BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/31

WCRB tells us that this evening's encore broadcast (and webstream) is of the concert of November 7, 2015. This is clearly an error. The orchestra's subscriber booklet for the year gives us October 31 as the Saturday on which this music was performed, and what I wrote at the time reflects that timing:

This week's Boston Symphony is pleasant music throughout — nothing challenging for listeners or, I suppose, performers, with music by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, and Schubert.  We read, on their performance detail page:

Violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman returns to the BSO podium in both roles in two short, beautiful Tchaikovsky works for violin and orchestra [Mélodie and Sérénade Mélancolique], and to lead the composer's famous Serenade for Strings. Edward Elgar's warmhearted Chanson de nuit is one of two brief pieces originally for solo violin and piano (the other being Chanson de matin), later rescored for orchestra. Franz Schubert wrote his charming, four-movement Symphony No. 5 when he was just nineteen. Its balance of materials and control of the orchestra show the influence of Mozart and Beethoven.

…

(Some emphasis added.)

See that page also for links to audio previews, program notes, their new "media center," and performer bio for Mr. Zukerman. Surprisingly, two of the five pieces are getting their first performances by the BSO — the two curtain raisers by Tchaikovsky — and the Elgar was never played by them in Symphony Hall.

As of this writing, there is no review yet in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Boston Globe has an unflattering review, finding the leadership of Maestro Zukerman uninspired and recalling superior performances of the main works by the orchestra in recent years. I was there on Thursday evening, and I found no fault with how anything was played. There's a lot to be said for a concert that's all "easy listening." But I was extremely annoyed by Zukerman's gesture when taking his bow at the end. He raised his hands about to shoulder level and made beckoning gestures with his fingers. The reviewer writes,

Taking his bows at the end of the night, Zukerman gestured to the crowd with his hands, as if to raise the level of the volume of the applause. There are other ways to do so.

I agree completely. The audience responded at once with cheers and much louder applause. I immediately walked out of the auditorium in disgust at the uncouth and unprofessional action. In my annoyance, I thought that Mr. Zukerman may have realized that his choice of unspectacular music didn't give the audience anything to go wild about, and maybe he thought the orchestra deserved a warmer ovation. (I later had the uncharitable thought that he chose pieces within his current capabilities as a violinist and as a conductor.) But it's an insult to the audience to tell them that they aren't applauding enough. I'm sorry many in the audience fell for it, and I wish I had had the presence of mind to boo the gesture before I left. Fortunately, if he does it again on Saturday, you won't see it over the radio or the internet.

Despite the unfortunate extraneous business at the end, I think the concert is worth listening to. You can do so over the radio and streaming facilities of WCRB — as you know by now, unless you're new to this blog. As usual, the … broadcast/webstream is on Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time…. The station's BSO page includes a link to an  … [interview with Maestro Zukerman.]

Enjoy.

(Edited for relevance.)

As was the case with last week's rebroadcast, the performance detail page is no longer accessible on the BSO website. At least, it's not in its usual place. And, as was the case in 2015, the Intelligncer doesn't have a review available. So, apart from the quote from the performance detail page, you have only a Globe review for a preview of the show. I still recommend listening to WCRB at 8:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/24

 This week WCRB gives us the concert of October 24, 2015, which I wrote about as follows:

This week it's members of the wind and string sections of the BSOperforming three pieces by Dvořák. Here's what the orchestra's performance detail page has to say about it:

The BSO's wind and string families perform conductor-less in this program of three works by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. The five-movement Serenade for Strings, is one of the composer's most familiar and popular pieces. In much the same vein of elegant entertainment is the Wind Serenade. The lesser-known but gorgeous Nocturne began life as the slow movement of a string quartet; its six-minute span is one of nearly unbroken melody.

(Some emphasis added.)

As always, that page has links to program notes, audio previews, and a podcast about the concert, but no performer bio this week: if you click on the thumbnail photo of the orchestra, you just get a larger photo. You'll note that once more the performance detail writer has taken the pieces out of the order in which they'll be performed. First it'll be the winds, then the Nocturne, and the String Serenade to conclude.

This program is only being given once, on Saturday, so there are no reviews of earlier performances since there were no earlier performances. But Dvořák isn't too tough to take, so I'm sure you'll find it enjoyable if you listen over the air or on line to WCRB at 8:00 p.m.

(Edited for relevance.)

To that they will add a performance of the Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition" which was part of a concert given on September 24, 2016. Here are the relevant parts of what I wrote back then:

It's opening night at Symphony, and they are giving an all-Russian program — a fairly short one, maybe because there are post-concert celebrations for the musicians and audience to get to (just my guess). The orchestra's performance detail page furnishes this description:

… The great orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition-Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's solo-piano impressions of a series of paintings and illustrations-closes the program. Ravel made this famous orchestration for legendary BSO conductor Serge Koussevitzky.

