BSO/Classical New England — 2020/04/25

This evening WCRB gives us an encore broadcast of the concert of November 24, 2018, conducted by Andris Nelsons. The performance detail page from that date has the usual links and describes the program as follows:

Beethoven often composed several major works at the same time, each a distinctly different expressive outlet. He began sketching his Fifth Symphony in 1804 but didn't complete it until four years later. The innovative construction of that piece and its unprecedented intensity are embodied in the opening four notes, the most famous theme in classical music. In the interim between the Fifth's first sketches and its completion, Beethoven wrote some of his most lyrical music-for the opera Leonore (which would become Fidelio) and the Fourth Symphony. The latter's consistent high spirits contrast starkly with the struggle against fate embodied in the Fifth.

(Some emphasis added.)

Here's a big chunk of what I wrote back then:

At this point, there are no reviews aailable. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, the first performance was Friday afternoon. But after all, it's Beethoven and this is the BSO, so what could go wrong. Maybe some nuance will be brought out, or maybe someone will do a bit exceptionally well or flub something; but you know that basically it'll be worth listening to. Unfortunately for me, I think the 4th is the worst symphony Beethoven ever wrote. The first movement is okay, and the second is lovely, but the last two are coarse and unappealing to me. And I'll have to miss the 5th, because my brother will be making his weekly call from Japan when they're playing it.

Since then the Globe published a review. The reviewer found nothing to actually criticize in the performance and some things to like. But she wished they had given us something important by a more contemporary composer in place of one of the Beethovens. I couldn't find anything in the Intelligencer.

My recommendation: listen. You'll like it.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/04/18

WCRB reaches back just two years for this evening's concert. Neither work is on my all time favorites list, nor is the conductor or soloist well known to me. But the reviews are favorable, especially the one in the Intelligencer, which appeared after I wrote my post about it at the time of the performance. As I noted at the time, the Globe was also favorable, if tepid.

Here's the link to the performance detail page, and here's their synopsis:

For his second week of concerts this season, Tugan Sokhiev leads the BSO in Brahms's towering Violin Concerto, with the outstanding, Ukrainian-born, Israeli violin soloist Vadim Gluzman in his BSO winter season debut. Brahms wrote his concerto in 1878 for his lifelong friend Joseph Joachim. Closing the program is Prokofiev's wartime Symphony No. 5, a powerful, searching, and expansive work premiered in January 1945 with the composer conducting.

(Emphasis added.)

To round out the links, here's WCRB's page about the concert, and here's their home page.

I think if you listen, you'll hear some top flight music making, so I recommend tuning your radio, computer, or other device to WCRB at 8:00 p.m.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/04/11

I'm pleased that WCRB is recognizing Good Friday and Easter in their Boston Symphony programming. Last evening, Good Friday, they gave the concert of March 2, 2019. It was a performance of the massive "Stabat Mater" by Antonin Dvořák (preceded by "Nimrod" from Elgar's Enigma Variations, in memory of André Previn, who had died on Thursday). This evening they will give us"Lux æterna" by Maija Einfelde and Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony (Symphony No. 2) originally performed on October 27, 2018.

The BSO performance detail page gives the following detail about the performance, along with the usual links:

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler's all-embracing ninety-minute Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, along with Chinese soprano Ying Fang and Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink. The fourth movement is a setting of "Urlicht," a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a source of texts for many of Mahler's songs, and the vast finale includes a setting for chorus and soprano of verses from Klopstock's poem "Resurrection." James Burton will conduct Maija's Einfelde's Lux aeterna, for mixed chorus, the first of two Latvian works performed this year to mark the centenary of the country's independence. 

Please note there will be no intermission for these performances.

(Some emphasis added.)

I posted about it at the time and noted that the Intelligencer liked the performance on Thursday but the Globe didn't. I hadn't heard it, so I'm expressing no opinion. This time around, I may be watching the Easter Vigil from the cathedral in Boston.* If so, I won't hear the concert, but if you're free at 8:00 EDST, you might find it worthwhile. As always, it's on WCRB.

*Then again, I may watch the Vatican at 3:00 and be free for the concert until my brother calls from Japan at 9:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/04/04

I hope you've noted that for now WCRB is giving us encore performances six nights a week, not just on Saturdays,but Monday through Friday as well. There is a link on their homepage, which is also where you go to listen over the web. Also linked there is the page briefly detailing tonight's performance, with further links to interviews with the soloist and the conductor.

I definitely liked it and recommend listening. Here's what I wrote about it at the time:

"Last week I went to Colorado for the wedding of a cousin and didn't have time to post about last Saturday's concert. The same program was given on Tuesday this week, and I heard it then. I'm sorry I wasn't around to recommend it last week, because it was a gem. Fortunately there is still the rebroadcast on Monday, April 30. Listen if you can. Here's how the BSO's program detail page describes it:

Russian-Ossetian conductor Tugan Sokhiev and Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki both make their BSO debuts in these concerts, working together in Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. Already acclaimed as a prodigy, Chopin was just twenty when he wrote and premiered this concerto in 1830. The piece blends Classical concerto form with the composer's entirely individual piano writing and lyrical Romanticism. Felix Mendelssohn began his Symphony No. 4, ["Italian"] also in 1830 during an extended stay in Italy. The predominantly cheerful opening movement reflects his pleasure in the Mediterranean environs. Opening the program is Benjamin Britten's  Simple Symphony, an utterly charming string-orchestra work created from fragments of his youthful compositions.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Britten piece was light and full of youthful good spirits — a very enjoyable beginning to the evening. It's a piece I wasn't familiar with, so it was a very pleasant surprise, given my general impression of later Britten. On the other hand, my father had a recording of the Chopin concerto, and we played it fairly regularly. The performance in this concert lived up to my expectations. While I don't have the expertise to pick up all the subtleties the reviewers noted in the piano playing, it seemed excellent to me. The only problem was that in several places where a solo horn was playing along with the piano, the horn drowned out the piano. Maybe the radio engineers can fix that. After intermission, Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony,was just what I expected. So it was thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.

The reviews were enthusiastic, both in the Globe and in the Musical Intelligencer. So if you listen to WCRB at 8:00 p.m […], you're in for a treat."