¡Olé, BPYO!

Sunday afternoon at Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square: The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra presented a Spanish-themed program, although none of the composers were actually from Spain. Guest conductor James Blachly opened the performance with Maurice Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole. I would describe Blachly's reading as orderly but not very beguiling. He brought the orchestra to a convincing crescendo in the fourth movement but missed several opportunities to push the momentum forward. 

Principal conductor Benjamin Zander took the podium for Alberto Ginastera's Harp Concerto, and the orchestra responded with more punch. Ginastera was a 20th-century Argentinian composer, and this work showed textural similarity to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The fast sections were rhythmic and percussive, the slow sections sparse and atmospheric. Harpist Anna DeLoi was masterful in the required range of articulations, from the biting needlework of the opening passage to the popped harmonics and pedaled lifts of the solo cadenza. There was even some hand-rapping on the soundboard. 

The third item on the program was Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, described as "fantastic variations on a theme of knightly character." Cellist Jonah Ellsworth portrayed the idealistic hero, and violist Gerald Karni depicted his blustering sidekick, Sancho Panza. Ellsworth attacked his cello in much the same way that the beclouded knight attacked his imagined enemies. Yet when the hero regained his sanity, Ellsworth coaxed tenderness from his bow and showed Quixote's elevated dignity in the face of defeat. Benjamin Zander was successful in drawing forth all the colors of Strauss's score, and the conductor was visibly moved by the achievements of his young musicians. The audience was equally moved, as evident by the respectful silence after Quixote's death and the subsequent ovation.