…

(Some emphasis added.)

The performance detail page also has links to a podcast featuring Maestro Nelsons, program notes, brief audio previews of the music, and performer bios (click on the thumbnail photo).

Since this is opening night, there are no reviews to link.…As for the "Pictures at an Exhibition," it must be good because so many people like it and it's so often performed. IMO, apart from "The Great Gate of Kiev," it's all quite forgettable, although it may well be very good as musical representation of the pictures in question. By the time they start playing, my brother's weekly phone call from Japan will be in progress, so I won't have to listen. Of course, it's always possible that this will be a performance for the ages, and all who hear it will count themselves among the blessed of the world. So, don't miss it.

If you can't get there, you can hear it over the radio or the internet via WCRB. Within radio range, tune in 99.5 or one of the other stations listed under the Ways to Listen tab. Outside the listening area, click the Listen Live button on the home page. The show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

Enjoy.

The Intelligencer was very pleased with the performance of the Mussorgsky, and the Globe raved. I can't find a review of the Dvořák concert in either of them, but, as I said at the time, his music is usually pretty good.

So I recommend listening in to WCRB at 8:00, EDST.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/17

This evening, WCRB gives an encore broadcast of the concert given on March 7, 2020. It was last concert they gave in Symphony Hall before the pandemic forced a shutdown; and a couple of days ago the orchestra announced that the entire 2020-21 season has been cancelled. (Previously, they had only cancelled through December 31. So this evening you get to hear the last notes they will have played in Symphony Hall at least until September, 2021. (Maybe they'll be able to do something at Tanglewood next summer.)

And what, you may ask, was this concert, historic in its own way? Unfortunately, I only posted about it after the event, and that very briefly. Here, with appropriate edits, is what I said:

Last Saturday's concert was worth hearing … . It included a recent piece by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a Prokofiev piano concerto, and a Sibelius Symphony. See the performance detail page for more information. There was a favorab;e review in the Intelligencer; the Globe review was mixed.

This is how that performance detail page described it (note also the usual links):

Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu and the BSO are joined by the young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, 2015 winner of the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition. In his BSO debut, he performs Prokofiev’s difficult but sparkling Piano Concerto No. 2. Hannu Lintu also leads the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, probably his most widely popular symphony. The composer’s folk-music-influenced but unique and sophisticated voice is clearly heard in this beloved piece. Lintu also introduces to the BSO repertoire music by the contemporary Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, whose work has a physical, protean power not unrelated to Sibelius’ music. She earned her doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, and her music has been performed by such ensembles as the New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin philharmonic orchestras.

(All emphasis added.)

The title of the Thorvaldsdottir piece, not given in the above excerpt, is "Metacosmos."

The reviews I mentioned are here for the Globe and here for the Intelligencer.

So definitely, give it a listen if you can this evening at 8:00 over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/10

This evening WCRB encores the concert of February 29, 2020. I was at the Thursday performance, but I was away that weekend and didn't post about it before I left. Here's what the performance detail page says:

Costa Rican conductor and frequent BSO guest Giancarlo Guerrero returns to lead soloist Johannes Moser in the first BSO performances since 1997 of English composer William Walton’s Cello Concerto, which Gregor Piatigorsky premiered with the orchestra in 1957 under Charles Munch. Opening the concert is the young British composer Helen Grime’s Limina, a BSO commission to be premiered at Tanglewood in 2019. Although French composer Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem is frequently performed in Europe and the U.S., its only previous complete BSO performances were in November 1983. Duruflé was one of Paris’s great church organists of the 20th century. His lovely and often powerful Requiem setting, which features organ, is based firmly on the tradition of Catholic liturgical music.

(Some emphasis added.)

The reviewer in the Globe was generally pleased with the performance. He found the Walton, although20th Century music, quite non-threatening, and the Durufle a gem. The Intelligencer was disappointed in the Grimes, quite satisfied with the Walton, and very pleased with the Durufle, finding the latter two well performed. It seems the trouble with the Grimes was more with the music itself than with how it was played.

Overall, it seems likely you'll enjoy the Walton and the Durufle. Why not see what the curtain raiser from Grime is really like. You can have it all by tuning in to WCRB on air or via internet this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/03

This evening WCRB presents the Boston Symphony concert of February 22, 2020. Here's what I posted back then:

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. ….

Subsequently, a review appeared in the Globe in which the reviewer found the whole concert (on Friday, which omitted the Bruckner) plodding, lacking in the panache, verve, joie de vivre, élan vital, and the certain je ne sais quoi which should characterize BSO performances. Hopefully they were more with it in the Saturday performance which we'll hear.

My memory of the original performance is hazy, but I seem to remember it was good, so I still suggest listening in.