BSO — 2012/12/08-09; Other Broadcast/Webstream Attractions

It happens every year that that for most of December, instead of regular subscription series concerts, the Boston Symphony presents Holiday Pops concerts. This year they began on December 5, and they'll continue through December 24. Then the musicians get a little vacation, I guess, until concerts resume on January 10. So there will be no live symphony concerts until January 12, 2013. During that period, Classical New England will broadcast and stream the Holiday Pops live on December 22 and rebroadcast it on December 23. On the other weekends through December 30, they will be giving us "encore broadcasts" of some previous concerts. They don't include their plans for January 5 and 6 on their BSO page at this point. But the page does give brief descriptions of the concerts they'll be reprising through the rest of December. It also has the schedule for the regular concert broadcasts when they resume. I'll try to remember to give a notice week by week as they come up, but if I miss a week you can go there to check it out.

December 8.  

In an encore broadcast, Itzhak Perlman is both soloist and conductor in the BSO's All-Beethoven Opening Night concert, including the two Romances for violin and orchestra and the Symphony No. 7.  Also, Bernard Haitink leads the BSO in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

 There is information about the opening night concert in my post of September 21. I hope the links are still working. The second part of the broadcast, with Haitink conducting, looks like the concert of May 5, 2012, the one I called "Last Night at Symphony" in my post on it.

December 9.

Stéphane Denève returns to the podium at Symphony Hall to conduct Berlioz's Overture to Les Francs-juges, the Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian," with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Three Interludes from James MacMillan'sThe Sacrifice, and the Suite No. 2 from Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane.

As usual, this is the rebroadcast of last weekend's Saturday evening broadcast. My post is here.


Other Broadcast/Webstream Attractions.

Classical New England also has a page for their "2012 Holiday Specials." Among the items that particularly interest me are:

• Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" being given one cantata per week on The Bach Hour Sundays at 6:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Apparently they began last Sunday, because this weel it's the second of the six cantatas;
• "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" from King's College Cambridge (England) broadcast/streamed live on December 24 at 10:00 a.m. our time (They've been doing this for years, and it's always good.);
• A rebroadcast of the Handel and Haydn Messiah on Christmas Day in the morning at 10:00 (If you're not in church, you might want to listen.);
• The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic at 11:00 on January 1 — another standard offering for a number of years (I'm not sure if this is live or an hour or two delayed. I thought the concert is at 15.00, which would be 9:00 a.m. here, but I could be wrong.).

There are many other items listed on that page, so take a look and see what else appeals to you you.