BSO — 2019/11/30

In 2008 I heard the Second Serenade by Brahms conducted by James Levine at Symphony Hall. I was delighted (which is not a word that normally fits my reaction to music of Brahms). If you listen, I'm confident you'll like it too. It opens the program, which continues with two pieces by Schumann. So we have a respite from music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here's the synopsis from the performance detail page:

The German pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias returns to Symphony Hall as both conductor and pianist in a rarity for piano and orchestra by Robert Schumann, his Introduction and Allegro appassionato, which his wife Clara premiered with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig in 1850. The BSO has only played it on two occasions, both at Tanglewood more than 50 years ago. Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 was actually the second symphony he wrote. He completed its original version in 1841, just after finishing his Symphony No. 1, but was dissatisfied with it, publishing its revised, final form only a decade later. Schumann’s use of recurring thematic ideas creates an innovative, interconnected overall form. Opening the program is Brahms’ five-movement Serenade No. 2, substantial in length but generally light in mood, like the Classical-era serenades that were the composer’s models. Brahms omits violins from the orchestra for this piece, resulting in a mellow, dark-hued tone.

(Emphasis added.)

The reviewer in the Intelligencer liked the concert, especially the Schumann and recommends listening to it. I haven't found a review in the Globe yet.

I join with the reviewer in recommending that you listen to this one. It should be good all the way through (although I'm not actually familiar with the Schumann pieces). The show begins on WCRB at 8:00 p.m., EST, and will be repeated through the miracle of recording technology on December 9, also at 8:00.

Not to be missed. Enjoy!

BSO — 2019/11/16

This week's concert is pleasant enough. As the performance detail page informs us:

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO for his countryman Edvard Grieg’s powerful Piano Concerto, a staple of the virtuoso repertoire. Austrian soprano Genia Kühmeier makes her BSO debut as soloist in the last movement of Mahler’s sunlit, expansive Symphony No. 4, completed in 1900. The Fourth is the last of the composer’s three Wunderhornsymphonies, which feature vocal settings of texts from the folk-poem collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a preoccupation of Mahler’s for more than a decade. The final movement is an expansion of his 1892 song “Das himmlische Leben” (“Heavenly Life”).

(Some emphasis added.)

So far, there is no review in the Intelligencer.  The one in the Globe is generally quite favorable, especially for the Grieg. I was there on Thursday, and was quite satisfied.

So give it a listen over WCRB tonight and/or Monday, November 25. Both shows start at 8:00 p.m., EST. I think you'll like what you hear.

And don't forget the links available on both the WCRB and BSO websites.

BSO — 2019/11/09

One of the reviewers said there are two concerts this evening; before intermission it is music by French composers, and afterwards it is Russian (or perhaps we should say Soviet). Anyway, there are three pieces on the program. Here is how the performance detail page summarizes it:

Andris Nelsons and the BSO continue their survey of the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich with his Twelfth, The Year 1917, composed in 1961. Its subtitle refers to the successful Bolshevik Revolution that resulted in the establishment of the communist Soviet Union. These are the BSO’s first performances of the complete symphony. (Its third movement, “Aurora,” named for a warship whose crew took part in the Revolution, was performed during a series of BSO Youth Concerts marking the composer’s centenary in November 2006.)

Opening these concerts are the American premiere performances of the French-American composer Betsy Jolas’ Letters from Bachville, a BSO commission. Jolas, who celebrates her 93rd birthday in 2019, has been on the faculty of the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center on several occasions. The outstanding Mitsuko Uchida joins the BSO and Mr. Nelsons for Ravel’s scintillating and poignant Piano Concerto in G.

(Some emphasis added.)

Don't forget the links to additional information which can be found on that page as well as on WCRB's page describing this concert.

The reviews are in. The Globe reviewer found the last three movements of the Shostakovich and the slow movement of the Ravel well played, and found no fault with any of the rest of it. As for the new piece by Betsy Jolas, he was noncommittal. The reviewer in the Musical Intelligencer gave Jolas even shorter, and equally noncommittal, shrift. He enthused over the playing of the Ravel, then dismissed the Shostakovich as too long and, except in the slow movement, too loud.

I was there on Thursday and, like the reviewers, found little in "Letters from Bachville" that could be recognized as Bach. So I'd suggest just listening to it as a piece of music with no associations, and see how it feels. I didn't notice anything really terrible on Thursday, so it may be okay. Like the reviewers, I think the slow movement of the Ravel was the highlight of the evening.

You can listen (and enjoy at least some of it, I hope) this evening and again on Monday, November 18, at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, over the broadcast and streaming facilities of WCRB.

BSO — 2019/11/02

Tonight we get to hear two orchestras for the price of one as the GHO (Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) joins the BSO for the final concert of "Leipzig Week in Boston." Here's the blurb from the performance detail page:

To conclude “Leipzig Week in Boston,” an intermixed orchestra of BSO and Gewandhausorchester members plays three concerts under Andris Nelsons’ direction. Haydn’s 1792 Sinfonia concertante—here featuring soloists from both the BSO and the GHO—was written during the first of the composer’s wildly successful visits to England, for which he also wrote the twelve “London” symphonies. Richard Strauss’ Festive Prelude for organ and orchestra, featuring French organist Olivier Latry as soloist, was written for the opening of Vienna’s Konzerthaus in 1913; its only BSO performances were later that same year. The organ also has a major role in the Russian composer and mystic Alexander Scriabin’s lushly exotic Poem of Ecstasy (1908), which features kaleidoscopic orchestral effects and rich, post-Romantic harmonies. Completing the program is Schoenberg’s intoxicating Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”) for strings, an 1899 tone poem considered to be the composer’s first masterpiece.

(Some emphasis added.)

Maestro Nelsons has the clout to bring this collaboration about since he is Kapellmeister of the GHO as well as Music Director of the BSO.

The Thursday concert wasn't part of my subscription, so I'm looking forward to hearing it for the first time this evening. I have heard the Scriabin and Schoenberg pieces before and I'd say they're okay. The first half of the concert will be new to me, and I expect it to be good.

The review in the Globe is definitely mixed. The reviewer finds combining the two orchestras less than a complete success (not saying anything was actually bad), although he found the Haydn good. The Boston Musical Intelligencer hasn't yet posted a review of this concert.

You can check out the links on the performance detail page as well as on WCRB's website.

And as always, you can hear it on air or over the web via WCRB tonight or November 11 at 8:00 p.m.

Enjoy!