The celebrated pianist Mitsuko Uchida made a welcome return to Symphony Hall on Thursday night, as the BSO unveiled the second of its three tour programs, delivering robust accounts of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.
Thursday’s reading of the Shostakovich Fifth was particularly rewarding. Of the composer’s 15 symphonies, this is his “greatest hit,” and it has been so over-programmed that it can be difficult for conductors to make it sound vital again. Nelsons, however, still hears the Fifth freshly and is alert to its sonic diversity, emotional volatility, and brilliant orchestration.
Many years into their long Shostakovich journey, he and the orchestra have developed a shared interpretive vocabulary, and it is a powerful one. From the opening bars, this performance felt precisely imagined and full of clear intentions. The outer movements were forcefully articulated, with an ear for this work’s sonic spectacle but also its choreography of interior angst. The second movement galumphed along like an exaggerated Mahlerian folk dance. Of the many fine contributions from BSO principals, the solos of John Ferrillo (oboe) and Cynthia Myers (piccolo) stood out for how vividly they represented this music’s desolate, haunted sense of beauty.
That haunted beauty, one that appears to carry the memory of an unnamed tragedy, flows deeply through Shostakovich’s slow third movement. Nelsons and the orchestra brought it across on Thursday with exceptional delicacy, presenting it as a kind of self-enclosed world. This was some of the quietest playing heard this season in Symphony Hall, with the BSO strings maintaining their balanced blend at extremely soft volumes and forming a kind of faintly glowing corona of sound around the dark core of Ferrillo’s oboe. By the time the movement ended, one sensed the entire hall had been deep in its spell.
What exactly can we still hear in this transporting music with such a complicated past? And how should we approach it today given its status as both a 20th-century classic and as a living remnant of a country that lies in the dustbin of history? These are interesting questions. Thursday’s audience received the work with cheers and gratitude.
Appreciation was also showered on Uchida, a consummately thoughtful artist for whom the piano itself is always just the medium, never the message. Her eloquent account of the “Emperor” was forceful and duly virtuosic in the more “heroic” passages of the outer movements. In the slow movement, the tempo negotiation between soloist and conductor felt at times like a work in progress, but Uchida remained committed to the music’s lyrical imperative. It was in these more intimate passages that the grace and coloristic imagination that infuse her playing came most clearly to the fore.
Alas, this appearance was supposed to have been part of Uchida’s complete multi-season survey of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with the orchestra. Unfortunately, according to a BSO spokesperson, that series, having been been pushed back, will not be brought to fruition. Uchida will, however, be joining the orchestra on tour.
From a programming perspective, this was a night of warhorses. It’s worth noting that however hard the orchestra appears to be attempting to modernize its repertoire at home, such efforts are apparently not yet for international consumption. Of the six works the BSO will bring to Japan, adding up to over four hours of music, only one piece was written within the last 80 years. That modestly scaled work, a compelling score titled “Punctum” by Caroline Shaw, is described by its composer as “an exercise in nostalgia.” It lasts about nine minutes.
There was also BSO news this week. According to an orchestral spokesperson, the BSO plans to begin having various candidates for its concertmaster position perform with the ensemble between January and April of next year, and their names will be publicly announced. Also recently announced was the upcoming departure of longtime BSO principal horn James Sommerville. Clarinetist William Hudgins shared this major development from the stage of Jordan Hall on Sunday by way of acknowledging Sommerville’s last performance with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. A longtime audience favorite, Sommerville has been a key presence in the orchestra since his arrival in 1998, and this announcement will come as a surprise to many close BSO watchers.
Shaw’s work, alongside music by Strauss and Mozart, can be heard on the orchestra’s third and final tour program, which will be performed locally on Thursday, Nov. 3. This will also be Sommerville’s final BSO performance in Symphony Hall.
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Andris Nelsons, conductor
At Symphony Hall, Thursday night (repeats Oct. 29 and 30)
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeremy.eichler@globe.com, or follow him @Jeremy_Eichler.