BSO/Classical New England — 2018/12/29

WCRB tells us:

Saturday night at 8 in an encore broadcast from Tanglewood, the American mezzo-soprano [Susan Graham] joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Mahler's Symphony No. 3, a musical microcosm of the natural world.

(Emphasis added.)

Andris Nelsons is the conductor in this encore broadcast of the Tanglewood concert of Friday, August 24, 2018. On the BSO program detail page, along with links to program notes, there is this description:

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Symphony Children's Choir in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, another work central to Bernstein's repertoire, with Susan Graham as mezzo-soprano soloist. A multi-faceted and emotionally wide-ranging work, the Third Symphony is notable for its length (the longest symphony in the standard repertoire), difficulty, and overwhelming cumulative impact. Across its nearly 100-minute duration, the broad musical canvas incorporates a full range of musical and emotional expression, moving through rousing fanfares, tender lyricism, and melancholy to the height of exaltation.

It should make for interesting listening on WCRB at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/12/22

This week's offering isn't a rebroadcast of a concert. Instead, WCRB is presenting three recordings of the BSO under its former, long-time music director Seiji Ozawa in music of Bach, arranged by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz. There is no performance detail page, of course, since this wasn't a concert. Here's the listing at WCRB's page for the concert:

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is known not only for its excellence in Symphony Hall, but also for its timeless recordings, holiday repertoire being no exception. Saturday night at 8, hear three of these recordings, including Tchaikovsky's magical "The Nutcracker."

Saturday, December 22, 2018
8:00 PM

Seiji Ozawa, conductor

BACH/STRAVINSKY Chorale Variations on Vom Himmel hoch
TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker, Op. 71
BERLIOZ Overture and "Shepherd's Farewell" from Part 2 of L'enfance du Christ

(Emphasis in original.)

"The Nutcracker" is a perennial favorite, and the other pieces should be well worth hearing. The "Shepherds' Farewell" is quite lovely, IMO. As always, you can hear the show beginning at 8:00 p.m. over WCRB radio and internet. Note also the other programming described there.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/12/15

This week WCRB gives us a repeat of the August 3 Tanglewood concert. At the time, I posted this about it:

We begin with approximately five minutes of sheer delight: the Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmila" by Glinka. Then there's a piano concerto by Rachmaninoff. After intermission comes the complete score to Firebird by Stravinsky, which is not as jarring as "The Rite of Spring."

For the official synopsis you get this from the performance detail page:

Patrons will hear comments about the program directly from onstage BSO musician Robert Sheena (English horn).

Koussevitzky Artist Kirill Gerstein joins BSO Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur and the BSO for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, a prime example of the composer's Russian-tinged Romanticism. The program begins with Glinka's infectiously energetic Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila, the second of his two operas. After intermission, Mr. Masur leads the orchestra in a performance of the complete music from Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, a scintillating score that proved to be the composer's breakout success when the ballet opened in Paris in 1910.

(Some emphasis added.)
That page also has the usual links to background material.

You can hear it all beginning at 8:00 this evening, Boston Time, on WCRB radio or webstream. I'll be listening until my brother calls from Tokyo. It appears that there will not be a further rebroadcast on Monday a week from now. So this is your last chance. You might also be interested in the broadcast of a recorded performance of "Messiah." That will be Sunday evening at 7:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/12/08

As usual, the Boston Symphony takes December off, and the Boston Pops (with many BSO musicians) performs Holiday Pops concerts. So this week's concert over WCRB is a rebroadcast of the concert given at Tanglewood on Friday, July 13, of this year. I wrote a little bit about it in advance. Here's how the BSO's program detail page described it:

Acclaimed English pianist Paul Lewis, who has given several memorable performances with the BSO in recent seasons, joins the orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, K.595, the composer's final work in the genre. BSO Assistant Conductor Moritz Gnann, who conducts the performance, also leads the orchestra in Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Schumann's Symphony No. 3,Rhenish. The symphony's subtitle refers to the mighty Rhine, the river that has inspired so many great works throughout music history, and the piece contains some of Schumann's most colorful and exuberant music, as well as some of his most accomplished writing for full orchestra.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Wagner opens the concert, followed by the Mozart, which has always been a favorite of mine. All three works are worth hearing, IMO, so I encourage you to listen to WCRB this evening at 8:00, Boston time, and enjoy.

WCRB doesn't say that they will give this concert again on December 17, so plan on listening tonight. But they do promise us a rebroadcast of last week's Christmas Oratorio. That will be on December 10 at 8:00. It's also worth hearing.

Winter Orgy® Period 2018

Once again, an Orgy Period has begun on WHRB without my realizing it. Here's a link to the Program Guide. (I just realized as I wrote it that "a link to the program guide" has the same cadence as "a link to the '45," which is a slogan on Drambuie labels referring to Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion of 1745.)

As you can see, I missed the Warhorse Orgy on Sunday; and the Ballet Orgy is already in progress and will continue tomorrow and Thursday..

