Mahler has also been getting overplayed. I miss the days when a Mahler symphony was an occasion. The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra's Ben Zander is one of the conductors most responsible both for playing too much Mahler and for making Mahler an occasion. His Mahler Ninth at Jordan Hall on Saturday was decidedly an occasion: deeply moving, and in the ländler section of the second movement quite comic. He and the orchestra seemed both to know and to discover where they were going, to experience every moment, sometimes layering more than one event or attitude at a time: tenderness and nastiness, intensity and relaxation. For this performance, Zander divided the BPO's two violin sections, and the beautiful second-violin opening theme in the first movement had a stronger identity coming from the front of the orchestra. The Rondo Burleske, a manic fugue, nearly got derailed, but that was part of the excitement, and in the final Adagio, I held my breath at the profound quietude and heartbreaking sense of resignation. Next year is the centennial of Mahler's death. How many Mahler performances will also be an occasion?
Related:
Ghost stories, Wanting more, Photos: Boston expressionism at Danforth Museum, More 
- Ghost stories
For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.
- Wanting more
After its triumphant traversal of the complete Béla Bartók string quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Borromeo Quartet was back for a free 20th- and 21st-century program at Jordan Hall, leading off with an accomplished recent piece by the 24-year-old Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairuz, Lamentation and Satire.
- Photos: Boston expressionism at Danforth Museum
Photos of the works of expressionist artists David Aronson, Henry Schwartz, Gerry Bergstein and at the Danforth Museum in Framingham.
- Still Wonderful
It's a risky gamble, creating a stage version of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life .
- Fears and rages
Woyzeck isn't a play, it's a Rorschach inkblot test for directors and theater companies.
- More closings and a question: Can galleries survive here?
More closings and a question: Can galleries survive here?
- Two sides of life
"I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist," the Pop artist Andy Warhol wrote in 1975. "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
- Photos: “Andy Warhol: A Recent Acquisition Exhibition” at Bannister
At Rhode Island College’s Bannister Gallery, through January 8
- 2009: The year in dance
You could say there were two tremendous forces that propelled dance into the world of modern culture: the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev and the choreography of Merce Cunningham.
- Hearts and souls (and laughs too)
It's been a good year for theater around here — an ingeniously roasted dramatic chestnut here, a new and safely landed flight of fancy there. Below are 10 productions that particularly stood out.
- Big starts
I kick off my highlights of 2009 with praise for a theater company that has just finished its inaugural season: The Legacy Theater Company, founded by former City Theater artistic director Steve Burnette.
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Topics:
Classical
, Entertainment, Entertainment, Jean Genet, More
, Entertainment, Entertainment, Jean Genet, Sanford Sylvan, Martha Argerich, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ryan Turner, Less
