Faneuil Corridor glowed in full splendor on the gorgeous spring afternoon of March 30th as road performers buzzed outdoors in full pressure and a Mark Wahlburg film was taking pictures downtown. Contained in the Nice Corridor, the BB&B was getting ready for its aptly titled “The British are Coming!”
With heroic-scale portraits of America’s Sons of Liberty wanting down, and as a lover of all issues Britten, I positioned myself expectantly with a considerable keen crowd. Conductor Steven Lipsitt approached the rostrum and greeted us disarmingly earlier than eschewing the baton to moonlight because the piano soloist for the primary piece, leaving the concertmaster and principal violinist to steer the ensemble’s lush string textured therapy of the well-known “Greensleeves” — AKA “What Baby Is This.”
No matter how one is aware of the tune, its magnificence is really inescapable for anybody even remotely affiliated with western classical music. We heard the Vaughn Williams association, melodic, if considerably simplistic. With Lipsitt on the piano, and the total complement of strings in dialog, corridor resonated with lush consonance, the “Fantasia on Greensleeves” warmed issues very pleasantly.
Lipsitt’s affable, educated, and downright charming demeanor, each as a conductor, and because the emcee for the afternoon’s efficiency, struck the right steadiness between being informative, and delving into the program-note realm. He merely shared his love for this repertoire, and defined how the Serenade, deriving from the Italian “night music,” catalyzed the live performance.
Elgar’s three-movement Serenade takes a sonatina type. The primary and final actions circulate with a lyrical, whereas a cantabile motion occupies the center. Whereas he was well-known for his work as a choral and chamber composer, this work, Lipsitt asserted, was Elgar’s first large-scale orchestral success.
The primary motion, with its sweeping gestures in virtually waltz style, featured singing violins atop a strolling basso ostinato. The violas, in pizzicato, made stored the ensemble in time with Lipsitt’s clear, if considerably restrained conducting. Within the second motion, the lyricism of the violins within the low register achieved an virtually operatic degree of expression within the interaction with the violas. Apparently, the strings gave the impression to be in battle with themselves about whether or not the energetic directionality and intention of the motion was to seduce, pacify, or profess love. On the threat of positing programmatic potentialities, it appeared to me that this motion, with its longing and plaintive suspensions and passionate higher violin sweeps, may very simply be imagined as an overture to an opera I’d like to see. Much like the primary motion, the third felt considerably anticlimactic, with a lulling 6/8 lilting melody within the higher strings. Maybe Elgar wished to pacify listeners after the joy what got here earlier than.
Benjamin Britten wrote his Temporal Variations for Oboe at solely 23 years outdated. There was some dialogue on the titling. Can “temporal” discuss with one thing secular, versus sacred; or as associated to time, and its passage? Lipsitt steered that it would relate to the general public observance of communal ideas — contemplating Europe’s war-torn state on the time he wrote it.
BSO Oboist John Ferrillo made his first Boston look 40 years in the past with this group and is a “preschool buddy,” Lipsitt chortled, playfully, commenting on the passage of time, as he launched the oboist for the Temporal Variations.
Starting with ominous low strings in tremolo, the plaintive cry of the oboe articulated a lyrical prelude for what was to return. The oboe in alternating recitative and cadenza fashion, established an antiphonal name and response in opposition to the strings. Playful soloist texture in opposition to arpeggiated strings was the theme within the second motion. The strings, nonetheless, a bit of too excitable, lined the oboe in its low vary; the chunk of the melismatic strings overwhelmed the clearly succesful soloist. Maybe that is how Britten supposed, with the soloist rising from the feel solely when the composer desired, virtually painfully oscillating between the diatonic main tone, and the tonic.