Orgies still to come include:
     Comic Opera Overture on Dec. 7,
     Charles Gounod Orgy, Dec. 9 & 10,
     Oliver Knussen Retrospective at 5:00 a.m. on Dec. 11,
     Shakespeare Orgy, Dec. 11 & 12,
     Viennese Society for Private Musical Performances, Dec. 13,
     Asian Composers, Dec. 14,
     Female Contemporary Composers, Dec. 15, and
     Deutsche Grammophon Orgy, Dec. 17-20.

In general the classical music orgies are in the time slot when WHRB normally plays classical music: 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.

There is also this calendar which lists all the orgies, classical and other, without specifying times or works to be performed. Note also that every Saturday afternoon, beginning in December and continuing through the season, WHRB presents the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

Listen on air or on line over WHRB.

BSO — 2018/12/01

Tonight's concert starts a half hour early.

We are in for a treat: the Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach. As Christmas music it is to the German speaking world what Handel's "Messiah" is to English speakers.But there is this difference: texts of Messiah begin with Jesus' birth and take us all the way through his death and resurrection to his heavenly triumph, whereas the Christmas Oratorio deals only with his birth and the events of his infancy. It is divided into six parts — each comparable in size to a cantata such as Bach composed for Sunday church services — intended to be performed in a service on a different day: the first, second, and third days of Christmas (all of which were holidays), New Year's Day (when Jesus' circumcision was commemorated), the following Sunday, and Epiphany (celebrating the visit of the Magi). Even though a purist might say they should be performed on separate days, we have so few chances to hear them live, that it's good to have even this opportunity. And in the program booklet there is an essay by Bach scholar Christoph Wolff in which he suggests that Bach might at least have thought it possible that they could be performed together.

Without further ado, here's how the performance detail page at the BSO's website describes it:

Assembled and composed for Leipzig's Christmas season, Bach's Christmas Oratorio is a celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ originally performed over the course of six days beginning on Christmas Day 1734. As was often Bach's practice, he re-used music from several earlier works, including the independent secular cantatas nos. 214-216. In addition to chorus, the work features soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, as well as an orchestra configured differently for each of the six sections. The BSO hasn't performed this important work since Charles Munch conducted it in 1960. For these performances, Andris Nelsons and the orchestra are joined by an outstanding group of soloists and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis added.)

There are the usual links to other information. If you're not already familiar with the piece, I recommend reading the program notes and, if possible, following along in the well-translated text. Even by itself the music is worth hearing, but I think sung music is even more meaningful and interesting when you know what they're singing about.

The Globe gives a scathing review. The Intelligencer finds a few shortcomings but is pleased overall.  Both were quite satisfied with the soloists. I was there on Thursday, having exchanged a ticket for this one, and noticed some of the things the reviewers mention, but none of it really bothered me.The syncopations in the bass aria in Part I and the chorus in Part V didn't come through quite as clearly as I would have liked, but it wasn't a major problem. That bass aria is my favorite number in the whole oratorio. I'm glad I was there.

So I definitely recommend listening to WCRB on line or on air this evening at 7:30 EDT. The rebroadcast on Monday, December 10, will begin at the usual time, 8:000 p.m., and add time as needed at the end of the show. The rebroadcast on December 3 will, as expected, be of last week's concert, the Beethoven 4th and 5th symphonies.

Enjoy!

BSO — 2018/11/24

This week's concert is all Beethoven. I'll let the program detail page provide details.

Beethoven often composed several major works at the same time, each a distinctly different expressive outlet. He began sketching his Fifth Symphony in 1804 but didn't complete it until four years later. The innovative construction of that piece and its unprecedented intensity are embodied in the opening four notes, the most famous theme in classical music. In the interim between the Fifth's first sketches and its completion, Beethoven wrote some of his most lyrical music-for the opera Leonore (which would become Fidelio) and the Fourth Symphony. The latter's consistent high spirits contrast starkly with the struggle against fate embodied in the Fifth.

(Some emphasis added.)

Music Director Andris Nelsons will be at the podium, and the order of performance will be the 4th followed, after intermission by the 5th. (Why is it such a seeming requirement for the writers of the blurbs to treat the pieces in a different order from the performance?) Of course the usual links are available at the page.

At this point, there are no reviews available. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, the first performance was Friday afternoon. But after all, it's Beethoven and this is the BSO, so what could go wrong. Maybe some nuance will be brought out, or maybe someone will do a bit exceptionally well or flub something; but you know that basically it'll be worth listening to. Unfortunately for me, I think the 4th is the worst symphony Beethoven ever wrote. The first movement is okay, and the second is lovely, but the last two are coarse and unappealing to me. And I'll have to miss the 5th, because my brother will be making his weekly call from Japan when they're playing it. Fortunately, there is the rebroadcast on December 3. I can hear it then.

