B6 The Boston Globe TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019
Names
By Zoë Madonna
GLOBE STAFF
LENOX — It’s one thing to conduct
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, an-
other to play a concerto with it, and a
whole separate feat to do both at once.
Doing both with satisfying results is
even more difficult. This kind of dou-
ble duty poses a high risk for a poten-
tially high reward, and Friday evening
at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music
Shed, violinist Leonidas Kavakos —
and the audience — just about hit the
jackpot.
It’s probably a safe assumption that
Kavakos knows Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto better than the back of his
hand. More importantly, he knows
what he wants from the piece. His vio-
lin sounded with silvery agility and a
resonant warmth more typical of a cel-
lo. No phrase was insignificant; his
performance wasn’t immaculate, but
his spirit was boundless.
Kavakos stood at floor level for the
concerto. When he wasn’t playing, he
held his violin in his left hand and
conducted with his right. When he
was playing, associate concertmaster
Alexander Velinzon put forth a heroic
effort to steer the ship, but the connec-
tion between Kavakos and orchestra
was at times spotty. A note of caution
was evident whenever they played to-
gether.
In contrast, the energy soared
whenever Kavakos tore loose into the
wild-ride cadenzas (his own arrange-
ments of Beethoven’s cadenzas, from
the composer’s piano-and-orchestra
transcription of this concerto). The
first movement’s long cadenza includ-
ed a dialogue between Kavakos and
timpanist Tim Genis, which sounded
almost like a Renaissance dance in its
open harmonies and hearty rhythm.
At last, sparks caught when soloist
and string section united in the loping
finale, the most locked-in movement.
With more rehearsal time, could the
entire concerto have been so solid?
The BSO performed three individual
programs this weekend, and it follows
that time to woodshed with Kavakos
may not have been abundant. I’d love
to hear what this could be, given a
dedicated week at home.
I also wouldn’t say no to hearing
Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 again a la
Kavakos; conducting from memory on
the podium, he took it by storm. For
both pieces, he placed the first and
second violins on opposite sides of the
podium, lending the orchestra’s sound
a nimble, balanced quality with a ro-
bust bass in the middle.
Both Saturday and Sunday’s con-
certs adhered to the tried-and-tested
form of shorter piece/concerto/sym-
phony. Saturday evening, Venezuelan
conductor Rafael Payare brought bra-
vura to his BSO debut. This program
introduced the orchestra to Inocente
Carreño with “Margariteña, glosa sin-
fonica,” an optimistic slice of Sud-
Americana from 1954 that gives Vene-
zuelan folk tunes a smooth and lush
orchestral treatment.
Payare, a graduate of Venezuela’s El
Sistema program, served as principal
horn of its flagship Simón Bolívar
Symphony Orchestra for a time. He
seemed to pay special attention to the
two significant horn solos on the pro-
gram; there was the initial incantation
in “Margariteña,” which was played by
third hornist Michael Winter, and the
morning tune that dissipates the dark-
ness in Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, im-
bued with radiance by principal Rich-
ard Sebring. Neither player had a
note-perfect night, but the right ener-
gy was present. Sebring’s solo in par-
ticular provided a lovely denouement
for the Brahms symphony, which im-
proved movement to movement. In
between, Russian pianist Nikolai Lu-
gansky took the stage for a powerful
and satisfying traversal of Rachmani-
noff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a piece
firmly within his wheelhouse.With Thomas Adès on the podium,
Sunday afternoon began with Ives’s
“Three Places In New England,” given
a full and evocative reading by the full
forces of the BSO. The second move-
ment, Ives’s vision of Putnam’s Camp
in Connecticut, let us experience the
world through a child’s eyes: every-
thing bigger, noisier, more frightening.
“The Housatonic at Stockbridge” was
alive with rippling currents under the
surface.
The rest of the program was
Beethoven at his sunniest. Taking cen-
ter stage for Beethoven’s Piano Con-
certo No. 4, soloist Inon Barnatan was
an absolute delight. His intonation
and phrasing were crystalline, and a
sense of grounded serenity prevailed
no matter how quickly his fingers flew.
In the second movement, Adès led an
imposingbattalionofstrings,facing
off with Barnatan’s graceful passages.
The third movement lit a fire under
the pianist, and his playing took on
new urgency but remained centered.
The sky was blue, the clouds cot-
tonball puffs: an afternoon one locks
away to remember in the depths of
winter. It felt wrong to keep myself in-
side for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6,
“Pastoral,” so I lit out for the lawn,
planted my bare feet in the grass, and
inhaled deep as the principal winds
traded bird calls and the strings sang
out the last movement’s golden hymn
of gratitude. The honey locust tree’s
branches rustled, a young child called
out, a single red balloon drifted up-
ward, and I had the best seat in the
house.Zoë Madonna can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow her
on Twitter @knitandlisten.