The following motion gave the oboe its first likelihood to sing into some melodic line versus purely punctuating virtuosic delicacy. On this motion, which though critical classical music, had a comedic, notably jazzy high quality. It’s fairly fascinating Britten’s intertwined nature of the soloist and ensemble, with the ensemble taking part in each directly an accompanimental function, in addition to a collective soloist function. The strings felt a bit of disjunct right here, not placing appoggiatura concurrently, however they recovered shortly thereafter. The soloist returned to the sustained two-note motive, with the strings in rather more explosive and shimmering fortepianos, increasing right into a last final crescendo, finishing the work.
Throughout the intermission, I sat with electrical pleasure over the possibility to listen to reside, one in every of my favorites, counting the seconds for the pause to conclude. Conversations continued within the viewers as voices rose to compete with the tuning. This household affair possessed a sure relaxed allure.
French hornist Rachel Childers turned the primary feminine brass participant on the BSO 11 years in the past, and tenor Matthew DiBattista labored with Lipsitt as a highschool pupil years in the past, each having soloed with Lipsitt and his ensemble; this made for a collective homecoming, as Britten’s virtuosic and seminal work for tenor, horn, and strings backdropped a celebratory reunion.
The pure horn makes excessive calls for on most gamers, and Britten didn’t fairly grasp the complexity of beast though he wished its timbres. Childers used the valvless horn to nice impact within the prologue and the epilogue. The second iteration of comparable music (epilogue) labored with extra success. I can’t wait to comply with her journey from succesful to stellar, as she grows to navigate Britten’s virtuosic calls for seamlessly.
The “Serenade” (op. 31), a multi-movement work, units poems by many composers spanning from antiquity to Britten’s contemporaries. Every motion presents totally different challenges and alternatives for the soloists and the ensemble alike, for colour variation, and expressive gestures. The vocal traces, written for Britten’s companion, Peter Pears, vary from diminutive to bombastic, and all over the place in between, virtually touching 3 octaves of vocal vary. DiBattista has apparently carried out lots of the works of Britten, however maybe by the pandemic, his voice underwent a maturing course of, and the voice now has a relatively baritonal high quality, versus the sonic and vocal flexibility required for this piece and lots of the Britten works for the singular voice of his companion Peter Pears. He couldn’t determine whether or not to sing in full modal voice, or in a falsetto; the latter turned a bit shaky in his interpretation of the (Lyke Wake) “Dirge.” Alternatively, his tackle “Hymn,” a playful and charming duet with the horn, and “Sonnet” notably moved us, with the voice discovering its path in wealthy lyricism for the ultimate actions.
Whereas some improper notes, improper rhythms, and inconsistencies in tuning from each soloists and the ensemble marred this outing, the standing ovation and roaring accolades signified that maybe I’m too near this Serenade, and that I set expectations too excessive.
Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite supplied a tonal palate cleanser after the angularity and musical complexity of the 2 Brittens. The ensemble achieved cohesiveness this time. I can’t consider I’m saying this with Britten’s Serenade on this system, however BB&B saved its finest for final.
The primary motion felt lusty, thick textured, people dancy. One couldn’t assist however think about sitting round a desk in a dimly lit tavern with grog being slung from behind an outdated picket bar. Maybe the entire group coming collectively on a Sunday afternoon to make partaking and entertaining music, the mother and father of kids laughing as they get dizzy from spinning, falling on the darkish oaken ground. With tight rhythmic sense, and playful power, the ensemble embodied the idea of group engagement, and true musical collaboration.
The second motion took on drawing room class, with theviolins twirling and spinning in a waltz, whose ardour and eagerness to interrupt down the partitions of refinement hides simply beneath the floor, solely sometimes giving us glimpses of the potential for raucousness.
The third motion had the orchestra in pizzicato, accompanimental configuration whereas concertmaster once more soloistically performs a quasi-Slavic, plangent, Bartokian melody, accompanied by principal viola in lovely duet. The complete ensemble ultimately reclaimed the theme in lovely harmonic unison.
Lastly, returning to the pastoral feeling, the fourth motion surprisingly returned to the “Greensleeves” theme, rigorously and superbly obscured within the string texture, and it cleverly bookended this pleasurable, and expertly programmed live performance.