Anyway, you'll want to have your ears figuratively glued to your radio or computer this evening at 8:00 Boston Time, when WCRB will transmit it for your listening pleasure.

BSO — 2018/11/17

This has been a very busy couple of days. I'll post the link to the BSO's program detail page and copy their blurb about this week's concert. I don't have time for the usual other rigmarole. Enjoy!

Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger, a longtime collaborator of Andris Nelsons, returns to Symphony Hall as soloist in a concerto composed for him, the Viennese composer HK Gruber's Aerial. Featuring piccolo trumpet and cow's horn as well as standard trumpet, the concerto makes full use of Hardenberger's considerable virtuosity and expressive range. Mahler composed his Fifth Symphony in 1901-02. His first completely instrumental symphony since No. 1, it marked a new, highly individual, and influential approach to writing for orchestra that would carry through the remainder of Mahler's symphonies. The Fifth includes the famous and moving Adagietto movement for strings and harp.

(Some emphasis added.)

BSO — 2018/11/10

The premieres just keep on coming. This week it's the American premiere of a work written to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Latvian independence (which, coincidentally is the 100th for Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland). At the orchestra's program detail page, you can follow the links to sonic and written background on that piece — including a note from the composer — and the rest of the program. There we also find this synopsis:

The BSO and Andris Nelsons give the American premiere of Latvian composer Andris Dzenītis's orchestral work Māra, a BSO co-commission with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. This is one of two works being performed by the BSO this season to mark the 100th anniversary of Latvian independence (declared November 18, 1918). Dzenītis calls his new work, which is dedicated to Andris Nelsons and takes its title from a goddess in Latvian mythology, "the musical encoding of my personal understanding of what it means to be Latvian." Opening the program is Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, to be recorded live as part of Andris Nelsons and the BSO's multi-season exploration of the composer's symphonies. Shostakovich wrote this symphony while he was still a student, and it immediately established him as one of Russia's leading artistic figures. Completing the program is Act II of Tchaikovsky's vibrant, beloved ballet score The Nutcracker, which includes the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the famous series of exotic national dances well-known from the popular Nutcracker Suite.

(Some emphasis added.)
Although the detail page says the Shostakovich comes first, but both the program notes and the reviews make it clear that the Dzenītis opens the concert, followed by the Shostakovich.

I had a ticket as part of my subscription, but I forwent the opportunity to attend  because I was experiencing some soreness/tenderness in my lower abdomen, rising to the level of discomfort or pain when I'd get up from a chair. So I thought that all the moving about would be inadvisable. (The symptoms may be very gradually diminishing as the days drag on or fly by, as the case may be.)

The reviews are in and they tell me I wish I had felt up to going on Thursday, and that I want to hear it this evening.  As always, the Globe doesn't have much space, but finds no fault with anything. In the Intelligencer, the reviews of the Dzenītis and Shostakovich were extensive enough to double as program notes, and the reviewer found no fault. But after intermission, he was a bit less pleased with the "Nutcracker," to a considerable extent because he felt that as the BSO played it, it would be difficult to dance to. He grudgingly admitted that as just music it was good.

So here's another concert I can recommend listening to over the facilities of WCRB at 8:00 p.m., EST, this evening and/or the rebroadcast at 8:00 on Monday, November 19.

BSO — 2018/11/03

This evening a couple of "golden oldies" surround a piece which the BSO is giving its American premiere this week. On the orchestra's program detail page we read:

In this London-oriented program, Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the American premiere of the first of several BSO co-commissions this season, English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's Remembering: In Memoriam Evan Scofield. Evan, son of the great jazz guitarist and Turnage collaborator John Scofield, died of cancer at age twenty-five. The piece was co-commissioned by the BSO with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra. Opening the program is Haydn's Symphony No. 93, one of the first of the group of bold, innovative symphonies he wrote for performance in London during his visits there in the early 1790s. The English composer Edward Elgar's tour-de-force of orchestral and expressive imagination, the Enigma Variations, is a series of widely varied portraits of his friends via transformations of a common musical theme.

(Some emphasis added.)
The page also has the usual links to background material.

I was there for the first performance of the program on Thursday. I didn't notice anything spectacular in the playing of the Haydn or the Elgar, but they are enjoyable to listen to. At the end of the Turnage piece, the composer joined the conductor on stage after the initial bows, and I was part of the warm ovation for him. I like to applaud composers who produce listenable works. As the program notes point out, the work is in four parts. The first part struck me as jazzy. The second seemed noisy and cacophonous. If that had been the whole thing, I wouldn't have been so inclined to applaud the composer. The third part had both jazzy and noisy elements. In the last part, which was the first composed, we finally got calm and elegiac music such as one would expect in a piece expressing sorrow.

The review in the Globe is favorable (but not a rave) and gives an insight into the meaning of the first three parts of "Remembering." The Boston Musical Intelligencer's review, less encumbered than the Globe's by space limitations, is also favorable, with more detail.

