This evening's program stayed close to the conductor's native roots. Latvian violinist Baiba Skride joined him and the BSO in a performance of Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium. This contemporary Russian work starts with the melody jumping around from instrument to instrument and then expands to a kaleidoscope of sound. Sometimes the notes crunch like an avalanche, sometimes they bounce off each other in zero gravity. There is so much harmonic exploration that when a major chord comes around it sounds dissonant. Baiba Skride used the same violin that fellow Latvian Gidon Kremer used in the 1981 premiere of the work. She coaxed a variety of textures out of the instrument, from sliding harmonics to a biting snarl. Andris Nelsons had full command of the score's shape-shifting idiom; the orchestra evoked sunlight sparkling on glass and a waterlogged hull becalmed in the doldrums.
The other item on the program was from Finland, Jean Sibelius's Symphony No 2. This was a more traditional and familiar soundscape, and Nelsons reveled in the symphonic splendor. There were chances for the trumpets to shine, and they shone like molten silver. Equally fine were the principal violist, cellist, timpanist and the many wind soloists. The conductor was in brilliant form tonight, yet he was reluctant to bask in the applause. He is clearly honored to be associated with such a group of exceptional musicians. He singled out individual players, then sections, then the entire orchestra, deflecting the audience's ovation toward them before taking his own modest bow.
Another brilliantly written review! Thanks, Tom.
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