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.