So I definitely recommend listening over WCRB at 8:00 p.m. EDST this evening, November 3, and/or at 8:00 EST on Monday, Nov. 12. A second page on the station's website gives links to a conversation with composer Turnage and another, about the program, with Andris Nelsons.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2018/10/27

This week's concert begins with Lux Æterna, by Maija Einfelde, conducted by James Burton, the conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. That brief work is followed by Mahler's massive Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," conducted by Music Director Andris Nelsons. The BSO's program detail page has the usual links to further information. It also has this blurb about the concert:

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler's all-embracing ninety-minute Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, along with Chinese soprano Ying Fang and Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink. The fourth movement is a setting of "Urlicht," a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a source of texts for many of Mahler's songs, and the vast finale includes a setting for chorus and soprano of verses from Klopstock's poem "Resurrection." James Burton will conduct Maija's Einfelde's Lux aeterna, for mixed chorus, the first of two Latvian works performed this year to mark the centenary of the country's independence.

Reviews are in. The reviewer in the Globe gave a decidedly critical review of the performance of both works, but the reviewer for the Boston Musical Intelligencer was happy with the result. It wasn't part of my subscriptions, so I can't settle the disagreement.

You can hear the show beginning at 8:00 p.m., EDST, on air or on line via WCRB. If you have to listen to the Red Sox in Game 4 of the World Series at that time, you can catch the rebroadcast/stream on Monday, Nov. 5, also at 8:00 p.m.

BSO — 2018/10/20

This week we get a curtain-raiser by John Harbison, followed by two works by early 20th Century Russian composers. Here's the blurb from the orchestra's performance detail page:

BSO Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur is joined by outstanding American pianist Garrick Ohlsson for a work heard relatively rarely despite the popularity of its composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1. The early First Concerto exhibits the same spirit of Russian lyricism and virtuosity found in his perennially popular Second and Third concertos. Opening the program is John Harbison's Jazz Age-flavored foxtrot Remembering Gatsby, an orchestral work foreshadowing his acclaimed opera based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. This is one of several Harbison works this season celebrating the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston-based composer's 80th birthday year. Closing the program are excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet score Romeo and Juliet, which includes some of the composer's best-known music.

(Some emphasis added.)

I stayed home with a cold on Thursday evening, so I can't tell you anything about how they did. I have vague memories of a prior performance of "Remembering Gatsby," and it was okay. The Globe review praised Garrick Ohlsson's playing as "relaxed and almost contemplative no matter the tempo," and had no fault to find with any of the concert. The review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer seems to agree with the Globe about the playing of the Rachmaninoff — but with fancier vocabulary, The reviewer also finds little fault with anything else, giving a nice synopsis of the Harbison.

Well, the Harbison may not be to everyone's liking, but it's short; and it seems the rest is definitely worth hearing. You can listen in at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time over WCRB FM and on line. If you miss it this evening, there is the customary rebroadcast/stream on Monday, October 29 at 8:00, p.m. (Last Saturday's concert is similarly available this Monday, Oct. 22, at 8:00.)

Enjoy.

BSO — 2018/10/13

This week the Boston Symphony opens its/open their for my British readers 2018-2019 Symphony Hall season, so we will be able to hear a live concert from Symphony Hall. The orchestra's program detail page has links to their Media Center, audio previews of the concert, program notes from the program booklet, and a bio of the conductor (available by clicking on the thumbnail picture. It also gives this description of the concert (annoyingly listing the works out of the order in which they will be performed):

Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra-a work commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1944-anchors this season-opening program highlighting the virtuosity of the orchestra's string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections. Acclaimed Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, making his BSO debut, conducts that work, as well as Stravinsky's piquant Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.

(Emphasis added.)

The synopsis is inaccurate in one detail. The strings played the Tchaikovsky without a conductor on Thursday, and the program booklet indicates that it was planned to be without conductor on Friday and Saturday, as well.

I have seen three reviews of the Thursday performance: one in the Boston Classical Review, one in the Boston Globe, and one in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Classical Review liked the playing of the Stravinsky and Bartók, but the Tchaikovsky not so much. For the Globe, it was all good. The reviewer in the Intelligencer found the Tchaikovsky transformed into a "stone sculpture," was unhappy with how they did the Stravinsky, and was scathing about the performance of the Bartók. If you're familiar with the music, you can decide whose take agrees with yours.

I was there on Thursday and thought the Stravinsky (new to me) was unpleasant, the Tchaikovsky unremarkable, and the Bartók tolerable apart from the brass screams. I'm not enough of a musician to judge the reviewers' takes on how the music was performed. As far as I could tell, they were doing it competently.  But to my tastes, none of it was "must listening," and I'll probably pass up the chance to hear it again so I can listen to the Red Sox game. OTOH, if you're not a Sox fan, you'll probably enjoy the Tchaikovsky and some of the gentler parts of the Bartók.

