The crowd was a bit raucous at this Saturday afternoon’s Concert for the City at Symphony Hall. The many cliches about the transformative power of art from those who introduced the acts and the interjections in the middle of songs veered towards being annoying. But let’s not dwell on these things. They are not particularly important. Much more important is that several hundred members of our city got to share in the experience of a truly lovely afternoon of music.
The program was eclectic. It included, among other acts, the Boston Children’s Chorus, a mariachi band, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and our very own Mayor Michelle Wu playing “Rhapsody in Blue” on the piano with the Boston Pops backing her up.
The lowlights of the afternoon were the kids’ first two songs: Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” and Kirby Shaw’s “We Will Stand.” These songs struck an eerily earnest tone — a tone that made the listener feel as if she had accidentally flipped the radio to the Christian Rock channel. Fortunately, by their third song, they left this glitch behind. Their performance of Brandon A. Boyd’s overtly religious “Sign Me Up” accomplished what much religious music aspires to — it genuinely gestured at the transcendental.
The afternoon had two highlights. The first was the BSO’s four numbers. All were excellent, but one stood head and shoulders above the rest. This was their rendition of Missy Mazzoli’s 2014 composition “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres),” which begins in dissonance. This leaves the listener uncomfortable — wanting for resolution. It then takes the listener a few steps toward that resolution followed by a few steps away from it — it lets off the dissonance a bit before ramping it back up.
The rest of the song dances sometimes towards a resolution and sometimes away from it, but it never quite gets there. That is, not until the very end when it slowly fades into nothingness. It is not until we reach this nothingness that the piece gives the listener the relief she craves. This has a brilliantly poignant effect when executed well, as it was by the BSO.
The other highlight was Wu’s performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” — an exceptional piece of music, which is famously difficult to play on the piano. Wu is no Leonard Bernstein, as she would likely readily admit, so her performance was not perfect. But it was nevertheless quite impressive and managed to capture the magic of Gershwin’s piece.
Part of what makes “Rhapsody in Blue” magical, when it is performed well, is that it expresses much of what is so essential to our American national identity; Gershwin himself called “Rhapsody in Blue” a “musical kaleidoscope of America.” It contains a series of bluesy themes, which convey a chaotic pressing forward: the American ‘get up and go;’ or the ambition to dive head first into the most challenging of problems. And it contains a Tchaikovskyian love theme, which conveys hope and the American faith that with hard work, we can leave our country better off than we found it.
Wu excellently captured the fervor of the bluesy themes, and the Boston Pops beautifully captured the pathos of the love theme. In doing this, they articulated, in musical form, the American creed that it is only hope, not fear, nor nostalgia, that spurs us to meet even the most difficult of challenges with zeal — to build a transcontinental railroad, to put a man on the moon, to develop a coronavirus vaccine faster than anyone thought possible.
If we want to face up to the political emergencies of our time, we must remember this creed. Wu and the Boston Pops did something to help us remember it on Saturday. For that, we ought to be grateful.
