After the Pats victory, took a couple of weeks off from posting here to recover. Well, not really, but I did go to the parade and see the team go by, it was much better than two years ago when we nearly froze to death, and we were closer to the street this time, and Belichick was holding the trophy facing our side of the street, so that was pretty good. Didn't go to city hall plaza, just a few too many people there, but we were able to see it all live since the kitchen has two big flatscreen tv's and work pretty much came to a stop while everyone gave their speeches. So that was fun, the Pats are a dynasty, it was the greatest Superbowl ever, yadda yadda, nice to not only have a winner but one that can't be characterized as a fluke by anybody.



So let's see, I should get up to date on my concertgoing, I took the day off Friday and went to the BSO to hear Rozhdestvensky conduct his wife Victoria Postnikova in the Fourth piano concerto of Martinu, dating from the '50's, and worth hearing again. It's in two movements, relatively tonal, lots of percussive piano sections, an interesting ending to the first movement featuring wispy scales in the piano accompanied by offsetting scales in the harp. Postnikova played with the score, but made a good case for this work, bringing some lyricism to the slower sections too. I sat in the second balcony looking over her shoulder, which was a pretty good vantage point both for the piano and for Rozh's conducting style, which is non-conventional but seems to be effective.



The program began with a 50-minute long tone poem by Czeck composer Josef Suk called "A Summer's Tale", which called for a big orchestra and was a gorgeous, sumptuous piece, again worth hearing more than once. If I'd been home Saturday night I would've taped this concert. The last work was four of Dvorak's later Slavonic Dances, more conventional programming but well performed. The hall was less than half full, but those who were there seemed very appreciative.



Two weeks before that I was at the BSO for the first time this season to hear Radu Lupu play the Schumann pc. Lupu's getting a bit bald on top (I was further away from the stage but still looking over his shoulder) and uses a chair instead of a bench (maybe he has back problems). He's got a very delicate touch, good for this piece which otherwise can seem pretty inconsequential, particularly after the first movement, but I thought it came off very well. The conductor was Dohnanyi, who also did some brief recent thing called "Sterno" or something like that by Kurtag, which wasn't anything to write home about. The second half was Brahms 4, which was maybe the most exciting standard symphony performance I've ever heard, everyone seemed to be playing as though it were their first performance of it ever, and they really blew the roof off the dump.



Several more good programs coming up, I'm hoping to get to a bunch of them before the season ends. Meanwhile the Chorale was performing Carmina Burana not once but twice this weekend, the first as a command performance for the ACDA annual meeting, which was being held here in town (in the same hotel as Boskone, as it turns out). The private showing ended up not coming off that well, Allen didn't have the right glasses and made it through what could charitably be described as a cautious performance with no major catastrophes, but it was dull dull dull, at least from where I stood (and I stood through the whole thing). The audience (being all choral conductors themselves), gave what might be considered a perfunctory standing ovation, then promptly left rather than calling the soloists and conductor back onto the stage even once, as though they were all parked on a meter.



Sunday's performance came off much better, Allen had the right prescription this time and was able to let loose once in a while. The first half (although it was barely 15 minutes) was Verdi's Te Deum from the four Sacred Pieces, and although we hadn't rehearsed it with the orchestra since Wednesday night, it went reasonably well, although again a bit on the cautious (read: slow) side, like late Klemperer or Bernstein. It was a sellout crowd, and nobody cared about Verdi anyway, these were primarily Carmina groupies, and they gave an enthusiastic, immediate and lengthy standing ovation after we finished the headline work. Sometimes we have a full house and sometimes we give a good show, but when both happen together it makes for a great feeling. Even Richard Dyer wasn't disappointed, having raced over from a 2pm concert at the Gardner Museum in order to catch Allen conduct his signature piece, and gave it a glowing half-review (the other half being the concert at the museum).



In the next day or two I've got to post my recap from this year's Boskone before I forget, although this time I took a few notes so I'm hoping that will help.