Fortunately, one of the work’s ardent champions, the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, brought it with him last night to Symphony Hall. The piece has some unforgettable themes, and its strengths might have been more consistent had it ever received the close editing that Joachim gave to Brahms’s Violin Concerto. Instead we are left with a work that feels poignantly raw, and Kremer left it that way last night, dispatching it with his signature sharp-angled virtuosity and a focused but wiry tone, as if he felt no need to airbrush the moments when Schumann’s inspiration runs thin.
He also played up the work’s strengths, including the beautifully spun, long-breathing lines of the slow movement. The last movement’s tempos pushed right to the edge of manageable and occasionally beyond. More consistently attentive support from Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the podium would also have helped. It was still a thrill to hear.
Kremer seemed to surprise the entire hall by playing an encore, common practice in Europe but done far more rarely by orchestral soloists here. His coolly haunting selection also seemed to stump the crowd as well as the players on stage, some of whom could be seen gathered around Kremer’s music stand afterward for a peek. Turns out it was “Serenade’’ by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov.
After intermission came a rewardingly earthy and vigorous performance of “Ein Heldenleben.’’ Strauss’s tone poems are a kind of interpretive home turf for Frühbeck de Burgos, and he led the work broadly and incisively, capturing the full dash and swagger of the opening section and the tone of sublime renunciation in its final pages.
There were a few shaky moments, but the BSO brasses, including principal horn James Sommerville, delivered when it counted most, and concertmaster Malcolm Lowe deserved the solo bow he received for solo playing so luxurious in tone and detail.
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.
