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Reviews of Lance's Tanglewood Festival Chorus Performances |
 
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MUSIC REVIEW
When Shaw's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony came to its blazing conclusion scarcely four hours after he had touched down at Logan, there was a standing ovation, which was joined by Ozawa's wife, Vera, and daughter, Seira, from their positions in the balcony, and there was a particularly mighty roar of approval from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
The evening began with an announcement of Ozawa's cancellation from BSO managing director Mark Volpe. A note from Ozawa thanked the public which had bought tickets (a big laugh from the audience that had paid top dollar) and expressed his gratitude to Shaw. Pops conductor John Williams came onstage to introduce a charming video honoring Ozawa's anniversary that had been put together by Susan Dangel of ``Evening at Pops'' and BSO marketing director Caroline Smedvig - a video that celebrated Ozawa's musical and human qualities, with many eloquent testimonials from colleagues and members of the BSO family - ``his brain,'' remarked Mstislav Rostropovich, ``must be analyzed. ''
Williams also welcomed Shaw, who was greeted with great warmth. A Symphony Hall old-timer remarked immediately on how much Shaw resembles former BSO music director and Ozawa mentor Charles Munch.
The performance began by exhibiting the BSO in its natural state - there were some pretty rough edges. Those members of the orchestra who represent moral leadership through the exercise of superior solo and ensemble musicianship did so. Those who think primarily of themselves and prefer not to watch or to listen did that too; you could see and hear them.
Shaw's professional experience with the Beethoven Ninth now exceeds half a century; his view is spacious, lucid, humane, and surpassingly humble; he does not impose himself on the work, but instead tries to share all the qualities his experience has found in it. In the first movement, he mainly kept order, but began to exert authority by asking for, and getting, a wider dynamic range. The second movement, greatly aided by tympanist Everett Firth, was a superb demonstration of rhythmic point. By the slow movement the orchestra was playing in the evolved state it reaches when someone it respects has taken charge. Shaw's unspooling of the rapturous music was wonderful, the melody wreathing expressively over the pillars of the harmony. Shaw's mastery of the final movement is complete, his vigorous characterization of each section, the architecture of the tempo relationships, the absolutely sure sense of the role of each section in the evolving structure, the triumphant sense of belief that suffuses everything and crowns every endeavor with joy.
There was an excellent solo quartet which included two soloists who have been active with Ozawa throughout most of his quarter century here, José van Dam and Florence Quivar, along with Frank Lopardo, who first came a decade ago, and a newcomer, soprano Christine Goerke. Van Dam led off with burnished tone on all but the lowest notes, authority, personal warmth, and immaculate legato. Quivar was unusually positive in the ungrateful mezzo-part, and Lopardo sang spiritedly in a tenor darker than van Dam's bass. Goerke vocalized amply and easily, though without much luster. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus sang its heart out for Shaw, who of course is the godfather of American choral singing, and the creator of the modern model of how a symphony chorus should stand, a man whose relationship to music continues to grow and deepen, a mensch.
This story ran on page D01 of the Boston Globe on 09/24/98.
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obert Shaw is a mensch. Yesterday, when it became clear that 