Madonna’s work is supported by the
Rubin Institute for Music Criticism,
San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
and Ann and Gordon Getty
Foundation.By Zoë Madonna
GLOBE STAFF
LENOX — If cellist Yo-Yo Ma paus-
es while addressing a crowd, one sens-
es that it’s because he’s carefully
choosing his words, not because he’s
waiting for applause. But at Tangle-
wood, applause follows him wherever
he goes, whatever he does. While Bos-
ton Symphony Orchestra stars may
come and go, Ma is a constant at Tan-
glewood, showing up practically every
year for multiple concerts, and he
draws a crowd like no other living
classical artist. Who else could attract
so many that cars crawl bumper-to-
bumper all the way from downtown
Lenox, delaying the concert by half an
hour? (The SoCo Creamery tent saw a
temporary boom in business.) Who
else could get a full standing ovation
just for showing up onstage, not even
having played a note?
Sunday evening, listeners turned
out in droves to see Ma solo on the
Koussevitzky Music Shed stage, per-
forming Bach’s complete cello suites
without intermission — a two-hour-
plus marathon broken up only by
short comments. (“It’s not a stump
speech,” he quipped at one point when
the eager audience applauded his ev-
ery phrase.)
The concert was part of Ma’s lofty
two-year “Bach Project,” during which
he intends to perform the suites in 36
locations on six continents. The proj-
ect’s mission also includes a “day of ac-
tion” tailored to each location, and at
Saturday’s event in Pittsfield, groups
representing almost 40 local organiza-
tions assembled tables under a tent on
the town’s common, and participants
were offered tickets to the concert.
Ma was in the thick of it. Wearing
an apron emblazoned with “The Berk-
shires Make” and a bright green truck-
er cap from farm-based youth organi-
zation Roots Rising, he visited tables in
progress, performed at a brief tree-
planting ceremony, and then listened
attentively to community leaders and
activists in a panel discussion hosted by
Berkshire Eagle reporter Jenn Smith.
“Invite people to your tables,
whether that’s the one that you make
today, the one in your kitchen, the one
in your community,” Smith exhorted
the crowd.
This whole Bach Project is Ma’s “ta-
ble,” and his table is as wide as the
Tanglewood lawn and then some. He
knows how many people want to sit
with him, and Saturday’s action uti-
lized his celebrity to uplift local voices
that might otherwise be ignored. Ide-
ally, the music is not just the music,
but a means to an end: a kinder world.
“I want to thank you all for making
time,” Ma said from the stage. “Fortaking the time out for us to be togeth-
er tonight.”
In a world of unceasing, shallow
demands on our attention, two unin-
terrupted hours is a significant time
commitment, and Ma created a dedi-
cated space for presence of mind. With
no intermission during the suites, no
opportunities arose to rejoin the out-
side world, examine notifications
pinginginourpockets,orexclaim
over whatever a certain someone had
tweeted.
For those two hours, Ma took us on
a remarkable journey. Similar to
Shakespeare’s plays, the Bach suites
can illuminate the full galaxy of hu-
man emotion and expression should
the performer choose. Under his
hands, the venerated pieces were liv-
ing animals. The Prelude from Suite
No. 1, chestnut of chestnuts, sounded
fresh and inquisitive. The growling
Gigues dispensed with all politeness.
He rarely paused between movements,
and so each suite was an unbroken
arc, not a string of pearls. It seemed it
didn’t matter at any given moment
whether the average listener was hear-
ing a Courante or an Allemande; the
only thing that mattered was that we
were all there.
Before Suite No. 5, Ma picked up a
microphone and dedicated the piece to
anyone who had experienced loss: of a
loved one, health — or he said pointed-
ly, “loss of dignity.” The Sarabande
cried out, a wordless “De Profundis,”
and where other Gigues danced with
abandon, this one conveyed someone
struggling to lift their feet. When it
was over, he held his bow across the
strings, and everyone understood that
it was not the time to clap.
Past Bach Project encores have put
local musicians or groups side by side
on stage with Ma. To say this concert
adhered to that form is accurate, but
also seems an understatement. As
James Taylor (a co-sponsor of this con-
cert and Mr. Tanglewood himself)
strolled out with a guitar to join Ma for
a “Sweet Baby James” nightcap, the
only thing missing was the fireworks.Zoë Madonna can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow her
on Twitter @knitandlisten.
Madonna’s work is supported by the
Rubin Institute for Music Criticism,
San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
and Ann and Gordon Getty
Foundation.Apple’s taking a bite out of the
early-morning news cycle.
