Concert Review: Leaderless, Not Rudderless

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra opens its 2016 season.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Photo © 2016 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra occupies a unique place in the New York cultural landscape. This collective of musicians embraces a unique, cooperative approach to orchestral playing, rotating the roles of leadership and playing all of their concerts (whether at Carnegie Hall or on tour) without the benefit of a conductor. On Thursday night, Orpheus opened its 2016 season at Carnegie with a program featuring three trusty favorites and one new work.

Concert Review: From Familiar Composers, Unfamiliar Sounds

Christian Zacharias conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra
by Paul J. Pelkonen

On Friday afternoon at Symphony Hall, Christian Zacharias conducted from the keyboard.
Photo by Stu Rosner © 2012 Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In the modern classical music world, programming a weekend concert exclusively with the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven can lead to accusations of conservatism or (worse yet) pandering to the taste of an audience whose age has gone up even as their tolerance for "modern" music (anything written in the last 100 years) has gone down.

However, as Friday's afternoon concert at Symphony Hall proved, the choice to bring back German pianist-conductor Christian Zacharias proved a wise one. For this concert, Mr. Zacharias dug deeply into the vast catalogues of these three composers, crafting an appealing program from some of their least-performed compositions.

This was the BSO's first performances ever of Haydn's Symphony No. 76, a work that falls between his fertile Sturm und Drang period and the late compositions which thrilled audiences in Paris and London. This is Haydn at the height of his powers as a spinner of inventive, constantly changing melodies laced with ease and good humor. Mr. Zacharias led a crisp performance, with the Boston players sounding as if this was a symphony that was part of their regular repertory.