Nelsons closes BSO’s Beethoven symphony cycle with glimpse of Promised Land

January 24, 2025 at 1:32 pm

By Jonathan Blumhofer

Soloists Sara Jakubiak, Tamara Mumford, David Butt Philip, and Andrè Schuen performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Andris Nelsons and the BSO Thursday night. (Photo: Michael J. Lutch)

The end of a matter, the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, is better than its beginning.

Though that reality isn’t borne out in every situation, the sentiment largely applies to Beethoven’s nine symphonies, which Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra have been busy assaying these last two weeks. On Thursday night, their project crossed the finish line with performances of the last pair in the sequence, Nos. 8 and 9.

While, on paper, cycles of the Beethoven symphonies tend to look, if not unpromising, then frustratingly safe, the reality of this one has been mostly invigorating and revealing. At the very least, the effort has served as a welcome reset for Nelsons and the orchestra, who in the last fortnight have consistently delivered readings of tonal focus, musical purpose, and palpable excitement.

That trend continued with Thursday’s account of the Eighth at Symphony Hall.

The odd duck of the composer’s last five symphonies, No. 8 is one of Beethoven’s most singular—and delightful—creations. In no other work did he look backwards to the models of Haydn and Mozart so affectionately while, at the same time, anticipating the structural concision of Sibelius and the no-nonsense, ironic manner of Ives. Throughout, everything speaks with a whimsically Beethovenian accent.

Nelsons’ reading highlighted the music’s play of light and shadow vividly, the quiet spots in the Symphony’s outer movements speaking with particular intensity. Meanwhile, the Allegretto moved coyly, its tightly unified staccato articulations resulting in moments of illuminating textural resonance.

Across the Minuet, the conductor seemed to be trying to thread a needle between a stately dance and a ribald scherzo. The spirit of the latter prevailed in the movement’s outer parts, though the Trio’s limber solos and duets—anchored by principal cellist Blaise Déjardin’s shapely triplet runs—were the picture of charm.

The latter adjective doesn’t turn up too much in discussions of the Ninth Symphony and for good reason. Here, Beethoven aimed for something altogether different, its last movement presenting a vision, via the words of Friedrich Schiller, of utopia: all men, in the parlance of the day, joined together as brothers.

Verdi called the “Choral” Symphony “the alpha and omega” of the canon, while adding that “it will be an easy task to write as badly for voices in the last movement.” He wasn’t wrong on either count, though Thursday’s rendition largely glossed over the unwieldiness of Beethoven’s management of the vocal element. What emerged, instead, was something overflowing with drama and beauty, if not quite a new world order.

While his phrasings were periodically inflexible, Nelsons’ approach to the first movement was crisp and purposeful. There was an appealing rawness to its recurring falling (and open) fifths, as well as an impressive emphasis on ensemble balances and tone color; the bassoon writing in the recapitulation, especially, lent that section a special tint.

In the Scherzo, conductor and orchestra just straddled the line between chaos and order. Woodwind and timpani contributions were excellent and the night’s iterations of the Trio flowed refulgently. So did the Adagio, Nelsons’ pure-toned, beautifully liquid account of this enchanting music resulting in the most sublime fifteen minutes of the orchestra’s entire Beethoven survey.

For its part, the finale’s opening recitative was as urgent as the third movement was serene. But there was a clear reason for this: Nelsons was drawing out the theatricality at the heart of Beethoven’s writing.

Despite a muddled “terror fanfare” or two, there was a clear sense of progressing beyond the limitations—or at least the familiarity and security—of past musical arguments and daring to grab hold of the new. Accordingly, the low strings’ first iteration of the “Ode to Joy” theme, though it hailed from a dynamic realm clearly related to the beginning of the first movement, took on a distinctively gleaming hue.

The remainder of the section continued apace, Nelsons and the BSO anchoring the proceedings with surety and brio. Never sidetracked by the little things, the ensemble ably underlined the originality of Beethoven’s writing, from the cheeky colors of the Turkish march to the viol-like echoes of a chorale accompanying the “Ihr stürtz nieder, Millionen?” episode.

Meanwhile, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (prepared by James Burton) dispatched the score’s various demands robustly. Throughout, the collective’s enunciation of Schiller’s German text was lucid and, despite a big, full-bodied sonority, the Chorus proved pliant and rhythmically agile.

So did the night’s soloists—soprano Sara Jakubiak, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor David Butt Philip, and baritone Andrè Schuen—who combined to form a well-balanced quartet. Schuen also imbued his solo admonition to “sing more pleasing and joyful” songs with fire. Once his colleagues did that, this frigid New England night overflowed with vigor and joy.

The program will be repeated 1:30 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday at Symphony Hall. bso.org

Posted in Performances


One Response to “Nelsons closes BSO’s Beethoven symphony cycle with glimpse of Promised Land”

  1. Posted Feb 07, 2025 at 2:43 pm by John L. Hodge

    This is a letter that I sent to the Boston Globe, which did not publish it:

    There is something exceptionally special about Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing all of the Beethoven symphonies this January. I’ve heard each of these symphonies numerous times, but I experienced these performances as having greater energy, clarity, and beauty than I have heard before. After every performance my reaction is, “I want to hear it again.”

    Unfortunately I could not hear the performances of Symphonies 6 and 7. I only buy rush tickets, and none were available for those concerts. Not only was the rush ticket audience excluded, also excluded was the very appreciative Friday afternoon audience that contains many seniors bused in from their residences.

    I hope BSO will rectify this omission by scheduling the Sixth and Seventh symphonies for next season, including Friday afternoons, with Nelsons conducting.

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