Holy ****

Speaking of SymphonyCast, this week I happened to catch most of their broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony’s performance at the BBC Proms. I turned on the radio near the end of the cadenza in the first movement of the Beethoven violin concerto, which was being played by Christian Tetzlaff.*

NPR uses the term “driveway moments” to refer to times when you’re listening to an engrossing NPR story, pull into your driveway/workplace/etc., and sit in the parked car to listen to the end of the piece. Well, what do you call it when you drive around with three or four bags of perishable groceries in your trunk for 20-25 minutes for no other reason than being riveted to Tetzlaff’s and the SLSO’s performance of the Beethoven?

I have a recording of the Beethoven. I’ve listened to it a lot. But not like this. So much energy—so much dynamism—so much bite in some places, so lyrical in others (but not schmaltzy)—I never knew quite what was going to happen next. When it came to the rousing finish, I said (aloud, to myself, in the car), “Holy shit!” and had goosebumps. It. Rocked.

And then I kept driving for another 25 minutes or so to hear Tetzlaff’s encore (Bach) and Schoenberg’s “Five Pieces for Orchestra.” I managed to get home between the Schoenberg and Gershwin’s “American in Paris,” so I listened to the Gershwin and the SLSO’s encore at home—still, I lunged to turn on the radio before putting the groceries away.

The link to the broadcast is still there on the SymphonyCast homepage, but probably won’t be there for much more than a day or so longer. Catch it if you can. The first words out of the BBC host’s mouth amidst the applause at the end of the Beethoven were, “An utterly transporting performance.” Yes.

* From listening to the broadcast again and catching the part I’d missed, I learned that there’s a profile of Teztlaff in a recent issue of The New Yorker. I am not a New Yorker, nor do I subscribe to it, so I hit a subscription wall. Nonetheless, the first few tantalizing paragraphs are here.