Symphony Still Lively at 128

This year marks the 128th season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), making it one of the oldest and most celebrated symphonies in the United States. In celebration of the anniversary, James Levine, the BSO’s Music Director since 2003, has commissioned several works to world premiere with the BSO. On Friday afternoon, he led the orchestra through Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 6,” a world premiere of Leon Kirchner’s “The Forbidden,” and Robert Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor” with soloist Maurizio Pollini. The program was a unique combination of romanticism and contemporary styles, united by the passion running though each of the works.

The concert opened with Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 6,” subtitled “Pathétique.” Having never seen Levine conduct, I was surprised to see him sit down to start the symphony, and I worried whether he would be able to convey the deep emotions Tchaikovsky poured into his work. The composer’s last piece before his unexpected death in 1893, “Pathétique” constantly changes from moments of elation to emotional turmoil. However, Levine pulled out passionate swells throughout the first movement, with exuberant fanfares and quiet textures.

The second movement, a waltz in an unexpected 5/4 time, was performed with light playfulness. The form of the movement is a simple scherzo and trio, one part more lively and one more sedate, and both were played with grace and beautiful phrasing. There was particularly good communication between the wind chorale theme and the pizzicato accompaniment of the strings, which gave a sense of dance to the entire movement.

The third movement, a joyous “Nutcracker”-esque march, is the emotional highlight of the symphony. Although the brass became a little overpowering, the movement ended so strongly that the crowd burst into premature applause. After a short smile from Levine to inform the audience of their mistake, the orchestra began the fourth movement, which is one of the most passionate laments in the orchestral repertoire. The recurring pleading melody in the strings evoked a mind full of torment, leading into a diminishing melody in the cellos and basses that slowly fades away at the symphony’s close.

Leon Kirchner, the composer of the world premiere “The Forbidden,” was a professor in the Harvard University Music Department from 1961 until his retirement in 1989. Now living in New York City, Kirchner composed the orchestral version of “The Forbidden” as the third part of his triptych of the same name, which includes a piano sonata written in 2003 and a string quartet from 2006. Kirchner, who studied with both Ernest Bloch and Arnold Schoenberg, describes this piece as a mixture of past compositional techniques with contemporary twelve-tone techniques.

Although “The Forbidden” was originally commissioned for 2006, the work was pushed back to this year, and as James Levine pointed out in his program notes, the piece was well worth the wait. With clear melodic lines—as well as juxtapositions of rhythms between sections of the orchestra that created the lopsided sound of hemiolas—the piece makes a direct connection to the emotion of Tchaikovsky’s work, while still sounding new and intriguing. The final chord is, in fact, the same chord of lamentation that begins the last movement of the “Symphony No. 6,” linking the pieces in an even more tangible way. After the conclusion of the piece, Kirchner was helped onstage to a standing ovation.

The concert concluded with the Schumann, performed by Maurizo Pollini. Despite being a dazzlingly difficult concerto, this work contains many different styles, and Pollini was able to connect them all through his dynamic playing. His beautiful touch was well supported by the orchestra, and his showy solo performance of the cadenza in the first movement displayed his amazing technique as well as his clean phrasing.

The lively and passionate performances of these three disparate works showed the versatile virtuosity of Levine and his BSO, proving that they are still thriving at 128 years young.