The Boston Globe's classical music critic, Jeremy Eichler posted a brief, and mostly positive review of Kalmar in his debut with the Boston Symphony last night. Some of the reader comments are fairly spirited. A couple of readers really hated Kalmar's treatment of Mahler, but the majority thought it was very good.
Postscript: Charles Noble found a couple more reviews: one that didn't like the way Kalmar conducted and the other liked it very much. Click here for the links.
I thought the comments regarding the performance were quite interesting. I was particularly struck by the reader who commented that perhaps the BSO players were not as responsive as they might have been. I'm not surprised by the divergent opinions because it has always been my impression that critics and audiences have very strong feelings about how Mahler should be conducted. For example,I like Pierre Boulez in Mahler, but some critics cannot abide his performances of that composer's work.
ReplyDeleteHi Curtis,
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to the Van Cliburn competition last summer, I found the divergent opinions from the critics really interesting.
I haven't heard the Boulez; so I'll have to give it a listen.