Reviews of Lance's Tanglewood Festival Chorus Performances

By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff, 09/28/98

ust after 5 o'clock yesterday the crowd on the Boston Common caught its first glimpse of Seiji Ozawa at the celebration of his 25th season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. John Williams, Pops conductor laureate, had announced that Ozawa, although still ailing, would nevertheless conduct the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; he would turn the first three movements over to newly-appointed assistant conductor Federico Cortese.

After the second movement, Cortese had left the stage; a dangerous debut had become an impressive accomplishment. There was some applause as the soloists entered and took their positions, but the real thrill came on the giant video screen, where the audience could see Ozawa standing in the wings, speaking quietly to Cortese. A few seconds later, Ozawa took a deep breath and walked on, as the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the audience leapt up, and even the orchestra applauded.

Ozawa, who has been ill since coming back to Boston from Russia late last Sunday night, canceled his appearance at the opening gala of the season Wednesday and the subscription concerts last weekend. Ozawa's physician was strongly opposed to his trying to conduct yesterday, but, as Williams put it, ''Seiji being Seiji,'' he insisted on doing whatever he could - although it wasn't clear until the very last moment just how much that would be.

Ozawa met with the soloists and principal players for a brief rehearsal in Symphony Hall in mid-afternoon. He looked gaunt and unwell when he arrived at the Common, but graciously received a set of cufflinks representing the great seal of Boston from Mayor Thomas M. Menino before reassuring Cortese and resting in his trailer.

The celebration on the Common commemorated a memorable period in the history of the orchestra and the city and in the lives of Ozawa and his audience. Police estimated the crowd at 80,000. The cost of putting on this event came in at about $150,000, according to BSO managing director Mark Volpe; corporate sponsors Boston Edison, John Hancock Funds, Filene's, and Houghton Mifflin chipped in, and Channel 5 and WCRB-FM taped the performance of the Beethoven for later broadcast. Whatever the sound system cost was too much.

The festivities began with selections by Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi vigorously conducted and handsomely played by David Commanday and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. John Oliver and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus contributed three vividly-sung spirituals, one of them, appropriately, in an arrangement by Robert Shaw, who stepped in for Ozawa Wednesday night. Donna Hewitt-Didham and Lorenzee Cole offered solos full of sound and soul. Keith Lockhart conducted the National Anthem and his predecessor, Williams, led ''America the Beautiful.''

The speechifying was kept to a minimum. TV's Heather Kahn was a staggeringly cheerful hostess. Menino demonstrated the city's heart is in the right place, even though he referred to the ''Tabernacle Festival Chorus'' and music director ''Sargio Zawa.'' ''I know I fouled up,'' he said good-naturedly. ''But this new assistant conductor is an Italian, and I'll get that name right.''

Cortese, still in his early 30s, studied conducting in Rome, Vienna, and at Tanglewood. His first day on the job last week, he had a pass through the Beethoven Ninth with the orchestra in preparation for Shaw's arrival. He reportedly turned pale when he learned Saturday night he would conduct part of Sunday's performance, but he went out there and gave a good account of himself and of the music. He has the aquiline profile of a continental movie star, a clear beat, and vigorous musical impulses. At the end, Ozawa brought him forward for a special embrace, and afterward, members of the orchestra streamed by, offering him congratulations. Cortese himself modestly said, ''For me, this is a new piece.''

Ozawa led an inspiring performance of the great slow movement; watching his left hand open and close as it shaped the string line was like reading poetry - or listening to music. A distinguished quartet of Boston-based soloists (Dominique Labelle, Mary Westbrook-Geha, Richard Clement, and Robert Honeysucker) was better balanced than the celebrity group that preceded it, and each of them was also individually outstanding. Ozawa's work in the finale was vigorous, well-shaped, and awesomely intense. On the monitors, Ozawa seemed to grow younger and stronger as the music progressed and suffused him; he enabled orchestra, soloists, and the full-throated chorus to deliver with rare conviction Beethoven's message about the joyful time when all mankind will live in brotherhood.

This story ran on page C07 of the Boston Globe on 09/28/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.

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