The Disposable Musicologist

  Johann Sebastian Bach so revered Dietrich Buxtehude that he walked 250 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck just to hear his music in person.   For the 20-year-old Bach, the elder composer represented everything he hoped to be—an autonomous musician with a flair for both drama and subtlety. Bach knew Buxtehude’s music through study. But hearing it live made a lasting impression, and the young composer crafted many of his later works with the same ear for spectacle.   That blend of reverence and urgency  provided the ideal vehicle for guest conductor Jonathan Cohen and the Handel and Haydn Society, who offered cantatas by Bach and Buxtehude in their season-opening program at Symphony Hall on Friday night.   Bach’s cantatas vary widely in form, though many of his biggest works showcase a vibrancy and power. Buxtehude's surviving cantatas are smaller on scale. Yet they routinely capture reflective solemnity.   They also, at times, channel an amusing levity. His Der Herr ist mit mi r conc

      Photo: Sam Brewer The current season of the Handel and Haydn Society continues to be one to watch. Underscoring the varied concert offerings has been the long farewell of conductor Harry Christophers, who is stepping down next month after thirteen years at the helm. His tenure has been one of unprecedented success, and he will leave behind a legacy of artistic excellence unmatched in the recent history of the country’s oldest musical organization.   But mum has been the word from H&H management over who will fill his shoes. CEO David Snead said in January that the process to find the next artistic director is an extensive one that “will take as long as it needs to.”   In the meantime, the season has witnessed a host of podium guests in stellar H&H performances that leave one to wonder if any of them could find themselves in a long-term commitment in Boston. Raphaël Pichon made an excellent impression in December, bringing depth and precision to the ensemble’s

  Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) Whenever Alan Gilbert comes to town to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one can always expect a few surprises.   His program with the BSO, heard Sunday afternoon at Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Shed, paired a little-heard Schumann gem with a beloved Mozart concerto. Yet it was Stenhammar's Serenade, the concert's closer, that continues to linger in the memory.   Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) was perhaps Sweden's most iconic composer, though his music remains largely unheard outside of his homeland. He was versatile, producing two completed symphonies, several concertos and string quartets, as well as choral works. It's a wonder why his Serenade remains unknown.   Completed in 1902 during a visit to Italy, the stirring score combines sounds of bucolic serenity with moments of mystery.   Gilbert described the piece as the "love child of Strauss and Sibelius." Indeed, the work, with its colorful orchestration and

  Thomas  Adès and Kirill Gerstein performed Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds at Tanglewood. Photo: Hilary Scott Kirill Gerstein and Thomas Adès continue to share a fruitful musical partnership. The pianist-conductor duo drew international acclaim two seasons ago, when Gerstein premiered Adès's Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. With Adès conducting, the performance of the blazing and haunting score seemed to capture in music a friendship connected by a similar artistic vision.   That was the sense conveyed Saturday night, when Adès and Gerstein tackled Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds with the BSO at Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Shed. The performance once again showcased Gerstein's technical prowess and searching expressivity. And Adès, who proved a technicolor conductor, led the way.   Stravinsky's thorny score dates from 1924 while the composer was exploring classical and baroque forms. His previous works—the Symphonies

  Photo: Hilary Scott Looking to establish himself as an original voice, Beethoven poured his first significant effort into piano trios, a genre he felt his predecessors Mozart and Haydn had not taken seriously. Of his Op. 1 set, the Piano Trio No. 3, cast in C minor, shows evidence of the Beethoven to come. Sudden shifts in dynamics and key create brooding tension, as if the composer was testing the very limits of high 18th-century style. (Haydn had criticized the score as unsuitable for contemporary Viennese audiences.)   Yet violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Emanuel Ax explored all the work’s classical-era elegance when they rendered the trio at Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Shed Friday night. By turns graceful and dramatically understated, the performance revealed early Beethoven less as a transitional figure and more of a composer firmly rooted in the style he had absorbed in his youth.   From the opening bars of the Allegro con brio, Kavakos, M

Robert "Bob" Graettinger (1923-1957) While playing with Stan Kenton’s orchestra at the Hollywood Palladium one night in 1941, bassist Howard Rumsey spotted a tall, gaunt teenager hanging around the bandstand. At intermission, the kid introduced himself. He was Bob Graettinger, and he had some arrangements with him. He asked Rumsey if Kenton would have a look at them. Kenton, who eagerly sought new talent, felt they were ambitious but amateurish. He told Graettinger to keep trying. Six years later, having cut his professional teeth as saxophonist and arranger with bands led by Ken Baker, Benny Carter, and Bobby Sherwood, Graettinger approached Kenton again. His new arrangement, “Thermopylae,” presented to Kenton during a rehearsal in Hollywood, would eventually redefine big band modernism.   Kenton led the band in a reading of the work. Impressed, he hired Graettinger as an arranger. All of the music the young man eventually penned for Kenton encapsulated a sound the bandleade