As always, the show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EDST) and can be heard on air or on line via WCRB. You might want to check out other pages on their website and see what else they offer.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/10/06

This evening's concert is unusual in that it was originally performed on the afternoon of May 4, 2018, which was a Friday, but not at any other time that week. There was an all-Brahms program on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So this concert wasn't broadcast when it was given, and I haven't heard it in person either., meaning that I haven't previously posted about it. Here's the description from the BSO's performance detail page:

BSO Assistant Conductor Moritz Gnann leads this single Friday-afternoon program, which features principal oboe John Ferrillo in the Oboe Concerto of Alessandro Marcello, a slightly older contemporary of his fellow Venetian Antonio Vivaldi. Opening the program is a group of canzonas by the earlier Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, who was active in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Completing the first half of this program is a wind-ensemble arrangement of numbers from Rossini's delightful and familiar 19th-century comic opera The Barber of Seville. Mozart's G minor symphony, No. 40, is among the most enduringly popular of all thecomposer's works.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Globe seems not to have reviewed it, but the Boston Musical Intelligencer has this review by its publisher. Basically, he enjoyed the first half, but was disappointed in the second. (So I won't mind too much when my brother's weekly call from Japan interrupts my listening.)

Hear it all over WCRB at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (i.e., EDST).

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/09/29

This week, as we look forward to the return of the BSO for the 2018-19 season (with the first Saturday concert on October 13), WCRB will rebroadcast and stream the concert of March 11, 2017. I hadn't heard it previously, but I posted about it at the time, and you can check out the links there, including a review. The performance detail page described it as follows:

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo and Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein return to Symphony Hall, joining the BSO and the men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for the visionary Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni's monumental Piano Concerto, a fascinating but rarely heard work of Mahlerian scope dating from the first years of the 20th century. These are the first BSO performances. (Future BSO conductor Karl Muck led the premiere in Berlin in 1904.) Opening the program is a very different sort of piece from the same era, Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 3, a sunny, open work with numerous touches of folk-music simplicity.

(Emphasis added.)

As at the time, I still think it's well worth listening to, 8:00 p.m., EDST, September 29.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/09/22

This week's rebroadcast on WCRB is the concert of February 25, 2017: a triple concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina which was receiving its premiere performances and Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony. I wrote about it at the time and, as you can see, thought it was good. The synopsis on the orchestra's performance detail page is as follows:

The Russian-born Sofia Gubaidulina, acclaimed as one of the most significant composers in the world today, was encouraged in her career early on by Dmitri Shostakovich. She wrote her Triple Concerto (a BSO co-commission receiving its world premiere at these concerts) for the unusual combination of violin, cello, and bayan, a type of accordion often employed by Gubaidulina and a mainstay of Russian folk music. Joining Latvian violinist Baiba Skride are Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh and Swiss bayanist Elsbeth Moser, both making their BSO debuts. Shostakovich wrote his Seventh Symphony, Leningrad, as a tribute to the peoples' fortitude in the face of the German Army's long and destructive siege of that city during World War II. Serge Koussevitzky led the first U.S. concert performances of the piece with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in August 1942, following the NBC Symphony's radio broadcast premiere under Toscanini the previous month. The present performances continue Andris Nelsons' and the BSO's survey of the complete Shostakovich symphonies, which are being recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.

(Some emphasis added.)

I'll be in Boston this evening attending Odyssey Opera's performance of "La reine de Saba" by Gounod. If you can't be there, I think this concert will be worth (re)hearing this evening at 8:00 EDST.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/09/15

This week WCRB gives us a rebroadcast/stream of the concert of February 18, 2017. The BSO's program description page at the time had this to say:

Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax team up for one of the pianist's favorites, Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The American composer Gunther Schuller wrote his kaleidoscopic Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee in 1959. Each of its movements is based on a different Klee work, inspiring from the composer a wealth of styles ranging from the blues to mysterious modernism. Closing the program is Beethoven's revolutionary Symphony No. 3,Eroica, which radically expanded the boundaries of the symphonic genre.

(Some emphasis added.)

I wrote about it at the time (with links to reviews) and found it all worth listening to, even the Schuller. The link to the gallery of Klee paintings may not be working in my post, so here it is again. So enjoy this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/09/08

There is always a hiatus between the Tanglewood season and the Symphony Hall Season of the Boston Symphony. At this point, the orchestra is on a European tour. Meanwhile, WCRB is resuming their custom of rebroadcasting and streaming recent concerts. This month they are giving us concerts from 2017. This week it is the concert of February 11, 2017. I wrote about it at the time. Here's the synopsis from the program detail page:

Andris Nelsons is joined by countertenor Bejun Mehta and the Boston-based Lorelei Ensemble in the BSO's first performances of esteemed English composer George Benjamin's Dream of the Song, commissioned by the BSO for the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. Opening the program is Ravel's colorful orchestral version of his solo piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, inspired in part by the French Baroque composer François Couperin. Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, his first masterpiece, is innovative in form, remarkably forward-thinking in its use of the orchestra, and quintessentially Romantic in its depiction of an artist's unrequited love.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Ravel and Berlioz are standards of the repertoire and should be good. I don't recall the Benjamin piece. The program notes give some idea of what to expect, if you don't want to just experience it as something new.

