Lenox — Dmitri Shostakovich stole the show. He was supposed to be the opening act at Tanglewood on Friday, July 26, but he upstaged both Mozart and Ravel with a one-movement piece that lasted all of 20 minutes. This was notwithstanding a dazzling, wonderfully nuanced performance by Paul Lewis of Mozart’s 12th piano concerto and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s transcendent rendition of Maurice Ravel’s complete “Daphnis et Chloé,” which had music director Andris Nelsons reaching heavenward on tip-toe at the point in the score where the two lovers reach their highest crescendo of amatory bliss.
A concert performance of “Daphnis et Chloé” is always a magical feast of exotic themes, colors and textures, a sensual smörgÃ¥sbord. But when the BSO performs it with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, that’s when the strange magic really kicks in: The piece becomes a 21st-century movie score, a romance replete with bad guys, deep kissing and harrowing chase scenes.
But on this night, Dmitri Shostakovich eclipsed even Ravel. And here is why: Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2, Opus 14, “To October,” is about real events and the real people who experienced them. Soviet writer Alexander Bezymensky described them in verses provided to the composer by the piece’s commissioner, the Propaganda Department of the (Soviet) state music publishers. Bezymensky’s words celebrating Vladimir Lenin constitute a heartbreaking account of a people who, after prolonged suffering, placed their trust in tyrants and strongmen. And the rest is history.
But there’s a deeper reason. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2 eclipsed all rivals on July 26 because it speaks to our times in a voice we recognize as our own.
* Â Â *Â Â Â *
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2 in November at Symphony Hall.
