Saturday, May 25, 2013

Boston Pops — 2013/05/25 & 06/01

I'll be away next weekend, so here's the story for this time and next. Unless something goes terribly wrong, I'll be back by June 8.

June 25 (repeat June 2) — Gospel Night  Here's how the performance detail page describes it.
Revel in the rousing sounds of Gospel music. The passion, the delight, the celebration that is at the heart of all Gospel music will entertain and enlighten you throughout the concert. Featured is the Boston Pops Gospel Choir, whose exuberant sound will leave you walking on air as you leave Symphony Hall after one of the Boston Pops most popular nights. Charles Floyd, conductor. Gospel Night 2013 is Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 8PM


June 1 (repeat June 9) — Music from the Mad Men Era  Performance detail tells us:
The Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart will invoke the sophistication and style of the 1960s in concerts throughout May and June inspired by AMC's period drama Mad Men. Song stylist Steve Lippia, whom Keith Lockhart has called, "the absolute vocal reincarnation of the Sinatra sound," will step into the limelight, to perform the smoky standards that define the chic sounds of the '60's. Lockhart, Lippia, and the Boston Pops will perform everything ranging from this era's lounge Latin to the tunes of the British Invasion, as well as such classic songs as "Fly Me to the Moon," "Mack the Knife," and "The Best is Yet to Come". Performances on May 21-22, 31 and June 1, 2013.

The times for the live and repeat broadcasts and webstreams over Classical New England are as usual. See previous posts. Also see their page for their info about it.

June 26  The afternoon retransmission is last Saturday's Tribute to Marvin Hammlisch.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Boston Pops — 2013/05/18


It's Boston University Night at the Pops (meaning that at some point they'll perform the university's Alma Mater and the sports "Fight Song"). The BSO performance detail page tells us
Join Broadway stars Jodi Benson, Doug LaBrecque, and Donna McKechnie as they pay tribute to the wonderful talents of one of the greatest contributors to music over the last century, Marvin Hamlisch. As composer, Hamlisch won virtually every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globes. On Broadway, he wrote the music for the long-running show, A Chorus Line and They're Playing Our Song. His more than forty motion picture scores include his Oscarwinning score and song for The Way We Were and his adaptation of Scott Joplin's music for The Sting. This memorable concert will feature music from his vast array of timeless music.

I was at the Hamlisch tribute show on Tuesday, and it was good. Since the theme of the Pops season is "Lights, Camera, Action!" there's lots of movie music in it. So I think you'll enjoy it if you like that sort of thing. Pre-concert show on Classical New England is at 7:00, concert at 8:00, rebroadcast/webstream May 26 at 1:00.

Tomorrow, May 19,  at 1:00, they retransmit last week's "Fantasia" program.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Boston Pops Season Begins — 2013/05/11

As noted last time, the winter season of the Boston Symphony ended on May 4. That concert will be retransmitted on May 12 on Classical New England at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time. From now until June 30, we will be getting the Boston Pops instead on Saturday evenings at 7:00 with retransmissions on Sundays eight days after the live broadcast/webstream.

This evening's concert is described thus on the CNE's BSO page.
Fantasia!
Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops bring you the music of Disney's groundbreaking animated films Fantasia and Fantasia 2000.
You can also find the schedule for the rest of the Pops season there.

For its part, the Boston Symphony's performance detail page gives a bit more info.
Disney shares one of its crown jewels of feature animation in this concert showcasing selections from the original Fantasia andFantasia 2000. Enjoy Disney's groundbreaking marriage of symphonic music and animation. These screenings, accompanied by the live performance of some of the most memorable classical music ever composed, are brought to life by the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart. Ideal for the whole family, this is an unforgettable experience! Presentation licensed by Disney Concert Library ©Disney.

The principal orchestral concerts of the Symphony's Tanglewood season will begin on July 5, and continue August 25. There will be concerts on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. — with a different program each time. I expect all of these performances to be broadcast and streamed live over Classical New England.

So for now, you can enjoy some lighter fare, if that's to your taste, and in July and August, it will be a real bonanza of the more usual concert repertoire, with plenty of famous guest artists. Some pieces that were played during the winter season find their way into the schedule for Tanglewood as well, but there will also be plenty that wasn't played last winter. The full Tanglewood season brochure is here.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Double Post: BSO — 2013/05/02-04 & Orgy® Period

It's time for more orgies. WHRB is having their spring Orgy® Period. The program director summarizes it thusly:

Hooray for Orgy® Season! Get ready for three weeks of unique and exciting programming that's unlike the offerings of any other Boston station.
Classical fans will enjoy the music of Corelli, Feldman, Van Cliburn, Dowland, Lutoslawski, and more. Record Hospital followers will enjoy feminist punk, Flipper, Modest Mouse, Neurosis, and others. Fans of TDS can look forward to selections including Eurotronica, rap philosophers, women in hip hop, Blackwatch, Dungeon, and the Native Tongues. From Scorsese and the Blues to Cole Porter's timeless jazz to songs based on sports teams to an evening of Broadway, there's sure to be something for everyone.
Check out the program guide for the list of all 39 orgies® coming this May.
As he notes, more detail is in the Program Guide. Classical Orgies include:
May 6 — Van Cliburn
May 7 — Tokyo String Quartet
May 8 — John Dowland
May 9-10 — Ballet
May 12 — Warhorse Orgy
May 13 — Witold Lotoslawski Centenary
May 14-16 — 75th Birthday Orgy (Bolcom, Tower, Corigliano, and Harbison)
May 18 — Felix Weingartner

See the program Guide for the beginning and ending times of each orgy. Note also the Sunday evening operas listed for the summer on the last page of the guide. Sorry I wasn't alert and missed the Corelli Orgy on May 1.


Meanwhile the Boston Symphony closes out its season with a couple of "warhorses:" the Brahms Violin Concerto, and the Schubert Great C major Symphony. The detail page, with the usual links to audio and notes, describes the program as follows:
Bernard Haitink returns to the podium to lead the BSO's final concerts of its 2012-13 season, featuring the compelling Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider in Brahms's soaring Violin Concerto. Mr. Haitink and the orchestra then end the season in grand fashion with Schubert's Symphony in C, The Great-the composer's ultimate (in both senses of the word: it is his biggest and last word in the genre) symphony-famously praised for its "heavenly length" by Robert Schumann, who observed also that it "transports us into a world we cannot recall ever having been before."
I was there on Thursday and enjoyed it, as did the Globe's reviewer for the most part.
You can hear it streamed over Classical New England this evening live at 8:00 with preliminaries at 7:00, or rebroadcast at 1:00 p.m. on May 12. Tomorrow, May 15, the rebroadcast is last week's Schubert/Mahler program. Check their BSO page for links to interviews. For the remainder of May and June, it seems that the symphony time will be given over to Boston Pops concerts. Then comes the BSO at Tanglewood, with three distinct programs every weekend.