: Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, with the distinguished Mitsuko Uchida at the keyboard. Uchida's professional career has long since passed the half-century mark, and her repertoire selective but deep; no to much of the grand Russian repertoire, yes to Mozart, Schoenberg, Schubert, and Beethoven. She has also had a lengthy association with teaching and directing Vermont's summer Marlboro Music Festival, which has many alumni in the BSO, and there was a distinct current of mutual admiration and respect in the air as Uchida took the stage.
From the keyboard, Uchida conjured an elegant interpretation on the classic concerto, sculpting her phrases with subtle rounded edges and bell-like intonation while making judicious, measured use of the sustain pedal. (Her pedalwork was easily visible even from the balcony thanks to her eye-catching silver shoes, which seem to be a signature piece in her closet.) Trills were as relentless and percussive as spring rain, and just as invigorating.
Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 on April 17, 2025.
Hilary Scott/BSO
In the second movement, when the orchestra faces off with the pianist in answering and overlapping statements, Nelsons and the BSO almost seemed to be goading the soloist, as if seeing what it would take to interrupt her calm contemplation; Uchida remained unassailable, answering with delicacy. Even the lively third movement was genteel in her hands, sparkling with bemused warmth. The audience appealed for an encore, and Uchida declined with a smile.
After intermission, the Shostakovich symphony began with sounds of percussion clockwork, and Nelsons deftly conducted the mercurial first movement, leading the orchestra through delicate atonal latticework and the recurring 'William Tell' theme with equal confidence and momentum. In the second movement, the whole world briefly reduced itself to the sound coming from principal cellist Blaise Déjardin, as his instrument became a lonely and all too human voice crying out — first against stony silence, then versus even stonier chords from the brass section. Concertmaster Nathan Cole also proved his Shostakovich bona fides more than once, contributing sinewy and sweetly sardonic solo passages at several junctures. If Cole ever plays either of Shostakovich's violin concertos, with the BSO or any other orchestra, I'll be first in line for a ticket.
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Through his career, Shostakovich was fond of the musical form passacaglia, which places gradually evolving harmonic variations over a repeated bassline, and the leadup to the finale of the 15th Symphony features a particularly intense example. As the BSO approached its emotional apex, the sound itself felt somehow blinding, the stage too bright to look at directly. Leipzig, if you're reading this, you might want to pack some sunglasses.
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
At Symphony Hall April 17. Repeats April 19.
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