The BSO's soon-to-be-seated new concertmaster, 'the other Nathan,' is only its 4th in the last 104 years

"We had immense pleasure collaborating with Nathan last January on Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk."

-- from Boston Symphony music director Andris Nelsons's statement
on the naming of Nathan Cole as the orchestra's new concertmaster

"I feel fortunate to have known two people who held the position before me, Malcolm Lowe and Joseph Silverstein. Silverstein [pictured at right, c2008] was one of my idols, and I grew up with many of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players recordings. Any time that I had to learn a piece, BSCP would have a recording of it with Silverstein leading, so I had his sound in my ear early on and was lucky to get to work with him before he passed away. He was extremely generous with his time and wisdom. He took himself seriously enough to continue working on his craft all the way through the end of his life. But I always got the sense that he knew he was a custodian of the position, and that everything he did was for his colleagues and for the music, and that’s something that I want to carry forward." -- from Nathan C.'s statement (same link)

In October 2017, preparing for his first performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Nathan C. video-recorded his choice for the first-movement cadenza, by "one of my heroes," Nathan Milstein (1904-1992). Nathan C. is playing the 1716 Strad formerly owned by Nathan M., which he had on loan for the occasion, an experience he detailed in a genuinely must-read account for Violinist.com: "Speed-dating a Strad: one week with Milstein's ex."

Welcome to natesviolin.com! Mentoring the next generations of violinists has been a longtime passion of the BSO's new concertmaster. An abundance of videos can be found online, and NatesViolin.com provides a wealth of resources and support for aspiring violinists as well as considerable interest for music lovers with curiosity about the nuts 'n' bolts of the medium (not to mention failed -- or shall we say "unaspiring"? -- fiddlers).

by Ken

I know that's a mouthful of a quote I've reproduced above from Nathan Cole on his appointment as BSO concertmaster. I expected to edit it down to a "tease" here, as I did with Andris Nelsons's statement, which we'll be reading in full later. But the danged quote just wouldn't edit down. I loved it when I first read it, and after several weeks of poking around Nathan C.'s career and gathering materials for some sort of overview of the succession of these three concertmasters, I'm even more impressed -- and touched. (I have pretty high regard for Joseph Silverstein myself.) And I felt even more strongly that the quote needs to be taken in one fell swoop. One thing you learn about Nathan C. is that not only is he highly knowing and communicative as a musician (we're going to be coming back to that 2017 performance of the Beethoven Concerto), but he's remarkably communicative with words.

If you were here for last week's SC pre-post, "At home with Nathan and Akiko (aka 'Stand partners for life')," you already heard Nathan C., at the time first associate concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, "pre-performing" his choice of a third-movement cadenza, Fritz Kreisler's, for that October 2017 performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. We'll come back to that performance, but first I guess we should focus on the not-quite-breaking news.

When the Boston Symphony launches its Tanglewood season on July 5, with an all-Beethoven program under music director Andris Nelsons (who this year takes on the added role of Tanglewood "head of conducting"), the orchestra will at last have a new occupant for the Charles Munch Chair, which is to say the concertmaster's seat -- named of course for the BSO's 1949-62 music director [pictured at right]. The Charles Munch Chair hasn't been filled since 35-year incumbent Malcolm Lowe retired after the 2019 Tanglewood season. (The onset of the pandemic can't have had a salutary effect on the replacement process.)


THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MALCOLM LOWE'S RETIREMENT . . .

. . . on September 12, 2019, was reported for the Boston Globe by Zoë Madonna and Isaac Feldberg, who included an affectionate look-back at Malcolm L.'s 35-year tenure. The report concluded: "The orchestra will immediately begin to plan the process of auditioning and appointing a new concertmaster." Of course six months later the world -- emphatically including the music world -- shut down. Beginning in January of this year, the orchestra was able to schedule guest-concertmastering weeks for (presumably) its short list of leading candidates, which seems to be as close as the process came to public attention until the dramatic announcement of May 20: "The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons are very pleased to announce the appointment of violinist Nathan Cole as the orchestra’s new concertmaster."

