With two stars aligned, a luminous evening
LENOX -- Given James Levine's status and workload, the last thing you expect him to do is pick up extra work by substituting for an ailing colleague. Yet when a back injury forced
Perhaps it was the program -- two well-known works by Dvorak, a composer close to his heart -- that drew him; whatever the reason, it turned Saturday night's performance from a standard repertory concert into a bona fide event. That was partly because Levine's partner in the Dvorak Cello Concerto was Yo-Yo Ma, and, according to the BSO, it was the first time the two giants had played together. Many in the audience wondered whether sparks would fly.
Their partnership got off to a somewhat tentative start. The first movement was taken more deliberately than usual, as though the two were still feeling each other out. Ma played with his customary vitality and pellucid tone, qualities that do not cease to amaze for their familiarity. He and Levine seemed intent on probing the inner workings of the music rather than playing up its surface passions. In the lyrical slow movement, they allowed a series of duets between the solo cello and wind soloists to emerge with unaffected grace.
The true measure of their rapport emerged during the finale, a rustic dance that eventually dissolves into a long, tranquil coda. Ma, Levine, and the orchestra let this wondrous passage spin out into almost complete stillness, the music suspended in the tranquil summer night. It was music making marked not only by great talent but by great freedom. These two intensely communicative musicians should contrive to find themselves on the same stage again soon.
After intermission Levine led the orchestra in Dvorak's "New World" Symphony. This time there was no tentativeness: from the outset this was a fiery, trenchant performance. Rhythms were sharp and precise, driven by Timothy Genis's crack timpani playing. The brass playing was muscular and aggressive, every fanfare carrying an almost physical charge. Robert Sheena played the slow movement's English horn solo with mournful elegance.
Levine seemed to let everything build up to the powerhouse final movement. Its soaring main theme can, in the wrong hands, sound like trite movie music. Levine made it something vital and deadly serious.
