This at times extraordinary concert marked the start of what remains of Andris Nelsons’ Strauss Project, planned as a major survey of the composer’s works shared between Nelsons’ two orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Boston Symphony. In the event, however, the Bostonians cancelled the European tour of which their concerts formed part, so only the two Gewandhaus performances – this was the first – went ahead as intended.
The programme consisted of Macbeth, Ein Heldenleben and the rather awkward Suite of highlights from Der Rosenkavalier, assembled in 1945 by the conductor Artur Rodzinski, and even though one might have occasional qualms about Nelsons’ interpretative choices, what was indisputable was the greatness of the orchestra itself, among the finest in the world, and the quality of their playing.
