Saturday, December 26, 2015

BSO — December Hiatus — 2015/12/26

This week we have another rebroadcast (and webstream) of a concert from last summer's Tanglewood season, courtesy of WCRB. It's Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 39, 40, and 41, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi in the concert performed on July 26. Their BSO page has a link to their feature "The Answered Question" in which Maestro von Dohnányi and Principal Bassist Edwin Barker preview the program. I posted briefly on it at the time, and the BSO program detail page for the concert is still active as of this writing. This should be very enjoyable listening.

As always, the show begins on Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, with a repeat on Monday January 3. (The Monday time slot on December 28 will be devoted to the Mussorgsky, Glazunov, Berlioz concert which had been reprised already on December 12 — see my post for that date.)

Thursday, December 17, 2015

BSO — December Hiatus — 2015/12/19

This is the weekend WCRB gives us the Holiday Pops concert from the Boston Pops. I presume Saturday's broadcast/webstream will be live, and that it will be what is repeated on Monday the 23rd, both at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. Per the BSO program detail page:
Join the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart, celebrating his 20th anniversary with the orchestra, in a performance filled with holiday music favorites, the traditional Pops sing-a-long, and even a visit from jolly old Santa Claus. The special kids' matinee performances include post-concert photos with Santa and special treats. And the not-to-be-missed New Year's Eve concert with the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra and bandleader Bo Winiker will kick off the new year in style. Don't miss the most popular seasonal tradition around!

Join the conversation online by using #HolidayPops on your social networks to discover the excitement of the season and connect with one another.

As you see, they have a soloist. Also, it appears that the same program description fits all the Holiday Pops concerts, so if you're in the Boston area, and decide to take in one of the concerts live, this is what you can look forward to. There was a review in the Boston Globe. Unbelievably, they've already put it into the archive. Basically, it notes that this year's show includes lots of pieces in medleys, allowing them to cram in a lot more than when each is given a full performance.

It ought to be enjoyable listening.

Friday, December 11, 2015

BSO — December Hiatus — 2015/12/12

WCRB continues their BSO programming during December with another "encore broadcast" and stream of a concert from last summer's Tanglewood season. This week, it's the concert of Sunday, August 9. The orchestra's performance detail page, which is still available with its usual links, has this to say about it:
Longtime Tanglewood favorite Joshua Bell joins [Conductor Charles] Dutoit for a performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto, on a program which includes Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and one of the BSO's signature works, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.
(Some emphasis added.)

The order of performance is Mussorgsky, Glazunov, Berlioz, with the intermission before the Berlioz.

There is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Boston Globe's is archived, and I don't know if it will be accessible to non-subscribers via my link. (It probably won't be, but the Globe website will probably allow an archive search. If so, search for Glazunov in August, 2015.) At any rate, the reviewer liked the Mussorgsky and Berlioz performances, giving particular credit to orchestral soloists in the former. He was also happy that Joshua Bell had chosen the Glazunov concerto but added an incomprehensible remark about how Bell approaches and performs pieces: "Some soloists fold their personalities into the work at hand as if to animate it from within. Bell belongs to a second camp who seem, whether intentionally or not, to inflect every work with their own image."

You can listen to it at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, and again on Monday the 28th. The interval between the two is a week longer than usual because Holiday Pops will occupy both the Saturday and Monday slots next weekend. You may also want to check out WCRB's BSO page for additional scheduling information and links to interviews etc.

Friday, December 4, 2015

BSO — December Hiatus — 2015/12/05

While the Holiday Pops has taken over Symphony Hall for the month, WCRB will be giving us repeats of concerts from last summer's Tanglewood season. This week, it's the concert of Saturday, July 25, which I described as follows in my post for that weekend:
Emanuel Ax solos in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14. Michael Tilson Thomas is conductor for that and Symphony No. 5 by Mahler. Go to the program detail page for the usual links.
(The link to the program detail page still works.)

On WCRB's BSO page, there is a link to their podcast, "The Answered Question," which includes an interview with the conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. As noted there, this concert will be heard on air and over the web both on Saturday, December 5, and Monday, December 14, at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. (On December 7, the concert of November 28 — Haydn, Bartók, and Tchaikovsky — will be rerun in the BSO time slot.)

I can't find a review of the concert in the Boston Globe or the Boston Musical Intelligencer. Both seem to review Tanglewood concerts only sporadically, which is understandable, given the plethora of concerts there every week of the summer. So you can listen without having expectations set by reviews.