BSO — 2011/05/05-07

This evening we get the final BSO concert of this season. Here's some info from the website.

Featured Artists 

Charles Dutoit  conductor		Bernarda Fink  mezzo-soprano		Jean-Paul Fouchécourt  tenor
Laurent Naouri  baritone

Ensembles 

	Tanglewood Festival Chorus John Oliver, conductor

About the Music

For the final concerts of the 2010-2011 BSO season, Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit leads one of the great works in the French repertoire central to the Boston Symphony legacy, Hector Berlioz’s “dramatic symphony” Roméo et Juliette, based on Shakespeare’s play. Of this work the composer wrote, “it is neither a concert opera nor a cantata, but a symphony with choruses,” reflecting the fact that, despite the presence of voices, Berlioz intended the orchestral music—including movements inspired by the grand ball at the home of the Capulets, where the lovers meet; by Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene, and by Mercutio’s “Queen Mab” speech—to carry the expressive weight of the drama. One of his most ambitious pieces, Roméo et Juliette was completed in 1839 after years of work, and became one of Berlioz’s greatest successes with the public. 

The Globe reviewer liked it, as did I on Thursday evening. And the Boston Musical  Intelligencer makes three.

By now I'm sure you know the drill for listening over the web.

Spring Orgy® Period 2011

WHRB has begun their Spring Orgy® Period with the Warhorse Orgy on Sunday. For readers who haven't read earlier posts about the Orgies, what they call orgies are continuous playing of virtually all the works of a particular composer (or performer). These began way back as an easy way for the students to handle programming during exam periods at Harvard, where the station is located. They would just play all they had of someone's music, and then someone else. It is a little different now. They used to run their orgies around the clock. Now the classical music orgies are suspended between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. And the Winter Orgy® no longer is precisely aligned with the first semester exams. But the basic idea is the same: a chronological run through the entire recorded work of a particular composer or performer.

Orgies this month will include

• Richard Strauss — to begin at 1 p.m. on Teusday, May 3 and end at 10 p.m. on May 6
• Einojuhani Rautavaara — Sunday, May 8, from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a break from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for the service from Harvard's Memorial Church
• Pablo Casals — Monday, May 9, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Ballets Russes — Wednesday, May 11, noon to 10 p.m.
• Sir Thomas Beecham — Sunday, May 15, 1 p.m. to Monday, May 12, 10 p.m.
• Alan Hovhaness — Thursday, May 19, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Jean-Philippe Rameau — Sunday, May 22, 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Again, the Strauss and Beecham orgies will be suspended during the overnight hours from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. So you won't have to stay up all night for them. During other times, including the overnight hours, there will sometimes be orgies of other types of music.

Times are Eastern Daylight Savings (or summer time, as it's known elsewhere).

And WHRB will stream this on the web.

Enjoy.