BSO/Classical New England — 2019/03/30

I don't know where the orchestra has gone, but they're not giving concerts in Symphony Hall this week.* Ever resourceful, WCRB will treat us to an "encore broadcast" (and webstream) of the concert given at Tanglewood on Sunday, July 8, last summer. I quoted the performance detail page and added my comment in my post at the time:

Andris Nelsons and the BSO pay a special tribute to Bernstein by replicating the first full program Bernstein ever conducted with the orchestra in November 1944. On the first half of, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder joins the BSO for Brahms's ambitious and sprawling Piano Concerto No. 1. Bringing the concert to a close is Shostakovich's riveting Symphony No. 5, the composer's most accessible, popular, and controversial symphony. Bernstein conducted the work a total of eight times with the BSO, including five performances at Tanglewood.

(Emphasis added.)

The performance detail page also has the usual links to background information. I find it interesting that the Shostakovich symphony was led by Bernstein so early in his career and that he conducted it that often with the BSO — eight times suggests two or three different subscription series.

Because it was Tanglewood, meaning that the program hadn't been presented earlier in the week, there were no reviews available when I posted. Subsequently, the Musical Intelligencer published this extensive review, dissatisfied with the pianist in the Brahms but concentrating on the Shostakovich. The Globe didn't print a review.

You can hear it and form your own opinion at 8:00 p.m. this evening. They don't seem to be saying that there will be the usual Monday rebroadcast on April 8, but you might as well check and see if it happens.

* Don't worry, they have concerts scheduled next week and the following four.

BSO — 2019/03/23

This week the BSO gives a concert of music by Black and Puerto Rican composers. Here's the description from their performance detail page:

Thomas Wilkins, the BSO's Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, makes his subscription series debut with this concert, which features music of three African-American composers along with the Puerto Rico-born Robert Sierra. Sierra wrote his Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra for eminent jazz saxophonist James Carter, including opportunities for improvisation within his dynamic and soulful score. Also in the jazz spectrum is Duke Ellington's lush, impressionistic tone poem A Tone Parallel to Harlem. Florence Price graduated from Boston's New England Conservatory in 1906 as a pianist and organist; she also studied composition there. She wrote her Third Symphony in 1940 on a commission from the WPA; Thomas Wilkins has arranged sections of the four-movement work into a tone poem he calls "Symphonic Reflections." The brash, optimistic concert-opener An American Port of Call was written in 1985 for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra by Adolphus Hailstork, inspired by his bustling home city of Norfolk, VA, where he is a professor at Old Dominion University.

(Some emphasis added.)

This is the only performance of the program, so there are no reviews, but the Boston Globe has an informative interview with the conductor.

None of this is music I'm familiar with, and I'd like to hear it. I'll be listening to WCRB on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and again on Monday, April 1, for he rebroadcast, also at 8:00. The March 25 rebroadcast is last Saturday's all-Strauss concert. Don't forget to check out the website for information about other programming.

BSO — 2019/03/16

The orchestra's program detail page, with the usual links to background material, tells us the following about this week's BSO concert:

The incomparable American soprano Renée Fleming returns to Symphony Hall to join Andris Nelsons and the BSO in the gorgeous and touching final scene from Richard Strauss's "conversation piece for music," the opera Capriccio. The opera's opening Sextet for Strings and luminous Moonlight Music will precede the vocal scene. On the second half is the composer's Also sprach Zarathustra, his tone poem based on the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's mystical meditation of the same name. The piece opens with a dramatic fanfare (widely known from its use by Stanley Kubrick in the sound track of 2001: A Space Odyssey), perhaps the most famous "sunrise" in music.

(Some emphasis added.)

This concert was not part of my subscription. Fortunately the reviews are in. The Globe gave a lot of information about the opera, and was generally pleased with the performance — a big fan of Renée Fleming. The Musical Intelligencer makes up for finding Ms. Fleming's age showing in the Strauss by giving us a glimpse into a master class she gave at New England Conservatory and praising her Thursday evening encore, with no complaints about the orchestra and compliments for several who had leading parts.

It seems it will be worthwhile to tune your radio or your computer to WCRB this evening (and/or Monday, March 25) at 8:00 to hear it all. Enjoy!

Handel and Haydn — 2019/03/10

On Sunday, March 10, I went to the afternoon concert of the Handel and Haydn Society at Symphony Hall. There were four works on the program. First was Coronation Anthem № 1, "Zadok the Priest," by Handel, which was performed by members of the high school Collaborative Youth Concerts Choruses and the H+H Orchestra, conducted by Emily Isaacson. The remainder of the concert was performed by the orchestra, conducted by Matthew Halls. It consisted of the Overture to "The Magic Flute," K. 620 by Mozart, Clarinet Concerto № 1 in f minor, op. 73, by Weber, with Eric Hoeprich as soloist, and, after intermission, Symphony № 5 in c minor, op. 67, by Beethoven.

