BSO/Classical New England — 2020/06/20

WCRB continues to scroll through last season's concerts. This week it's the concert from November 16. Herewith, my take on it back then:

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. [A review appeared in the Intelligencer after I posted. The reviewer was quite pleased with the Grieg. He thought the first movement of the Mahler was badly conducted, but the rest was better.] I was there on Thursday, and was quite satisfied.

So give it a listen over WCRB tonight … 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.

All in all, it should be pretty enjoyable.