Back at Carnegie Hall today, for the fifth time, and the first since 2015, to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. This will be the second time I’ve sung Russian here. Previous visits:
- 2007, Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé
- 2008, Bolcom – Symphony No. 8 (New York premiere)
- 2012, Beethoven – Missa Solemnis
- 2015, Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky
Each of those performances brought something different. The first two, conducted by James Levine, showed how the BSO had transformed under his conducting. The “Missa” was about frailty in the middle of the strength of that monumental score; after Kurt Masur withdrew due to progressing complications of Parkinson’s, the performance was conducted by TFC musical director John Oliver, who would step down from the chorus he founded three years later and be dead in six. The Nevsky happened the fall after JO’s retirement and at the beginning of Andris Nelson’s tenure.
The reviewers in Boston have been kind to our earlier run of performances. Fingers crossed for tonight.
