Saturday, March 16, 2019

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!

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