MUSIC REVIEW | BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA A Return That Came Sooner, Not Later (Lorin Mazel with BSO)

MUSIC REVIEW | BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

A Return That Came Sooner, Not Later
By ALLAN KOZINNPublished: November 3, 2009

It seems like only yesterday — but was actually just over four months ago — that Mr. Maazel said farewell as music director to the New York Philharmonic by way of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. New Yorkers who thought about it at all no doubt expected to see him back at some point, just not this soon. He conducted twoBeethoven symphonies, the Sixth (“Pastoral”) and Seventh, and his signature moves — fussy tempo manipulations, peculiar accenting and grand showboating gestures and poses — were all fully intact.

But there may be something to that absence thing after all. His “Pastoral” drew numerous bravos, and the Seventh was given an immediate standing ovation: not the lazy, pro forma kind that everyone gets as listeners gather their things and head up the aisles, but a real, hearty one.

complete article here.