BSO — 2020/02/22

And we're back live from Symphony Hall this evening. Here's the description on the orchestra's performance detail page (where you can also find links to background material, as well as a listing of the order in which the works are actually to be performed):

The eminent violinist Pinchas Zukerman conducts this beautifully balanced program, which also features him as soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the composer’s earliest masterpieces, written when he was 19. Richard Strauss’ surprisingly deft, precocious Serenade for 13 winds dates from 1881, when he was only 17. The Bruckner Adagio, played here by string orchestra, is the second movement of his String Quintet, his most substantial piece of chamber music. Concluding these concerts is Haydn’s Symphony No. 49, from 1768, which may be derived from music he wrote for the theater (the nickname was not the composer’s). The BSO’s only previous performances of this piece were in 1979 at Symphony Hall and 1988 at Tanglewood.

(Emphasis added.)

The program was given, without the Bruckner, on Friday evening; and there is a favorable review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. There is nothing yet in the Globe, and I wasn't there last night.

I don't think I've ever heard the pieces by Strauss and Bruckner, but I'm looking forward to hearing them this evening, and of course the Haydn and Mozart are very good. So tune your computer or your radio to WCRB at 8:00 p.m, Boston Time for some good music. They will rebroadcast it on March 2, also at 8:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/15

For the final Saturday before the live BSO subscription concerts resume, WCRB has chosen to present the Tanglewood concert of Saturday, August 10, 2019. The orchestra's performance detail page gives us the basics and links to background information:

The 2019 Tanglewood season will also see the BSO and Tanglewood debut of Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, who leads the orchestra on Saturday, August 10, in Carreño’s Margaritena, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Nikolai Lugansky, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.

(Some emphasis added.)

On their page about the concert, WCRB has a link to an interview with the conductor.

The Boston Globe has a noncommittal review, which I find interesting because it mentions two horn players. I posted a very brief preview back in August.

It should be a pleasant evening this evening at 8:00 and again on February 24 at 8:00 p.m., EST, over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/08

WCRB has picked a good concert from last summer to rebroadcast and stream this evening and again on February 17 at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. It's the concert that was given on August 4. Yefim Bronfman is piano soloist and Dima Slobodeniouk is conductor the the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto № 3 and Sibelius Symphony № 1. While neither is on my "must listen" list, the concerto is highly regarded, and I like listening to Sibelius. WCRB doesn't seem to have any links to further material on their page about the concert. The BSO's performance detail page is also pretty "bare bones" but it does have links for the performers and the Rachmaninoff concerto.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer did not review the concert. The Globe is favorable, but with reservations — not a rave. I posted a preview, but it adds nothing to what's in this post.

My recommendation on balance: give it a listen if you can. Go to WCRB. As always, the home page links other features.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/01

The BSO had scheduled a tour to the Far East. The coronavirus panic has scuttled thos plans, but they have no concerts scheduled in Symphony Hall until February 21, with the next Saturday concert on the 22nd. So WCRB is following their usual procedure of retransmitting past concerts. This evening — and again on Monday, Feb. 10 — it is a concert from last summer at Tanglewood, specifically the concert of August 2, 2019.

Here's WCRB's summary on their BSO page:

Saturday at 8pm in an encore broadcast from the 2019 Tanglewood season, the American violinist is the soloist in Dvorák’s folk-infused Violin Concerto, and Ken-David Masur leads the BSO in the Czech composer's Symphony No. 8.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
(encore broadcast Monday, February 10)
8:00 PM
Recorded August 2, 2019
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
MARTINŮ Memorial to Lidice
DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

Of course Ken-David Masur conducts all three pieces, not just the concluding symphony.

I'm having trouble accessing prior posts, but I'm confident I posted about it back then, and you can find all the usual links for Tanglewood concerts there,

As always, you can listen to it on line or on air at WCRB.

Enjoy!