The Year in Reviews: Concerts and Recitals in 2011

The year of the "new jack" maestro.

Life saver: Sean Newhouse (left) stepped in for James Levine.
Here, he conducts Prokofiev with pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
Photo by Stu Rosner © 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra.

With disasters striking down a number of prominent conductors this year (Seiji Ozawa's battle with cancer, Riccardo Muti's fall and injury, and a whole stack of misfortunes for James Levine), 2011 was the year that young conductors stepped up to the podium and took charge. From Sean Newhouse in Boston to Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Philadelphia, this was the year of a continued youth movement on North American podiums.

It was also a busy season for your favorite classical music blog. 94 concerts in four different cities. And seeing one more this week to make it 95. On to 2012!


Budapest Festival Orchestra: The Rite of Spring (Jan. 27)
"Under Iván Fischer's direction, the taut polyrhythms and blasts of brass acquired a fearsome, battering force, hammering at the senses in a frenzied dance. A reprieve came with the second section of the ballet, but it was not to last."

Boston Symphony Orchestra: Sean Newhouse's Boston debut (Feb. 27)
"Mr. Newhouse proved himself up to the task on Saturday night, leading a vigorous performance that balanced the extremes of this long, difficult work. The young conductor did more than just beat time--he offered his own interpretation of the work, making Mahler's last completed symphony a profound and deeply humanistic statement."

Louis Lortie plays Liszt (March 11)
"The pianist took his audience on a detailed tour of Liszt's travels in Switzerland. He drove the piano, playing from his shoulders, crossing hands for the most difficult passages and ranging across his instrument as Liszt traversed the Alps."

Leif Ove Andsnes at Carnegie Hall (April 9) 
"Mr. Andsnes brought a fiery approach to the first movement, conjuring up the stormy figures and near-fugal textures common to late Beethoven. The second movement was far more lyrical. The slow Arietta was played with quiet, poetic restraint."


Cleveland Orchestra: Bruckner Eighth. (July 17)
"Mr. Welser-Möst took a surprising, fast tempo for the opening movement, creating driving figures in the strings that moved the work forward and opened vast sonic vistas for the listener. This enabled the full 18-piece Cleveland brass section to cut loose with massive, block chords, voiced in stately, organ-like tones by horns, trombones and Wagner tubas."

New York Philharmonic: A Concert for New York (Sept. 11)
"The heavy, stentorian opening blared out with emphatic force. Mr. Gilbert drew inspired music-making from the veteran winds and strings, playing the uplifting main themes with emotion missing with some other conductors."

Cleveland Orchestra: Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky (Oct. 9)
Mr. Welser-Möst brought maximum clarity to this work, which had not been heard at Severance Hall in nearly four decades. The orchestra responded brilliantly, as the knotty musical lines untangled themselves and the work coalesced. The brass, asked to make difficult contributions in this work, responded admirably, as did the superb woodwind section.


Yuja Wang's Debut at Carnegie Hall (Oct. 21)
"Ms. Wang dived into the opening theme (a representation of Mephistopheles) and brought the wild energy of Faust's ill-fated adventures out in the early pages. The plunge into the abyss was chilling, ending in grim, matter-of-fact low notes."

London Symphony Orchestra And Chorus: War Requiem (Oct. 24)
"The London Symphony Chorus was a force unto itself, declaiming the Latin text of the mass with the authority of the Metatron. The fiery incantations of the Dies Irae blazed forth with power. They were also key contributors to the success of the later movements, especially the slow-moving setting of the Agnus Dei."

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Garrick Ohlsson: Rachmaninoff Three (Nov. 7)
"The first movement's complicated cadenza held the audience breathless. The slow Intermezzo sang a sad Russian song. And the pell-mell finale, calling for the greatest degree of virtuosity from the pianist proved a thrilling experience."

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Nov. 21)
"Actress Caroline Dhavernas was a powerful, dramatic force. Her hair bound up and her dress plain (historically accurate, as Joan was tried wearing men's clothing), Ms. Dhavernas became a simple figure of faith standing up for injustice."


Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".

Concert Review: Pinch Hitter Enters Starting Lineup

BSO's Sean Newhouse presents first program at Symphony Hall.

Sean Newhouse leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Photo by Michael J. Lutch © 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra's second program of its 2011 season features conductor Sean Newhouse. This budding American conductor made a splash last February, subbing for an ailing James Levine, conducting a superb Mahler Ninth on two hours' notice. But with Mr. Levine now gone from Boston, Mr. Newhouse (who holds the post of assistant conductor at the BSO) had the opportunity to conduct his first subscription concert at Symphony Hall.

This proved to be a strong evening of orchestral war-horses, led with energy and style. The concert opened with Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes--a work originally commissioned in 1946 by Serge Koussevitzky, himself a former BSO music director. Mr. Newhouse offered smooth string tones, a brassy sunrise in Dawn and an idyllic picture of Britten's fishing village in Sunday Morning, complete with gossiping woodwinds.