Star-studded drama “The Morn-
ing Show,” which the tech giant will
premiere on its forthcoming Apple
TV Plus service this fall, got its first
trailer Monday, giving audiences a
taste of what to expect from the
high-stakes series.
In the solemn 1-minute clip, au-
diences hear sound bites from
SteveCarell,JenniferAniston,and
ReeseWitherspoon, all playing em-
ployees at the titular program who
work daily to wake up America with
their morning news broadcast.
The series goes inside the offices
of Mitch Kessler (Carell), an anchor
struggling to remain relevant amid
a rapidly changing media land-
scape.
“I feel like people are screaming
for honest conversation,” the actor
— an Acton native — can be heard
saying as the camera travels along
darkened hallways behind the
scenes at the show. “I’m a journal-
ist.Icanfeelwhentheworldneeds
me.”
Aniston’s character, apparently
the other main anchor, has her own
opinions about how the broadcast
should be done. “Guess what?” says
Aniston. “America loves me.”
And as the camera makes its way
to the actual set of the morning
show, Witherspoon’s voice rings out
the loudest; she says people “want
to trust that the person telling them
the truth about the world is an hon-
est person.”
Along with Witherspoon and
Aniston, who also executive-pro-
duce, “The Morning Show” stars
MarkDuplass,BillyCrudup,Gugu
Mbatha-Raw,andNestorCarbonell
(who attended Deerfield Academy
before going to Harvard). It’s been
given a two-season order by Apple,
with “Bates Motel” co-creatorKerry
Ehrinserving as showrunner and
MimiLeder(known for episodes of
HBO’s “The Leftovers”) directing.
ISAAC FELDBERGYo-Yo Mabrought a special
guest onstage Sunday night at
Tanglewood: five-time Grammy
winnerJamesTaylor.
The two joined together to
perform what Taylor called the
only suite he’d ever write,
“Sweet Baby James.” The sur-
prise duet followed Ma’s play-
ing of all Bach’s cello suites in a
single concert (see review, be-
low), as part of an initiative the
legendary cellist — and Berk-
shires resident — calls the Bach
Project.
Taylor and his wife,Kim,un-
derwrote the concert at Tangle-
wood in memory of composer
AndrePrevin, who died in Feb-
ruary. Previn, along with Ma,
played at the Taylors’ wedding
in 2001. ISAAC FELDBERGMore “Stranger Things” cast
members are dipping their toes into
the music industry.
First, it was actorFinnWolfhard,
who’s the lead singer for indie-rock
band Calpurnia when he’s not busy
filming the Netflix series. Then, co-
starGatenMatarazzostarted releas-
ing music with his band Work In
Progress.
Now, Newburyport nativeJoe
Keery, who plays fan-favorite char-
acter Steve Harrington, is releasing
new music under the stage name
Djo (presumably pronounced “Joe”).
His latest single, titled “Chateau
(Feel Alright),” pays synthy, dream-like homage to indie bands from the
’00s.
Years ago, Keery had a stint play-
ing lead guitar for Post Animal, a
Chicago-based psychedelic rock
band. He left the band in 2017,
right before the release of their de-
but “When I Think of You in a Cas-
tle.”
While Keery has left Post Animal
behind to step out as a solo artist,
he has clearly not abandoned his
love of psychedelic rock. Last
month, he surprise-dropped his first
single “Roddy” on streaming plat-
forms. Also featuring warped
synths,etherealvocals,andatwangy guitar, Keery’s debut was his
twist on contemporary psychedelia.
The actor’s love for psychedelic
bands is well documented; in 2017,
he sat down for a joint interview
with Tame Impala memberJayWat-
sonfor Australian magazine Coup
De Main. In the interview, Keery ex-
pressed his admiration for groups
like Tame Impala, King Gizzard and
the Lizard Wizard, and Mild High
Club.
Outside of music, Keery just
wrapped production on “Free Guy,”
which starsRyanReynoldsand
filmed around Boston.
CHRIS TRIUNFOWith Bach suites, Yo-Yo Ma
offers a seat at his table
Three
conductors,
three days
of thrills
MUSIC REVIEWYO-YOMA
At Tanglewood, Sunday.MUSIC REVIEWBOSTONSYMPHONYORCHESTRA
At Tanglewood. Aug. 9-11.HILARY SCOTTLeonidas Kavakos played and
conducted Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto with the BSO at
Tanglewood, Friday night.Apple teases TV drama with
Carell, Witherspoon, and Aniston
HILARY SCOTT‘StrangerThings’starJoeKeeryreleasesdreamynewsingle
TONY AVELAR/AP/FILESteve Carell
with Reese
Witherspoon
(center) and
Jennifer
Aniston at
Steve Jobs
Theater in
Cupertino,
Calif., in
March.Sweet
strings at
Tanglewood