As usual, the show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

WCRB — 2018/09/01

There is no listing at WCRB for any Boston Symphony concert this evening. I don't know if somebody missed the date when putting together the schedule for the weeks between Tanglewood and the opening of the season at Symphony Hall, or if the gap is deliberate. But there you have it. Concert rebroadcasts resume next week.

Tanglewood — 2018/08/24-26

This weekend is the final one of the BSO's 2018 Tanglewood Season. Listen in on WCRB at 8:00 p.m EDST on Friday and Saturday and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.


Friday, August 24, 2018.  We get to hear the BSO et al. perform what they call "the longest symphony in the standard repertoire." The performance detail page, with its usual links to performer bios and background material, describes the concert thus:

Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler Symphony No. 3 featuring Susan Graham and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Symphony Children's Choir in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, another work central to Bernstein's repertoire, with Susan Graham as mezzo-soprano soloist. A multi-faceted and emotionally wide-ranging work, the Third Symphony is notable for its length (the longest symphony in the standard repertoire), difficulty, and overwhelming cumulative impact. Across its nearly 100-minute duration, the broad musical canvas incorporates a full range of musical and emotional expression, moving through rousing fanfares, tender lyricism, and melancholy to the height of exaltation.

(Some emphasis added.)

Need I say more? Well, it's a lot of music, but — while I don't recall specifics of this symphony — Mahler's style of music at this time in his career generally isn't difficult to listen to, and my more general memory of it is that it is quite engaging. So it should be pretty good.


Saturday, August 25, 2018.  On Saturday, the summer of Bernstein reaches its grand finale. The performance detail page doesn't give a listing of every piece to be played, but from what we are told, including the long list of performers, we get a feel for what it will be.

The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Reflecting the season-long theme, The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood will spotlight Bernstein's wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert will feature a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein's heart-selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by Copland-plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion of the program's second half; the finale of Mahler's ResurrectionSymphony brings the program to a dramatic close.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, August 25, 2018.  The season ends with the traditional Beethoven 9th Symphony, preceded by two brief pieces by Bernstein. The performance detail page has its usual links and gives this synopsis.

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Christoph Eschenbach leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Joseph Kaiser, baritone Thomas Hampson, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis added.)

And so we bid farewell to another summer of concerts from Tanglewood, with another massive work, one which is very well known. Although it's not my favorite Beethoven symphony, it's certainly beautiful at times and exciting at times, and it's certainly fitting for the occasion. Enjoy.

The Boston Symphony returns to Symphony Hall to open the season there on October 11, with the first Saturday concert on the 13th. Meanwhile WCRB will fill the six intervening Saturday evenings with concerts previously recorded. I don't see a listng for September 1, but the rest can be found here. As usual, I plan to post about each as it approaches.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/17-19

This weekend the season at Tanglewood continues, with all three of the major concerts available over WCRB. (See also the additional programming information on their website.)


Friday, August 17, 2018.  Here's the description from the BSO program detail page:

Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
UnderScore Friday Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Patrons will hear comments about the program directly from onstage BSO musician J. William Hudgins (percussion).

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4-part of Maestro Nelsons' and the orchestra's ongoing project of performing and recording the composer's complete symphonies-a fine, substantial work that had to wait 25 years for its premiere due to censorship by the Soviet regime. One the first half of the program, frequent BSO guest pianist Yefim Bronfman joins Maestro Nelsons and the orchestra for Beethoven's expansive and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 4, which contains moments of grandeur and pomp as well as passages of glorious weightlessness and ephemeral brushes of color.

(Some emphasis added.)

There are also the usual links to program notes, audio previews, and performer bios.

Of course, you can't go wrong with Beethoven. As for the Shostakovich, here's what I wrote after hearing it in Symphony Hall last March:

I wasn't really expecting to like the Shostakovich, but it turned out to be pretty good. Despite its length, I never felt that it was getting to be too much. There is enough variety, especially going from full orchestra to featuring solo instruments, and plentiful musical ideas, to keep it from getting dull. I had never heard either piece [this one or the Bernstein Second Symphony which preceded it on that program], and now I wouldn't mind seeing either on another program.

So it should be an evening of good listening.


Saturday, August 18, 2018.  It's an all Bernstein program. As always, we turn to the BSO program detail page for links and this description:

Andris Nelsons conducts an All-Bernstein Program with the Boston Ballet and featuring violinist Baiba Skride

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the BSO present an all-Bernstein program, which begins with a fully-staged performance of the composer's ballet Fancy Free in a first-ever collaboration with the Boston Ballet. Bernstein's first ballet score and Robbins' first full-scale choreographic effort, Fancy Free catapulted both artists (who were both just 25) to stardom. In what would become his signature style, Robbins combined classical choreography with jazz and popular dance moves. Just months after Fancy Free was premiered at the old Metropolitan Opera House, its scenario had become the basis for Bernstein and Robbins' hit Broadway musical On the Town (performed July 7). Fancy Free is being presented here using Robbins' original choreography. The program continues with the Divertimento for Orchestra, composed for the BSO's centenary celebration in 1980, and concludes with the Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium"), for violin and orchestra, featuring soloist Baiba Skride.