The idyll yielded to the deceptive calm of Moonlight, which pictures the fisherman Grimes on the edge of panic, literally teetering on the edge of a cliff. The opera's raw emotions burst out in the final, furious Storm, led with great emotion and simultaneous restraint by Mr. Newhouse. The work ended with a moving orchestral elegy for Britten's doomed hero, a sympathetic epitaph for the unsympathetic Grimes.

Serge Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto is the most popular of the composer's five, an ideal showpiece for the right soloist. Here, it was French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Mr. Bavouzet played the three movements with the right blend of ironic detachment and virtuoso technique. This concerto features some of Prokofiev's most challenging piano figures, driven with folk-like melodies that twist and turn, as the soloist dazzles the listener with raw technique.

In addition to impressive gymnastics (crossing hands in what pianists call the "pretzel trick") Mr. Bavouzet played with an elegant, liquid tone, creating legato transitions not often heard in most interpretations of this composer. The cadenzas were delicately played, with each note precisely in place and the whole flowing smoothly. Mr. Newhouse proved a strong accompanist, handling one tiny orchestral hiccough without missing another beat.

Mr. Newhouse returned to center stage for the Second (and most popular) Symphony of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The product of strife and the 20-year struggle for that country's independence, the Second depicts conflict between Finland and neighboring Russia. The first movement depicts the idyllic Finland with the threat of war on the horizon. BSO assistant principal oboist Keisuke Wakao led off the folksy opening figure, answered by chugging strings and a majestic brass chorale.

With its plucked opening, the slow movement is all dread and suspense. Mr. Newhouse led this tricky, episodic Andante with care, creating the aural images of a Russian army on the march and its impending crack-down on the smaller country's dreams of independence. The third movement shows the Finns preparing for war, stocking up supplies and hunkering down as the conflict erupts. It was briskly played, with an elegaic second theme in the bassoons.

Sibelius ended this symphony on an optimistic note with a rising, surging theme led by the brass section that depicts (eventual) victory over the Russians. Mr. Newhouse responded to the material, riding the waves of brass and strings to lift the last pages of this mighty finale into a joyful union with the opening wind oboe theme. This was a statement concert from an important young conductor, whose arrival in Boston may be a key part of James Levine's lasting legacy to the BSO.

Concert Review: A New Baton For Mahler's Threnody

Sean Newhouse.
Image © SeanNewhouse.com

Saturday night's concert at Symphony Hall featured Boston Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Sean Newhouse leading the third of four performances of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony. Mr. Newhouse is a 30-year-old American conductor, who left the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2010 to assist BSO music director James Levine. He was promoted to the podium following 11th-hour back problems that incapacitated Mr. Levine, forcing the 68-year-old maestro to cancel his appearances this weekend.

The Mahler Ninth is a dark symphony, containing forebodings of the composer's imminent death. Although it is in four movements, its atypical structure (with the slow movements coming first and last and two fast movements in the middle) presents challenges to any conductor. The outer movements required the building of long, shining bridges of sound, delicate structures of strings and wind that breathe and yearn with longing. The central scherzo and Rondo-burleske walk the line between sentiment and grotesque parody.

Mr. Newhouse proved himself up to the task on Saturday night, leading a vigorous performance that balanced the extremes of this long, difficult work. From the faltering heartbeat that starts the first movement to the final, shimmering violin figures of the last few bars, Mr. Newhouse was firmly in control of his orchestra. But the young conductor did more than just beat time--he offered his own interpretation of the work, making Mahler's last completed symphony a profound and deeply humanistic statement.


Nowhere was this more apparent than in the third movement. Marked Rondo-Burleske, its bizarre structure allows Mahler to vent his rage with bitter irony. But under Mr. Newhouse, the burlesque became a subtle, almost Bach-like fugue. The theme was tossed nimbly from section to section. The entire orchestra took flight as the trumpets (led by principal Thomas Rolfs) came in to soothe the conflict, playing a warm, comforting theme. The entire orchestra took up this new theme, until a blast of brass and percussion ended the Rondo where it began.

The last Adagio expresses something far more difficult: the infinite. A heart-wrenching melody in the cellos sings out. It extends into a lengthy contemplation which includes quotes from three (and possibly four) other Mahler works. Robert Sheena's English horn offered thoughtful commentary throughout. And the harp part maintained Mahler's faltering heart-beat played by principal Jessica Zhou.

Mahler left his final thoughts to the strings, led by concertmaster Malcome Lowe. Given the late substitution on the podium, Mr. Lowe's role in the success of this performance cannot be overstated. As the great orchestra faded, brass players put down their horns, and percussionists laid their mallets to rest. All that was left were the strings, playing quiet bits of melody that quoted from Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. The great sonic space of Symphony Hall was suddenly empty of all but those thin musical threads. Mr. Newhouse slowly lowered his arms, and the piece ended in profound, reverent silence.