BSO — 2014/03/27-29

This week Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BSO in Symphony No. 6 by Vaughan Williams, Piano Concerto No. 2 by Prokofiev — with Yuja Wang as soloist — and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol to conclude the program. Go to the orchestra's performance detail page for the usual links to background info. There they also give this description of the program:

English conductor Sir Andrew Davis returns to the BSO podium with music by his great 20th-century compatriot Ralph Vaughan Williams-the dark and powerful Symphony No. 6, composed at the end of World War II. Sir Andrew and the BSO are then joined by the exciting, Beijing-born pianist Yuja Wang for Prokofiev's youthful Piano Concerto No. 2. Closing the concert is the scintillatingly orchestrated, romantic Capriccio espagnol by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

I can't offer my own comments on the performance, since it wasn't part of my subscription, and I chose to hear Trio Cleonice at the Harvard Musical Association that evening. The Globe's reviewer was generally positive, especially about the Vaughan Williams, while at the Boston Musical Intelligencer, the reviewer raved about the Prokofiev and found the Vaughan Williams less successful, particularly in the last two movements. I guess we'll need to listen and decide for ourselves about both works.

For new readers, if any, I'll note that WCRB/Classical New England broadcasts and streams the Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m., Eastern (Daylight) Time, and reprises them on the Monday evening nine days later, subsequently making them available for on demand listening over the web. They also provide a schedule of remaining BSO broadcasts/streams and links to background material on their own BSO page. (On Monday, March 31, the rebroadcast/stream will be of the final all-Beethoven concert, which I reported on a week ago.)