(Some emphasis added.)

My brother's call from Japan will take me away from the Serenade and maybe the end of the Divertimento. I'd rather miss "Fancy Free" — although if we could see the dancing, I'd be more interested in the ballet — but there you have it.


Sunday, August 19, 2018.  This concert brings us four works, including a Tanglewood-related world premiere, more by Bernstein, and the BSO's "own" piece by Bartók. Herewith, the performance detail page's synopsis:

Yo-Yo Ma joins Andris Nelsons for Copland, Bernstein, Williams and Bartók
The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Tanglewood alongside Maestro Nelsons and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for the annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert. The program celebrates the completion of sculptures that John Williams commissioned for the Tanglewood grounds of three of the Festival's seminal figures, who are also personal heroes of the composer: Aaron Copland, Serge Koussevitzky, and Leonard Bernstein. The program features Yo-Yo Ma, Andris Nelsons, and the BSO in the world premiere of a new John Williams work for cello and orchestra, specially written for this occasion. Mr. Ma is also featured in Bernstein's Three Meditations from Mass, for cello and orchestra, the composer's reworking of selections from ambitious staged pageant/oratorio composed for the 1971 inauguration of Washington's Kennedy Center. Aptly opening the concert is Copland's An Outdoor Overture, a 1938 work from the beginning of the composer's American populist period and the first work by Copland that Bernstein conducted at Tanglewood. Concluding the program is perhaps Koussevitzky's most famous commission, Bartók's incandescent Concerto for Orchestra, which the BSO premiered in 1944.

(Some emphasis added.)

The new work by Williams is titled "Highwood's Ghost, An Encounter for Harp, Cello, and Orchestra." I always like to hear world premieres, so I'm looking forward to it, and Copland can be very enjoyable. Bernstein should be okay, and I've heard the Bartók so often that it's lost its shock value, and I can sort of enjoy it.

Don't forget: the Sunday concert is heard by "tape" delay at 7:00 p.m. — the Friday and Saturday are presented live at 8:00, EDT.

It should be a pretty good series of concerts. Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/10-12

This weekend the BSO is deviating from their usual format. Instead of the usual 8:00 p.m. concert on Friday, they are giving a one-hour Young People's concert at 7:00 p.m., in homage to Bernstein's Young People's Concerts when he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. WCRB will not be broadcasting it, but I thought you might like to see the description from the BSO's program description page.

Young People's Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Building on a tradition of educational concerts for young listeners that dated back decades, in 1958 Leonard Bernstein, who had just begun his tenure as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, initiated his own series of "Young People's Concerts" to be broadcast on CBS television. The fourteen-season series-totaling fifty-three episodes in all-became a model for educational programming, making a point of avoiding condescension and pedantry, not shying away from the unfamiliar, and allowing Bernstein's boundless enthusiasm and charisma to carry the day. It was lightning in a bottle-only rarely have similar programs approached the show's popularity since it went off the air in 1972. Bernstein's guests included Aaron Copland, the then-fifteen-year-old Israeli composer Shulamit Ran, singers Marni Nixon and Walter Berry, conductors Seiji Ozawa and James DePreist, and the "New York Rock and Roll Ensemble," among many others. Between 2004 and 2013, these programs were released on DVD.

The first few programs, beginning with the introductory "What Is Music?" telecast in January 1958, had a broad focus-American music, orchestration, the nature of classical music, and the like. As the series progressed, there were segments on more specific subjects-the music of Mahler, Sibelius, Hindemith, and Charles Ives, birthday celebrations of Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Dmitri Shostakovich, the acoustics of concert halls, and an entire show on Beethoven's opera Fidelio-subject matter that few elementary educational curricula would dare broach today. But perhaps Bernstein was onto something there: by trusting and challenging his countless young listeners to go beyond their own expectations of themselves, he planted seeds of curiosity that long continued to bear fruit.

WCRB will give us a rebroadcast from a couple of years ago at the usual time.


Friday, August 10, 2018.  WCRB rebroadcasts and streams the Tanglewood concert of August 27, 2016. The program detail page is no longer available on the BSO website, but here's the synopsis I copied at the time.

Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Stern on Saturday, August 27, to open the final weekend of the BSO's 2016 Tanglewood season, performing Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and John Williams's Heartwood,for cello and orchestra, and Rosewood and Pickin', for solo cello, on a program that also includes Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

(Some emphasis added.)

