BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/27

This week the encore broadcast gives us Charles Dutoit and Yo-Yo Ma in music of Walton, Elgar, and Holst. Here's the listing from WCRB's Encore Broadcasts page, which also tell us what's coming up in June.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Elgar

Charles Dutoit, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

WALTON Portsmouth Point Overture
ELGAR Cello Concerto
HOLST The Planets

As usual, I posted about it when it was performed, on October 22, 2016. As you can see, although I didn't care much for the Elgar concerto, I quite enjoyed the Walton overture and the Holst, particularly the ending. The reviewers were much more favorable. So give it a listen on WCRB on air or online at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. The program notes will add to the enjoyment of the Holst, but aren't necessary.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/20

In this week's BSO broadcast/webstream, as WCRB tells us on their homepage:

Nelsons Conducts Bruckner

May 20, 2017: In an encore broadcast, Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts the Symphony No. 3 by Bruckner, and Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and Principal Violist Steven Ansell are the soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante.

(Emphasis added.)
The Mozart comes first, the Bruckner after intermission. The concert was given on April 9, 2016, and I posted about it at the time. I enjoyed both parts and recommended listening. You can check the original post for specifics and links,

The concert will be broadcast and streamed on May 20 at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (no Monday repeat).

The schedule of remaining encore broadcasts is here.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/13

The Boston Symphony 2016-17 season ended last week, and Tanglewood will begin on July 7. Meanwhile, WCRB will fill the Saturday time slot with rebroadcasts. This week it's the concert of March 5, 2016 — with music of  Ravel and Falla — which I posted about at the time. Check out the station's schedule of May and June BSO "encore broadcasts," and listen on air or on line at 8:00 p.m., May 13 over WCRB. There will not be a Monday repeat.

BSO — 2017/05/06

This concert is the season finale for the BSO. The remaining Saturdays of May and those of June will have the time slot filled with "encore broadcasts" of concerts previously given. Here's a complete list; I'll have something to say about each on its weekend. But today the concert being broadcast and streamed is live. Here's the description from the orchestra's program detail page (going in reverse order of performance):

Soprano Kristine Opolais returns to Symphony Hall as soloist in Mahler's mellifluous Symphony No. 4, a musical journey from earth to heaven that is also the last of Mahler's symphonies to use words from the folk poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth's Magic Horn). On this same program, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performs Rachmaninoff's last piano concerto, the Fourth, which the composer worked on over the course of ten or more years before giving the premiere in Philadelphia in 1927. Even after that he revised the piece extensively twice, creating the final version in 1941. Opening the concert is a suite of orchestral music from Shostakovich's score for Grigory Kozintsev's 1941 stage production of Shakespeare's King Lear, to be recorded for the BSO's ongoing Shostakovich cycle under Andris Nelsons for Deutsche Grammophon.

(Some emphasis supplied.)

The usual links to background information are available on the program detail page.

The review in the Globe is very enthusiastic and points out a number of elements which the reviewer found especially good. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a lot of information about the music, as well as the performance, and is generally quite favorable.

Due to a slight indisposition, I decided not to go to the Thursday performance. The reviews have me wishing I had been there; and I'm looking forward to hearing it this evening at 8:00 over WCRB, which will rebroadcast the concert on May 15, also at 9:00. Check out their website for links to other information, including the podcast in which conductor and pianist talk about pieces on this program.

Spring Orgy® Period 2017

This year's Spring Orgy® on WHRB has begun with the Warhorse Orgy, which started at 1:00 and will run to 10:00 this evening, Boston Time.

Subsequent orgies will be:

• Monteverdi — May 2
• Beach (Mrs. H.H.A. Beach) — May 3
• Telemann — May 4-7
• Ravel — May 7-9
• Dinu Lipatti — May 10
• Vienna Philharmonic — May 12-14

In most cases, they run from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. (with some irregularities) on the days noted. There are other orgies, featuring rock and jazz music, during other hours. Most notably, there is an Ella Fitzgerald Orgy from 5:00 to 11:00 a.m. on May 10, 11, and 12. For more specific information as well as for listings of works and performers, go to the station's program guide.