For a group of high schoolers from various schools, the chorus performed quite well. I'd say they were flawless. The Mozart overture was also flawless but unspectacular. Eric Hoeprich is Dutch, but comes to play first clarinet with the H+H. He gave a very lively rendition of the solo part in the Weber. Toward the end of the slow movement, there were passages where the clarinet was accompanied only by three horns softly playing sustained chords. One of the horns was playing extremely low notes — something Weber calls for in other pieces as well. The horn players handled it all very well, and when they were finished is said, "Wow!" under my breath. The third horn player, John Aubrey, didn't seem to do much during the rest of the piece, and I suspect he was brought in just to handle the low notes. I find Weber's music very enjoyable, so I was happy to hear this piece so well performed. I gave a "Bravo!" at the end, and a "Bravi!" to the horn players when the conductor had them stand for a bow.

The Beethoven 5th was also wonderful. The H+H plays on period instruments and uses "historically informed" playing techniques. The result was a smaller orchestra than is common — mainly fewer strings — and it was possible to hear all the instruments. Details which often are buried were audible,  so it seemed that I could hear bits which I hadn't noticed before. The performance was very vigorous in the outer movements and, I thought, well-paced in the inner ones. The end of the symphony produces a GSO (guaranteed standing ovation), so other audience members provided the well-deserved bravos without waiting for encouragement from me.

I don't find any reviews of the concert, so for now you'll have to take my word for it that it was an excellent concert. I hope that WCRB will broadcast it sometime, and you can hear it for yourself.

BSO — 2019/03/09

This week the BSO sandwiches the world premiere of a piano concerto, conducted by the composer, between two late 19th Century orchestral pieces. Here's how the orchestra's performance detail page synopsizes the concert:

BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès returns for a concert featuring the world premiere of his Concerto for piano and orchestra , commissioned by the BSO and composed for Kirill Gerstein, a frequent collaborator. Mr. Adès also leads the orchestra in two Romantic-era scores. Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltz depicts a scene from Nicolaus Lenau's 1836 poem Faust in which Mephistopheles plays demonically on a fiddle during a wedding. Tchaikovsky's emotionally intense and magnificently orchestrated Fourth Symphony, completed in 1878, represents the culmination of a traumatic period in the composer's life.

(Some emphasis added.)

I was there for theThursday concert, which had the very first performance of the piano concerto. It struck me as 21st Century Gershwin. There was some jazzy rhythm, there was a modicum of tune, but it was all overshadowed by noise. I couldn't say if it was exactly atonal, but it didn't seem very harmonious. It was tolerable and even interesting. Maybe a second hearing this evening will lead to greater understanding and appreciation. The Liszt was vigorous — happy to see Clint Foreman get some solo work in it, although most went to Elizabeth Ostling. The first movement of the Tchaikovsky went too long — his fault, not theirs.

The Globe review, which I hadn't read before writing the above paragraph, also notes Gershwinesque qualities in the concerto. The reviewer likes the Liszt and appreciates a couple of unusual touches in the Tchaikovsky. The Musical Intelligencer was also pleased.

Listen in this evening at 8:00 over the facilities of WCRB, see what you think of the concerto, and enjoy the classics. Don't forget the repeat on March 18 at 8:00 p.m. On the 11th, you have another chance to hear the Dvořák "Stabat Mater."

Enjoy!

BSO — 2019/03/02

This evening's concert is the "Stabat Mater" by Antonin Dvořák. Here's what the performance detail page tells us:

Dvořák wrote the piece in 1876-77 in response to the deaths of three of his children, using the traditional Medieval Latin poem on the subject of Mary's sorrow over Christ's death. Dvořák's poignant and dramatic setting expresses a heartfelt, personal experience of grief via the four solo roles, and its universality through the power of the chorus and orchestra. The BSO has only performed this work in its entirety on two previous occasions: under Seiji Ozawa in 1980, and in a single performance in Louisville, Kentucky, led by Arthur Nikisch in 1891.

If you are going to be giving the performance close attention, I recommend going to the link for the program notes where you can find the text, as well as a description of the music. But I think it can also work if you are listening without knowing the exact words, just with the idea of what it is about in general, and realizing that he was writing it shortly after the deaths of his three young children.

Both the Globe and the Musical Intelligencer have reviews that point out minor flaws in the performance while overall quite favorable. I was there and probably tried too hard to follow word for word, rather than taking in the overall experience of each section. It was high on my list of concerts to hear this season, and I'm glad I was there. One of the basses in the chorus has a blog, and earlier in the week he said a couple of things about it. One was that it is the saddest piece of choral music he knows — not just making musical gestures of sadness, but truly sad in spirit throughout until the closing lines. He also said that the chorus had to learn that pp is not mezzoforte. There were a couple of spots in the early going where it seemed that the orchestra was playing mezzoforte and drowning out the chorus's properly executed pp. As for being sad throughout, I didn't hear it that way. It was very sad in the beginning sections, but didn't seem to me to maintain that degree of sadness all the way through. Maybe you'll hear what he meant about it.

This is one I definitely recommend. (In addition to being great music, it can help you get in the mood for Lent, if you need or want any help in that area.) As always, WCRB presents it live with coverage beginning at 8:00 p.m., and there will be a rebroadcast at 8:00 on Monday, March 11. (On the 4th, they will replay last week's "Suor Angelica.)

The Thursday concert began with a performance of  "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations by Elgar, which was added in memory of André Previn, who had died earlier that day. I don't know if they'll play it again this evening.