“For the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s last international tour, to Europe in 2007 under James Levine’s baton, the orchestra brought fistfuls of 20th-century repertoire, including one program with works by Ives, Ravel, Bartok, and Elliott Carter,” writes Jeremy Eichler in Wednesday’s (4/23) Boston Globe. “Things look fairly different this time around, with the BSO poised to depart next week on a trip to Asia that will include its first visit to China since 1979. Lorin Maazel was supposed to conduct, and had planned three programs laden with symphonic chestnuts … [but] has now withdrawn from the tour, and Charles Dutoit, signed up in his stead, has been on hand to close out the Symphony Hall season with performances of the three (unchanged) tour programs. Tuesday night’s featured Mussorgsky’s ‘Night on Bald Mountain,’ Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,’ and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. The Rachmaninoff brought the evening’s freshest performance, thanks to the presence of the gifted young Tashkent-born pianist Behzod Abduraimov, making his BSO debut…. At the end of Thursday’s repeat performance of this program, this year’s retirees will take their bows. They are violist Edward Gazouleas, cellist Jonathan Miller, and librarian William Shisler.”
Posted April 24, 2014
