For the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra’s final concert of the season, conductor Benjamin Zander decided that the time was right to move his repertoire to a new country. For the first time in his career he’ll present a program made up entirely of French music: Debussy’s Nocturnes, the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto, Chausson’s Poème for Violin and Orchestra, and the second suite from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. Well, almost entirely: the one exception to Gallic rule will be John Harbison’s Oboe Concerto, which receives its East Coast premiere at these concerts.
For Zander, it all has to do with assessing the distance the orchestra has traveled from its founding 25 years ago. " What we’re celebrating is the fact that for the first time in 25 years I feel comfortable and excited about doing a French program, " he says over the phone from Tel Aviv, where’s he’s guest-conducting with the Israel Philharmonic. " French music is extremely demanding for an orchestra: you can play it only if you have a virtuoso instrument. You can play Mahler and Shostakovich and Beethoven and Brahms and all of the great ‘deep-thinking’ composers, but the only justification for playing French music is if you have an extraordinary instrument that is, in and of itself, so beautiful and so masterful and so in control that it justifies itself just by the color it produces. And that, I must say, was unthinkable 25 years ago. "
Unlike the " deep-thinking " composers who often dominate Zander’s programs, much French music is about sound itself, and so it requires a different way of preparing the orchestra. In Shostakovich and Brahms, he explains, " it’s all about building the story and philosophical issues and motivic developments. There’s none of that [in the French works]. It will all be about matching choirs of sound and delicacy and harp textures and making everything colorful and sensual. "
Another, equally important measure of the orchestra’s stature is the fact that all three of the concerts soloists are from the orchestra’s ranks: violinist Joanna Kurkowicz, the orchestra’s concertmaster, principal cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer, and principal oboist Peggy Pearson. " It isn’t as though I were doing them a favor, or giving them a chance, " Zander insists. " They’re the soloists because they’re the best musicians I can find. "
He’s especially enthusiastic about the Harbison concerto, which will make a good foil for the French works. " I think it’s one of those pieces like the Dvǒrák Cello Concerto that will be played by every oboist for the rest of eternity. It’s just an extremely appealing piece of music. And it has some extremely original aspects to it. One is that the cadenzas are accompanied — the oboe plays together with the strings, then with the winds, and in the third part with the brass. And they aren’t conducted. I don’t know of any concerto that’s done that, certainly not in this way. " The work will get, in his view, the idea soloist. " Peggy Pearson is the best oboist I know of anywhere. She’s one of the most expressive musicians in the world today. "
The realization of how far the BPO had come struck Zander this past February when he was recording Mahler’s Third Symphony with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, " by all accounts a great orchestra. And I realized that in many respects the Boston Philharmonic was preferable. Many instruments, many parts of the orchestra — the trumpets, the horns, oboe, harp, many aspects of the strings. So this is really a glorious moment for us. "
Benjamin Zander conducts the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, April 26 at 8 p.m. at Jordan Hall, and April 27 at 3 p.m. at Sanders Theatre. Tickets are $17 to $60. Call (617) 236-0999.
ONE-ACTS AND MORE. Over at Longy School of Music, Jeffrey Rink conducts the Longy Chamber Orchestra and students in three seldom-heard one-act operas. Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and Giancarlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief are slight comedies, but Beethoven’s The Vestal Fire is a real rarity. In fact, it’s not even an opera. The composer got only 80 bars into its composition before dumping it for a different libretto, one that would eventually lead to his sole finished operatic masterpiece, Fidelio. Performances are April 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. at Longy’s Pickman Hall and are free; call (617) 876-0956. And Murray Perahia brings his thoughtful, sensitive pianism to Symphony Hall on March 27 for a FleetBoston Celebrity Series recital: Bach’s Partita No. 4, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28 (Opus 101), and Schubert’s Sonata in A (D.959). That’s at 3 p.m., and tickets are $35 to $60; call (617) 482-6661.