The order of performance is Bernstein, Haydn, Williams, and Respighi. I suppose the intermission is after the Haydn. It should be worth listening to.


Saturday, August 11, 2018.  It's Boston Pops this evening, playing film music, as described, with extreme brevity on the program detail page:

John Williams' Film Night

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

John Williams' Film Night has long been established as one of the Tanglewood calendar's most consistently captivating evenings. Join Mr. Williams as he presents this year's celebration of the music of Hollywood and beyond, featuring the Boston Pops and BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons.

(Some emphasis added.)
My father used to use the line about concerts at the bandstand in the park: "You can't tell from where you're sitting what the band is going to play." Just listen and enjoy.


Sunday, August 12, 2018.  At 7:00 p.m., we get to hear the afternoon concert. As a curtain raiser, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts a piece he composed, Then we hear Rachmaninoff and Mahler. More detail comes from the BSO's page:

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Tilson Thomas, Rachmaninoff and Mahler

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

San Francisco Symphony Music Director and former BSO Assistant Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas returns to Tanglewood, where he won the Koussevitzky Music Prize as a student of Bernstein's in 1969. To open the program, he leads the BSO in his own Agnegram, a 1998 work that is alternately jazzy, elegant, humorous, and direct. Brilliant young Russian pianist Igor Levit then takes center stage for Rachmaninoff's virtuosic and glittering Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Closing the concert is Mahler's at times brooding, at times vigorously energetic Symphony No. 1. Bernstein's championing of Mahler's symphonies was a big factor in making his music a staple of the orchestral repertoire.

(Some emphasis added.)


So there you have it — three concerts for your enjoyment on air and on line over WCRB.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/03-05

The BSO is giving us one piece by Bernstein and a whole slew of music by composers from Eastern Europe this weekend. I'm looking forward to some of it.


Friday, August 3, 2018.  We begin with approximately five minutes of sheer delight: the Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmila" by Glinka. Then there's a piano concerto by Rachmaninoff. After intermission comes the complete score to Firebird by Stravinsky, which is not as jarring as "The Rite of Spring." The official explanation, along with links to further information, can be found on the performance detail page:

Glinka, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky with Kirill Gerstein
UndersScore Friday Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Patrons will hear comments about the program directly from onstage BSO musician Robert Sheena (English horn).

Koussevitzky Artist Kirill Gerstein joins BSO Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur and the BSO for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, a prime example of the composer's Russian-tinged Romanticism. The program begins with Glinka's infectiously energetic Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila, the second of his two operas. After intermission, Mr. Masur leads the orchestra in a performance of the complete music from Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, a scintillating score that proved to be the composer's breakout success when the ballet opened in Paris in 1910.

(Some emphasis added.)

It will be interesting to hear how Robert Sheena handles the introducer's duties at the beginning. At any rate, for me the best part of the concert comes at the beginning. I'll listen to the rest while watching the Red Sox.


Saturday, August 4, 2018.  Check out the performance detail page for links to further resources (including performer bios when you click the thumbnail pics). It gives the folloeing synopsis of this evening's progrsam:

Bramwell Tovey conducts Bernstein and Sibelius

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

British conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the BSO in a program that pays tribute to Bernstein as both conductor and composer. First, the orchestra is joined by a cast of outstanding singers-soprano Nadine Sierra, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, tenor Nicholas Phan, baritone Elliot Madore, and bass Eric Owens- for Bernstein's celebratory orchestral song cycle Songfest, composed for the American Bicentennial in 1976. Then, Mr. Tovey leads the BSO in Sibelius's sweeping Symphony No. 2, a staple of Bernstein's conducting repertory.

(Some emphasis added.)

I've never heard the "Songfest," so I don't know how it will be. The Sibelius is music I like. Unfortunately, it will be played during my brother's weekly call from Japan, but you can enjoy it.


Sunday, August 5, 2018.  Apparently the staff ran out of time: the synopsis on the program detail page has a typo and is, as Joe Friday would say, "just the facts," and there are no audio previews for two of the three pieces. Here's what they say:

Dima Slobodeniouk conducts Borodin, Wieniawski and Prokofiev featuring Joshua Bell 

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk makes his BSO debut Sunday, August 5, leading the orchestra in Borodin's Poloytsian [sic] Dances, Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring Joshua Bell, and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. 

(Some emphasis added.)

The Borodin has long been a staple of the classical radio playlists, so I guess it's pretty popular, but it's not one of my favorites. On the other hand, I have no recollection of the other two pieces, although I may have heard the Prokofiev before. After reading the program note for the Wieniawski, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing it. I'm sure Joshua Bell will give a great performance. The BSO debut of the conductor adds interest to the concert.


In summary, there is music I definitely want to hear, and music I don't care about, but nothing I'm planning to avoid altogether. Hear it all through the on line and on air facilities of WCRB — Friday and Saturday live at 8:00 p.m. RDST, and Sunday via tape delay at 7:00 p.m. Also note all their other offerings, as linked on their webpage.