Boston Ballet dancers perform Claudia Schreier’s Slipstream, March 20, 2025 at the Opera House. Rosalie O’Connor photograph
I do not know which to prefer,
the beauty of inflections
or the beauty of innuendos,
the blackbird whistling
or just after.
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard fronts a trio and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in music of John Coltrane, March 21, 2025. Michael J. Lutch photograph
I prefer both.
The music, and trying to write about it. I’ve never been a musician, or practiced enough to think of myself as one. But I have listened, intently, and still do.
Stevens may not have just been talking about the aura left behind, the resonant energy that itself dissolves. He may have meant what writers try for, “just after” becoming the aspiration to recapture that feeling.
I have a piece for CVNA on Martin Pearlman’s retirement this year, due later in April. To prep, I saw him conduct a final orchestral performance, Mozart Haffner and Beethoven 2, with Mozart concert arias as well featuring soprano Erin Morley, at the GBH studio. Listening to Morley from ten feet away, singing “Queen of the Night” from Magic Flute—a moment with a “just after,” this time unaddressed.
The GBH studio where Boston Baroque plays its second show has gotten better. The thrust stage is gone (this may be old news, but I hated the place so much I’ve deliberately missed some stuff).
Now the orchestra sits on the floor, with audience as well, and the space’s sonic intimacy is restored. It still looks awful, but sounded grand.
Morley also figured in one of two Boston Symphony Orchestra’s performances, as one of the soloists in Mozart’s Requiem, with conductor Dima Slobodeniouk leading the first of two subscription programs.
The other BSO program, the curation of resident composer Carlos Simon, featured trumpeter Terence Blanchard fronting a trio and the BSO (Edwin Outwater conducting), soloing in a dozen or so Coltrane compositions (some others).
It certainly was enjoyable to hear the melodies, and the audience that shows when the BSO makes even the slightest effort at inclusion is a joy to be around, stylishly smart and fun-loving.
But the arrangements didn’t really need an orchestra, and as lovely as the tunes were, a dozen or so in the same format (melody, then solos where the ensemble lays out, then back together) did not offer enough variety.
Blanchard’s trumpet makes an okay replacement for Coltrane’s sax, but the trumpeter seemed challenged by the length of the program, playing stylishly himself with reverence for the music, but running out of gas at times.
I’m hoping the relationship between Simon—who is resident composer for a few seasons—and the orchestra remains mutually beneficial. The composer seems hella busy, at least from the music headlines. His music at Tanglewood this summer was intriguing—the BSO has performed half-a-dozen of his pieces. But this Coltrane program played like the outside project it was (commissioned elsewhere)—engaging in its way, but not a precise hit. From an orchestral point of view, it was a Pops concert.
Boston Ballet’s Derek Dunn dancing Leonid Yakobson’s Vestris at the Opera House, March 20, 2025. Rachel Neville photograph
Once again Boston Ballet was part of the weekend mix—a repertory program, with two by Balanchine. Boston Ballet had given the local premiere of one of them—Mozartiana, music by Tchaikovsky—in 1994, and I was there with Emily Powers, my daughter.
This Boston Ballet performance—called Winter Experience—included the Balanchines, and also Claudia Schreier’s intriguing web of sea creatures, called Slipstream, and Leonid Yakobson’s novelty piece for male dancer (Derek Dunn), Vestris.
I sat contentedly with Elliot Jones, Emily’s daughter, once named Eleanor, and the nominal origin of Leonore Overture.
. . . the blackbird whistling or just after.