The announcement, which included the statements from Andris Nelsons and Nathan Cole which I excerpted above, has naturally received widespread attention. This is one of the world's premier orchestras, with an especially proud heritage of concertmasters. In the BSO's history, stretching back to 1881, Nathan C. will be only the 11th concertmaster, and only the fourth since Richard Burgin assumed the post in 1920. Over those 104 years, the line consists in its entirety of:

No. 8, Richard Burgin (1892-1981): 1920-62

No. 9, Joseph Silverstein (1932-2015): 1962-84

No. 10, Malcolm Lowe (born 1953): 1984-2019

No. 11, Nathan Cole (born 1978): as of July 2024

FOR ME PERSONALLY THIS IS ALSO A BIG DEAL

Because the Boston Symphony meant in the formative years of my music-listening, dating back to the late years of the Munch era, when I discovered the hour-long Evening at Symphony television programs, which I watched on Sunday nights on whatever crappy-looking and -sounding TV we had. Then in the Leinsdorf era, when I was a Brooklyn transplant and the BSO's New York appearances included not just its regular Carnegie Hall series but a shorter one at the (pre-improvement) Brooklyn Academy of Music, I discovered discount forms were available for high school students which could get us $1 tickets! Is it any surprise that I attended considerably more BSO than NY Phil concerts?

Much as I had come to love the recorded sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra (which I got to hear very occasionally in Carnegie Hall), the BSO quickly became my idea of what a symphony orchestra should sound like, with its beautifully disciplined and balanced sound in all sections, and all its wonderful principal players. And my goodness, the orchestra played so beautifully for Maestro Leinsdorf [pictured here]! When their first RCA recording, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, came out, I snatched it up, all the more tickled by the free companion LP packaged with it, of historic BSO recordings. By the way, I still love that Concerto for Orchestra! Also, having heard my first Mahler symphony when Leinsdorf and the BSO brought the First to BAM, I grabbed up their recording of that too when it turned up in stores -- and I still love that performance too!

BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra: movements 1-3 (of 5)
i. Introduzione: Andante non troppo - Allegro vivace
ii. Presentando le coppie: Allegro scherzando [at 9:44]
iii. Elegia: Andante non troppo [at 16:12]

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1962

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 in D:
i. Langsam. Schleppend - Immer sehr gemächlich
(Slow. Dragging - Always very leisurely)

iii. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
(Solemn and measured, without dragging)

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Oct. 20-21, 1962

My sentimental attachment to the BSO lasted through the Steinberg years and into the Ozawa era -- which is to say pretty much the whole of the Silverstein era. I love too that Nathan C. makes such a point of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, because I loved those recordings as well, and they're very much of "the Silverstein era." As I understood it, the BSCP was very much a Leinsdorf innovation, and its artistic direction was entrusted to his chosen concertmaster, who would be succeeded in time by his successor, Malcolm Lowe, and now by his successor.


I'VE SPENT SEVERAL WEEKS LEARNING ABOUT NATHAN C. --
AND LOOKING BACK AT MALCOLM L. AND JOSEPH S.

I still know nothing more than I've already mentioned about the BSO's selection process. I don't know who the other "auditioned" candidates were, or the programs they were matched with. I don't know how Nathan C. felt about drawing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which would be a huge assignment for a concertmaster with a decade of experience with the orchestra. This is, after all, more than 2½ hours' worth of music that the whole orchestra has had to learn, and the concertmaster has to not only come in with his own part down cold -- or rather parts, since there are solos in addition to the regular first-violin part, but a degree of awareness of the other string parts, and for that matter the rest of the orchestra, and some reasonable idea how the orchestra's part fits into the totality of a performance of the opera.

