At Tanglewood, Renée Fleming, left, stepped in to perform Strauss songs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons after cellist Yo-Yo Ma tested positive for COVID-19. Photo by Hilary Scott.
In Monday’s (8/14) Boston Globe (login may be required), A.Z. Madonna writes that Sunday’s Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Tanglewood was to have featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma, “but on Thursday, ticket holders were notified that the cellist had withdrawn … after testing positive for COVID-19. His replacement was … soprano Renée Fleming, who was miraculously available on a few days’ notice to sing some Strauss songs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and music director Andris Nelsons … The audience showered her with well-deserved applause after each of the six songs she performed…. Nelsons seemed to be in his element, and he guided the orchestra to exquisitely … Fleming’s performance was bookended by an affecting performance of Julia Adolphe’s towering meditation on life and death ‘Makeshift Castle,’ a joint commission from the BSO and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; and Stravinsky’s ballet ‘Petrushka’ … Nelsons also conducted Friday night’s program, which began with John Williams’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a showcase piece for violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter that premiered at Tanglewood in 2021 … It absolutely deserves a place in the repertoire … Saturday evening featured … conductor Susanna Mälkki on the BSO podium,” leading Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and soloist Seong-Jin Cho in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9.
