In Saturday’s (10/17) Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler writes, “It was a homecoming of sorts Thursday night in Symphony Hall as the BSO’s former assistant conductor Ludovic Morlot returned to lead the orchestra for the first time since concluding his three-year appointment in 2007. … From the podium he exudes a crisp incisive musicality and a vibrant energy without resorting to theatrics. He can also put together a distinctive program, at least judging from Thursday night’s thoughtful grouping of Martinu’s ‘Frescoes of Piero Della Francesca’ with Stravinsky’s ‘Capriccio’ and Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasy ‘Francesca da Rimini.’ In addition to those works, the BSO entrusted Morlot Thursday night with the American premiere of a piece by Augusta Read Thomas, ‘Helios Choros II (Sun God Dancers),’ co-commissioned with the London Symphony Orchestra. The work is conceived to be freestanding, but it also serves as the central movement of a much larger piece Thomas is cobbling together with commissions from two additional orchestras. … Morlot and the orchestra gave the work a vibrant first reading Thursday night, responsive to its challenging rhythmic demands as well as to its fractured lyricism.”
Posted October 19, 2009