The conductor, of course, has to control this entire enterprise, including 34 vocal solo parts plus various sorts of choral contributions -- not to mention whatever kind of platform presentation will be arranged. I'm guessing that a project like this doesn't get realized in a mere week of reherasal, and that since the conductor happens also to be the music director, additional time has been worked into the rehearsal schedule, but again, the conductor must also be depending particularly on the concertmaster for maintaining communication with the orchestra as a whole and in its components, helping ensure that his instructions and wishes are successfully communicated to all.

And yes, the opera has violin solos, which I would think is almost the least part of the concertmaster's job in such an undertaking, and yet is the part that's going to be on public display.

Do I have to add that Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is anything but an easy or obvious score for an entire orchestra to be learning and absorbing from scratch? Maybe we should try to get --

A TINY TASTE OF SHOSTAKOVICH'S LOW-RENT LADY MACBETH

BSO president and CEO Chad Smith talks to Andris Nelsons about their upcoming performances of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

The January 2024 concert performances of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk were described in the orchestra's materials as "the most ambitious endeavor in the BSO and Andris Nelsons’ multi-year survey of the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, just as Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was an immense undertaking for its 24-year-old composer."

Long before this year's performances of the complete opera, way back in April 2015, late in Nelsons's first season as BSO music director, they performed the Passacaglia, the interlude from Act II, on a program that also included the Shostakovich Tenth Symphony. DG recorded both live, and issued them on a CD that would be followed by five two-CD sets that completed a recording of the 15 Shostakovich symphonies and some additional orchestral works.

The program included this note:

Shostakovich began the score in late 1930, basing it on Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella of the same name; the story is a dark portrayal of Katerina Ismailova, the oppressed, ambitious, and ultimately murderous wife of a provincial merchant. The opera was a worldwide sensation following its 1934 premiere, but after Josef Stalin attended a performance in January 1936, an unsigned Pravda editorial titled “Muddle instead of Music” unequivocally damned the piece and put Shostakovich in real danger. The composer responded by hastily writing the ostensibly heroic, triumphant Fifth Symphony, thus surviving the first of many confrontations with Stalin and the Soviet regime.

The first three of the opera's four acts have multiple scenes, which are joined with orchestral interludes (sometimes overlapping the action).

SHOSTAKOVICH: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Op. 29:
Act II: Interlude, Passacaglia (Largo)

Katerina, who in her unhappy marriage to the merchant Zinovi Ismailov lives a life combining tedium and torment, has been discovered by Zinovi's loathsome, lecherous father-in-law Boris entertaining a strange young man, and sees no better option than to poison the mushrooms Boris is demanding to be fed. The scene ends with Katerina lamenting and a priest wailing over the dying Boris, giving way to an interlude that takes us to a scene in which Katerina indeed makes her guest, Sergei, her lover.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, cond. DG, recorded live in Symphony Hall, Apr. 2-4, 2015

Act III, with three scenes, has two interludes; the first of them, which we're about to hear performed as a concert encore, can drive an audience wild -- the Munich audience's ovation is almost as long as the interlude.

Act III: 1st Interlude, Allegretto

At a celebration of Katerina's impending remarriage -- to Sergei -- a wildly besotted Shabby Peasant, raging at his miserable lot in life and desperate for something alcoholic to drink, gets the idea of rummaging the Ismailov cellar. When he opens the door, an awful stench streams out. He nevertheless braves the stench to search for liquor, but instead discovers the corpse of Katerina's "missing" husband Zinovi (whom Katerina and Sergei had found necessary to dispatch as well). The orchestra, already roused to drunken exuberance, begins the Interlude in that state as the woebegone Shabby Peasant sets out to report his discovery to the police -- an encounter that doesn't go at all the way he imagines.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons, cond. Live performance (as a concert encore) from the Herkulessaal of the Residenz, Munich, 2010


