Riccardo Chailly, "rhythm and character"
Boston Phoenix classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz wasn't looking forward to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra's February 28 program, but, he wrote, "I’ve enjoyed few orchestral concerts this season more."
It was Riccardo Chailly's first visit to Boston at the helm of the Leipzig orchestra, his last three visits were with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Celebrity Series, of course). Put simply, Lloyd was impressed:
"Chailly has two qualities that are the sine qua non of great conductors: rhythm and character. He seems incapable of allowing a dull or empty phrase to emerge from the ensemble. He actually plays phrases rather than notes, and each phrase has a kind of rhythmic snap that keeps listeners on their toes. Strauss’s Don Juan virtually exploded, and then the great oboe solo, depicting the Don Juan’s ideal love (or his longing for it), spun out like a beautiful aria, vocal silk. Even the usually bloated Ein Heldenleben (“A Hero’s Life” — Strauss’s not exactly modest self-portrait) had an irresistible forward rush, partly the result of Leipzig’s lean string sound and partly created by Chailly’s decision to aerate the orchestral texture by placing (as does BSO music director James Levine) the first and second violins on opposite sides of the stage. The basses practically hanging over the edge of the stage gave a thrilling buzz to the bottom-feeding lower depths." Read Lloyd Schwartz's complete review
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