The Red Sox may have fallen short this year, but the Boston Symphony's grand-slam all-American concert at Carnegie Hall last night made it official: they are once again, as they were decades ago, the champion American orchestra. Old Charles Ives would have fallen out of his chair to hear his music done as perfectly and passionately as the Bostonians played Three Places in New England. Lukas Foss and Elliott Carter were visibly dazzled by James Levine's renderings of their works (Time Cycle, with Dawn Upshaw, and the brand-new Three Illusions). The Gershwin Concerto in F, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, was performed without condescension or apology, the grand jazzy tunes folded into a romantic-impressionistic whole. If a pianist can sound both fastidious and devil-may-care, Thibaudet managed the feat. In sum, this concert was wicked good.
1946 World Series ticket courtesy of long-suffering Red Sox fan Daphne Ross. It was given to her, believe it or not, by Leon Culberson.
