BOSTON GLOBE
November 29, 2003

Masur and pianist thrill a thankful crowd
by Richard Dyer

There was a full house and a vocally enthusiastic crowd in Symphony Hall yesterday afternoon for the annual day-after-Thanksgiving concert -- an event obviously as popular with the nonshopping public as it is unpopular with some of the players.

The reason for the crowd, and for much of the enthusiasm, was the presence of conductor Kurt Masur, who, having ended his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, is now contractually free to return to the BSO, where for many years he was a favorite guest.

Masur chose a program most of which required minimal rehearsal -- Beethoven's overture "Leonore No. 3," Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with Yefim Bronfman, and Shostakovich's First Symphony.

Attention was divided this week among this program, preparations for next week's New England premiere of Wynton Marsalis's "All Rise," and, of course, turkey and fixings. But the music came out exceptionally well in the end, thanks to the long-established professionalism of orchestra and conductor.

The Beethoven overture told its story with plenty of drama; Masur and the orchestra know the traditions of this piece but don't let them get in the way. The concerto also sounded wonderful. Bronfman is a pianist who balances power and polish with sensitivity. He's a precision virtuoso -- during the orchestral introduction you could see him silently practicing the C-minor scales of his first entrance. He brought poetry to the slow movement and humor to the finale, and the scale passages dazzled. It was his bad luck, however, to be playing this piece a couple of weeks after Claude Frank played it on this same stage at the "Concert for the Cure." Bronfman has artillery Frank can't match, but Frank brought more character to his work.

Shostakovich produced his First Symphony when he was 19; when he was 21, it was being played all over the world. This may not have been the first time such a thing happened in music, but it was certainly the last. The symphony already displays many of Shostakovich's characteristic qualities: the ingenuity in making much out of little, the ear for orchestral sound, the energy, the satiric humor, the sorrowful streak. Time would darken all this but not fundamentally change it.

There was lots of exciting playing, and some that was touching, too. Among the impressive soloists were Vytas Baksys (cello), John Ferrillo (oboe), Richard Svoboda (bassoon), William R. Hudgins (clarinet), and Timothy Genis (tympanist designate). The performance had some untidy and untuned moments, especially toward the end, but Masur knows the way and led everyone safely home.