Glancing back over the BSO's concertmaster path from 1962

When Erich Leinsdorf (center) became BSO music director in 1962, he engaged Joseph Silverstein as concertmaster; two years later he hired away Cleveland's principal cellist, Jules Eskin. Both long outlasted him -- Silverstein until 1984, Eskin until his death, at 85, in November 2016.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake: Act II, Dance of the Swans - Pas d'action (Odette and the Prince; 2nd Dance of the Swan Queen)

Bernard Zighera, harp; Joseph Silverstein, violin [at 1:20]; Jules Eskin, cello [at 4:55]; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, November 1978

by Ken

One measure of an orchestra's greatness is its principals, and we just heard the 1978-vintage Boston Symphony putting on quite a show -- one after the other after the other. I think we can hear then-music director Seiji Ozawa having a ball with the range of choices, both bold and intimate, made possible by his soloists' instrumental prowess and creative imagination, knowing too that pretty much anything he can think to ask of them, they can give him. Of course the same thing applies to the orchestra as a whole.

By 1978 Joseph Silverstein and Jules Eskin had been making music together for 14 years, not just as fellow orchestra principals but as fellow founding members of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 1964. (Was the prospect of Leinsdorf's plan for the BSCP part of the lure that brought Jules E. to Boston from Cleveland?) They remained as foundations of Seiji Ozawa's BSO, and Jules would wind up teaming up with Joseph S.'s successor, Malcolm Lowe, even longer than he had with Joseph S. (in the post-to-come we'll hear him paired with both); he was still on the job when current music director Andris Nelsons took the reins (in 2013 as music director designate, in 2014 as music director).

Harpist Bernard Zighera [right] dates way farther back, to the early years of the Koussevitzky era, having been imported from Paris in 1926 to be in place when the harp principalship opened, two years later. For his first 17 years he was the orchestra's pianist as well. (When he had to choose, and chose to retain his harp position, his piano duties were taken over in 1943 by a young Koussevitzky protégé name of Leonard Bernstein.)

So we're all on the same page, let me note that we're picking up from last week's "The BSO's soon-to-be-seated new concertmaster, 'the other Nathan,' is only its 4th in the last 104 years," but the plans I had for a survey of the concertmaster succession from Joseph Silverstein to Malcolm Lowe to the incoming Nathan Cole have kept turning and twisting and been obstinate about resisting forward movement. So I got the idea of this sort of transitional post where we'll get to listen to a lot of nice music. Never mind that very little of it was in the plans and so had to be worked up from scratch.


WE'RE GOING TO RETURN TO SWAN LAKE IN THE POST-
TO-COME. FOR NOW LET'S JUST ENJOY SOME LISTENING

MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64:
ii. Andante -- Allegretto non troppo

It occurred to me that it might be more interesting if I don't immediately identify our soloist and conductor. It's not a test, just a prod to our hearing.

No, don't crank up the volume at the start! Our soloist is really choosing to play this music -- which I sometimes think just may be the most beautiful ever written -- so, er, confidentially. There's plenty of presence in the sound; I'd describe it as quite intense; the soloist just isn't going to make a display of it. Meanwhile the conductor has the orchestra not just phrasing but practically breathing with the soloist. How often do you get a soloist and conductor so closely in sync?

I've chosen, by the way, to let the Andante run a bit beyond its strict bounds -- you'll recall that at this point Mendelssohn was experimenting with running all the concerto movements together, and quite adroitly so in the case of the Violin Concerto. Having reached this point, with something about to break out, like maybe an energetic Rondo (oops -- spoiler alert?), I thought we might just pause here. Right, that's what we'll do. In the post-to-come, we can back up again just a little bit and then let the full transition to the Rondo happen.

How about maybe a little chamber music?

STRAVINSKY: L'Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Story):
Music for Scene 1: Airs by the stream

Boston Symphony Chamber Players (Joseph Silverstein, violn; Henry Portnoi, double bass; Harold Wright, clarinet; Sherman Walt, bassoon; Armando Ghitalia, cornet à piston; William Gibson, trombone; Everett Firth, percussion). DG, recorded in Polydor Studios, London, July 6, 1975


NOW WE HAVE A SERIES OF EXCERPTS FROM (I THINK!)
A LIVE CONCERT IN THE TABERNACLE AT TEMPLE SQUARE

Well, the "Hallelujah Chorus" is hardly a novelty from what used to be called the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (okay, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square -- isn't that what it now prefers to be called)? Sure! Heaven only knows how many times the "Hallelujah Chorus" has been recorded, let alone performed, in the Tabernacle. By the way, I like this go at it a lot. But the "Humming Chorus"? This is Puccini's inspiration for transitioning out of the bad day that was Act II -- to the even worse day that'll be Act III. Do you suppose it crossed his mind that one day it would be hummed by a power chorus of Mormon hummers?

From there we've got, well, an interesting assortment of selections, all drawn from the 14 numbers that appear on the von Stade Simple Gifts CD.

HANDEL: Messiah: Part II, "Hallelujah Chorus"

[UPDATE: Sorry about the "I bought me a cat" clip! It's fixed. -- Ed.]

SCHUBERT: "Ave Maria," D. 939 (arr. Chris Hazell)

with Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano

PUCCINI: Madama Butterfly: Act II, "Humming Chorus"


COPLAND (arr.): Old American Songs:
Set I, No. 5, "I bought me a cat"
with Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano

BERNSTEIN and SONDHEIM: West Side Story:
Act II, "Somewhere"

with Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: A Song of Thanksgiving

with Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano; Marion D. Hanks, speaker; Salt Lake Children's Chorus

In all the above (well, not always the choir) --
Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Silverstein, cond. Decca, recorded live (in the Tabernacle?), c1991

Oho, a semi-major work slipped in here! The publisher of Vaughan Williams's Song of Thanksgiving, Oxford University Press, offers this description of the work on its website:

"Originally entitled Thanksgiving for Victory, A Song of Thanksgiving is a powerful and moving work that celebrates the Allies' victory in World War II. It was first recorded in 1944 while the war was still ongoing, but was not broadcast until victory had been achieved in May of the following year. Comprising seven movements, it sets texts from the Bible alongside words by Shakespeare and Kipling, lending the work a sense of timelessness and grandeur."

(NOTE: You can find printed texts interspersed among extensive enthusiastic comment on Debi Simons's Behind the Music blog.)

A WORD ABOUT THE COPLAND-ARRANGED AMERICAN SONGS

There were two on the program, "Simple Gifts" and "I bought me a cat," and originally I was thinking we seem to have a lot of quietly soulful music on our plate today, so maybe we go for the more up-tempo "I bought me a cat" -- which isn't all-that-up-tempo in von Stade's telling, what with the need to really articulate the story in the Tabernacular space and allow the singer vocal space for the animal impressions, which the audience seems to love.

Since then, however, I kept thinking, "But 'Simple Gifts' is, you know, "Simple Gifts," after all! Not to mention that the CD I've managed to trace that contains all this material was presented by Decca as a von Stade recital called Simple Gifts. It so happens that von Stade makes quite a lovely thing of this grand old song, and the Tabernacle Choir backs her up, um, tabernacularly (even if these choristers don't seem to have any trace of Sharks' or Jets' blood in them), so --

I THOUGHT WE WOULD GO OUT WITH --

COPLAND (arr.): Old American Songs:
Set I, No. 4, "Simple Gifts"


Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano; Utah Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Silverstein, cond. Decca, recorded live (in the Tabernacle?), c1991

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