BSO — 2018/01/27

This week, the BSO gives us something old, somethings new (but not brand new) something borrowed, but nothing blue, so far as I can tell; so it isn't a wedding. What it is, we learn from the orchestra's performance detail page:

BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès returns to lead music of his own-a suite from his acclaimed 1995 chamber opera Powder Her Face-and joins with violinist Augustin Hadelich for György Ligeti's 1993 Violin Concerto, a wonderfully varied work that touches on virtually all of Ligeti's late musical concerns in material ranging from poignant, folk-like melody to delighted virtuosity. These performances will include a cadenza written by Thomas Adès for the finale. Opening the program is Beethoven's most boisterous and jolly symphony, No. 8. Closing the program is music from Stravinsky's 1928 ballet The Fairy's Kiss, an homage to Tchaikovsky drawing liberally on the latter's music.

(Some emphasis added.)

The old is the Beethoven, which opens the concert. The new are the Ligeti and Adès on either side of the intermission. The borrowed is music of Tchaikovsky which Stravinsky used in his ballet and divertimento. Read more about them via the links on the BSO page. Also, click on thumbnail photos for performer bios.

There is a mixed review (loved the Ligeti, liked the Adès, disappointed in the Beethoven, and doesn't like the Stravinsky) in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Globe reviewer found no fault with (said almost nothing about) the Beethoven and Stravinsky, liked the Adès, and raved about the Ligeti. Both found Hadelich's playing spectacular. The BMInt suggests you need to be in Symphony Hall to get the full effect of the violin in the Ligeti, but the reviews give good information about the pieces.

I'll be listening to WCRB this evening from 8:00 Boston Time until 9:00, when my brother calls from Tokyo. I'll try to catch the rest when the show is rebroadcast/streamed on Monday, February 5 at 8:00. The middle pieces may not be everybody's figurative cup of metaphorical tea, but you never know until you give it a try. I'm not sure I'll like them, although my interest is piqued for the Ligeti. They probably won't reach that spectacular cadenza the reviewers tell about before 9:00. It definitely gives me a reason to listen to the rebroadcast. If you decide to leave during the Adès, the Stravinsky will probably begin about 10:05.

BSO — 2018/01/20

A single work is on this week's BSO program: Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler. The BSO's program detail page, with the usual links to background info, gives this description:

The outstanding American mezzo Susan Graham joins Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for Mahler's Third Symphony, which, along with his Symphony No. 2, exemplifies the composer's ambitious expansion of the symphonic genre. This is the second of Mahler's trio of "Wunderhorn" symphonies (Nos. 2-4) employing text from the folk-poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The six-movement symphony is divided into two parts. Part I is a massive, 30-plus-minute opening movement representing a Bacchic procession celebrating the arrival of summer. Part II (movements 2 through 6) is a series of character pieces representing the responses of, in turn, wild flowers, animals of the forest, mankind itself, angels, and the spirit of love.

(Some emphasis added.) 

The reviews in the Globe and in the Boston Musical Intelligencer are detailed and highly favorable. I was there for the Thursday performance and enjoyed it. It's a massive work, but there is very little that seemed superfluous. I was very impressed with the playing all around, especially a fine trombone solo and the offstage posthorn solo.

I definitely recommend listening this evening at 8:00, Eastern Time, over WCRB. On Monday at 8L00 you can hear a rebroadcast of last week's concert of Webern, Bartók, and Stravinsky. The following Monday, this will be rebroadcast.

BSO — 2018/01/13

This week's concert takes us a century and more froward from last week's, with music by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, and Béla Bartók. While this may not be the most challenging music these composers wrote it is challenging, especially the first half of the concert. That's my opinion. Here's how the orchestra's performance detail page describes it:

In his second week of concerts, François-Xavier Roth works with outstanding French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Bartók's percussive, glittering Piano Concerto No. 1, in which the composer's love for Central European folk music merges imaginatively with early 20th-century modernism. Music by two close Bartók contemporaries fills out the program. Anton Webern's lush twelve-minute, single-movement Passacaglia from 1908 predates the crystalline miniatures for which he is best-known. Composed the following year is Stravinsky's The Firebird, the breathtakingly magical score for the Ballets Russes that catapulted the 27-year-old composer to fame and which, more than a century later, remains one of his most beloved pieces.

(Some emphasis added.)


The reviews are in — one in the Boston Globe, and two (!) in the Boston Musical Intelligencer (here and here). All three are favorable, although putting different takes on various elements of the music. They and the program notes and audio previews on the orchestra's page, should give you a pretty good idea of what you're in for if you listen, which you can this evening at 8:00 Boston Time via WCRB on line and on air. Challenging though I consider it, I'll be listening until my brother calls from Japan. Although there is language somewhere on the website which promises a rebroadcast on Monday a week later (which would be January 22 for this concert — and last Saturday's on January 15) I don't see it specifically for this or last week's concert. But it's worth trying if you're interested.

BSO — 2018/01/06

The orchestra is back performing at Symphony Hall, and they have a great program this week. Here's the description from their performance detail page:

Two cornerstones of the repertoire anchor this program. The young English pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is soloist in one of Mozart's most familiar concertos, No. 21 in C, an elegant, good-natured work written and premiered in Vienna in spring 1785. Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is the concerto's polar opposite in mood,a stormy struggle against destiny with a well-earned victory at the close. Opening the program is a rarity: the overture to the 1811 opera The Amazons by the highly successful and prolific opera composer Étienne Méhul, a contemporary of Mozart and Beethoven.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Thursday performance was cancelled because of the weather, so I haven't heard it yet, and I don't see a review in the Globe. The Intelligencer is enthusiastic.

The Mozart concerto is a favorite of its genre, and the Beethoven needs no introduction. So this is a concert not to be missed. As always, listen to WCRB at 8:00.