I DON'T KNOW WHETHER NATHAN C. HAS TALKED ABOUT
HIS PREPARATION FOR HIS BOSTON "AUDITION" CONCERTS

So I don't know how Nathan C. felt about his audition assignment (a curse? a golden opportunity?) or how he prepared for it. I'd love to know more about his preparation, especially considering that it seems to have worked! One thing we do know, albeit after the fact, is that the candidate took away good memories of the experience, as expressed in his official statement:

"This opportunity to be the BSO’s next concertmaster feels like something that I’ve been waiting for my whole life. When I auditioned with the BSO back in January, for me it was an immediate, warm feeling both from my colleagues in the orchestra and Andris on the podium. I loved the way that Andris spoke in terms of imagery and was really clear about the sound that he wanted. I felt that he left it to us and our creativity to decide how to get those sounds, but at the same time, he was very specific and persistent about what he wanted, and I loved that. I also felt great support from the orchestra, especially from my fellow violins."

And this fuller version of Maestro Nelsons's statement suggests that the good feelings were mutual:

"The BSO and I are very happy to warmly welcome Nathan Cole as the next concertmaster of our great orchestra. We had immense pleasure collaborating with Nathan last January on Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and we look forward to embracing his leadership within the orchestra, exploring our joint musical values and partnering on our artistic journey together to serve the great music both within and beyond our Boston community."

ONE THING I HAVE NO INFORMATION ABOUT . . .

. . . is the status of his wife, Akiko Tarumoto, whom we met last week. As we know from last week, Nathan mentioned in his statement: "My wife Akiko and I and all three of our kids are super-excited about the move to New England!" But relationships between working orchestral musicians have built-in kinks. Akiko seems to be still listed as an assistant concertmaster at the LA Phil.


AT LONG LAST, I DO WANT TO GET BACK TO NATHAN'S
2017 PERFORMANCE OF THE BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO

I know it was quite a while ago, but you may recall that we heard Nathan pre-performing the Milstein cadenza for the first movement of the Beethoven Concerto. In his posting of the video of that performance, he referenced that illustrious earlier Nathan:

"One of my heroes (I'm the 'other Nathan'!) wrote cadenzas for most of the major concertos, including this one for the first movement of the Beethoven. When I was able to play his instrument for a performance of the concerto, I also played this cadenza in his honor.

"Although he played many different versions in performance, including some you can find here on YouTube, this is the version published in the Schirmer edition of his cadenza collection.

"This extraordinary instrument was set up with Pirastro Passione strings for the G-D-A strings, and a steel E. The Passione is a modern gut string (with metal winding, of course!) that allows us to come close to the setup Milstein used."

Here's the 51-year-old Nathan M.'s 1955 recording of the
Allegro ma non troppo of the Beethoven Violin Concerto:

[cadenza by the soloist, at 17:40] Nathan Milstein, violin; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Capitol-EMI, recorded in the Syria Mosque, Jan. 10, 1955

And here's how Nathan C.'s first movement turned out:


[cadenza by Nathan Milstein, at 20:45] Nathan Cole, violin; Azusa Pacific University Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Russell, cond. Live performance, Oct. 27, 2017 [audio posted by Azusa Pacific University]

Am I the only one who, coming new to the playing of the "other Nathan," hears a distinct resemblance to that of his hero Nathan M.? There's an energetic directness of expression yet at the same time an unaffected elegance of phrasing and tone.


THE COMPLETE BEETHOVEN CONCERTO

BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61

[Azusa Pacific University has posted the audio of the complete concerto on YouTube.]
Nathan Cole, violin; Azusa Pacific University Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Russell, cond. Live performance, Oct. 27, 2017


HMM, WE HAVEN'T GOTTEN YET TO THE "THREE
BSO CONCERTMASTERS" PORTION OF OUR PROGRAM --

And I have the feeling I've already overtaxed your patience. So I think we're going to have to put that off for separate posting.

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