Growing pains at the BSO

Andris Nelsons is a native of Riga, Latvia, and his first full weekend as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra showcased the core repertoire of his roots. German: he started the concert with Beethoven's Symphony No 8. Eastern European: the second item was the suite from Béla Bartók's pantomime, The Magic Mandarin. Russian: the conductor closed the evening with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, 'Pathétique'.

Nelsons has a visceral style of conducting. The music dances through him, and his whole body becomes an expression of the score. At times he stabs with his baton like a sword; at other times puts the baton away and weaves the music with his fingers. For the quietest passages he will retreat to his rail and shield his face with his hands. The large gestures allow players to follow him with their peripheral vision and focus on the notes on the page. 

That said, tonight's concert showed some growing pains between the orchestra and conductor. A cello solo in the Beethoven was drowned by the horns. The Bartók was generally loud and didn't take advantage of all the textures of the score. The third movement of the Tchaikovsky opened with a tempo struggle between the strings and winds. Throughout the night there were more than a handful of false entrances, burbled attacks and wrong notes. 

The audience enthusiastically cheered the first two works. But as the low strings faded into nothingness in the final movement of the Pathétique there were a few stifled attempts at an ovation. Nelsons held the silence for fifteen seconds before releasing his baton for applause. This introspective gesture seemed at odds with his otherwise extrovert performance. Perhaps it will take some time for the audience and orchestra to read the new conductor's body language.