Christmas is over and its the dead of winter and work has been less zany lately, so I've been sneaking out at lunchtime to catch the odd concert or two when I can. After four years working downtown, it's about time I did this sort of thing.



Went to my first BSO open rehearsal a couple of weeks ago just for the heck of it, not because of the specific program or soloist or anything. Since Levine has come to town, there's been a bit of a row over how he was using his open rehearsals to actually rehearse, and to primarily rehearse the difficult new piece on the program (some Elliot Carter thing back in November really set everybody off). The general consensus of the open rehearsal-going public is that they expect to see basically a performance for $16 bucks and get to sit wherever they want, which is not a bad deal, and that is generally what they get. I think guest conductors are probably warned "rehearse at your peril" for these events. While listening to the orchestra and conductor actually rehearse would be interesting too, at least for those of us that are musically inclined, it's hampered by the lack of any means for the audience to hear what the conductor is saying to the musicians, so if he does a lot of stopping and starting with long soliloquies in between (which apparently is what Levine was doing), the natives can get restless mighty quickly, 16 bucks or not.



What I heard was more of the typical rehearsal-free open rehearsal, conducted by the Austrian Hans Graf, and consisting of two works by Hindemith and two flute concertos with Sir James Galway as soloist. Everyone on stage was in street clothes, there was a giant clock on the wall keeping the union happy, and I could sit in a $100 seat on the aisle and on the main floor. Graf did both Hindemith works (Mathis der Maler and the Op 50 Konzertmusik for string and brass) back to back, although they would bookend the actual performance. These densely textured yet very lyrical works benefited from being up close and personal and made them that much more exciting, and Graf was obvious in his element with this music. After playing each work straight through, he went back and worked on a couple of little sections but only for a few extra minutes.



Galway came out after a break to go through his stuff, a piece he commissioned from William Bolcom called "Lyric Concerto", which was full of Bolcom's jazzy melodies and definitely showed off the instrument, followed by the 2nd Mozart Flute Concerto (actually a transcription of an oboe concerto) which Galway played with great familiarity and that signature twinkle. He had his golden flute for the rehearsal, although the review said he used a platinum one in the performance. I'm not a huge fan of the solo flute repertoire, but Galway made a great case for both works, all that was missing was his usual concert get-up.