Paris in the 1920s

This weekend a French conductor leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program of four works that had their premiere in Paris in the 1920s.

The BSO slimmed down to a chamber orchestra for much of tonight's program, and guest conductor Stéphane Denève got the musicians to underplay in an easygoing, genial style. The reduced volume revealed textural details of the scores, and it was only during the loudest ensemble sections that I was reminded how much power the Boston Symphony can unleash. Denève had the first and second violins divided left and right on the stage instead of this year's usual configuration of all the violins stacked to the left of the podium. From my vantage point at the top left balcony I couldn't detect any antiphonal counterpoint; perhaps those seated center in the auditorium had a better stereo experience. It will be worth listening with headphones to the live radio broadcast of Saturday night's concert.

The first work was a suite from Igor Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella, based on music of two centuries earlier by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Sleuthing musicologists have determined that over half of the source tunes were not by Pergolesi at all, but no matter. Stravinsky delighted in reorchestrating this material, overlaying his harmonic and rhythmic signature and launching what would be his neoclassical style.

Denève started the next work, Sergei Prokofiev's first violin concerto, in profile with a finger to his lips. This was a signal for the audience to allow the orchestra to enter at its quietest. Rarely have I heard the typically restive Symphony Hall so absolutely still. The soloist, James Ehnes, plays a 1715 Stradivarius. His tone grabbed my attention with the first note, and he had me completely focused by the third. His playing highlighted the lyricism that underlies much of Prokofiev's work. Ehnes treated us to an encore: the Adagio from Bach's Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005. What a gorgeous sound. During intermission I requested as many of his recordings as I could find from my library network.

[James Ehnes was born in Manitoba and currently resides in Florida. As a New Englander who has endured one of the most brutal winters in recent memory, I can empathize.]

The first piece after intermission was the score to Darius Milhaud's ballet La création du monde. The work only calls for eighteen musicians, including a featured alto saxophone. Milhaud drew upon American styles, and much of the music evokes Paul Whiting's jazz orchestra. As fine as the BSO players are, they didn't make a very convincing swing band.

The evening closed with a suite from Francis Poulenc's ballet Les Biches. Although this was the first time the BSO performed the work, Denève and the full orchestra were completely in their element, displaying light finesse and Gallic charm. After all, the Boston Symphony earned the reputation in the early twentieth century as the greatest French orchestra in the world.