BSO/Classical New England — 2020/12/26

 Once again, with no effort on my part, it's Saturday; and once again WCRB is taking us back five seasons, to hear an all-Czech concert. Their BSO page informs us:

Saturday, December 26, 2020
8:00 PM

In a 2016 Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, Johannes Moser is the soloist in Dvorák's Cello Concerto, and Ludovic Morlot conducts Smetana's "The Moldau" and Martinu's Sixth Symphony, Fantaisies symphoniques.

Encore broadcast from Jan. 23, 2016

Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello

SMETANA “The Moldau” from Ma Vlast
MARTINŮ Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No. 6)
DVORÁK Cello Concerto

WCRB's Brian McCreath talks with Johannes Moser about the Dvorák Cello Concerto and his life as a concert soloist:

Listen 

Listening...

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Conductor Ludovic Morlot describes the experience of stepping in on short notice to lead this BSO concert and what he learned about Czech music by performing it in Prague:

Listen 

Listening...

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(Most emphasis added.)

Here, edited to remove content no longer valid, is what I wrote at that point in time:

This week it's an all-Czech program under the baton of Ludovic Morlot, who has stepped in to replace Czech conductor Jiři Bělohlávek, who had been scheduled to conduct these concerts. First on the program is Vltava (The Moldau), by Smetana. That is followed by Martinů'sFantaisies symphoniques (Symphony № 6). After intermission, Johannes Moser is soloist in Dvořák's Cello Concerto. The orchestra's performance detail page has […] the following note about two of the pieces on the program (no idea why they don't mention the Dvořák):

Seattle Symphony Orchestra Music Director and former BSO Assistant Conductor Ludovic Morlot  leads an all-Czech program featuring three different generations of composers. Smetana was the first and most important Czech nationalist composer, and the tone poem The Moldau, from his large orchestral suite My Country, is by far his most familiar piece. Bohuslav Martinů studied in Paris and adopted a more cosmopolitan style, but a Czech flavor infuses much of his work. The rich and colorful, thirty-minute Fantaisies symphoniques was commissioned for the orchestra's 75th anniversary and was premiered in 1955.

I'm not familiar with the Martinů symphony, but the others are staples of the repertory and pleasant enough to listen to. The Globe's reviewerwas pleased with the performances and even more pleased that the orchestra was playing the symphony they had commissioned over 60 years ago. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a very favorable review, including a very imaginative description if the Martinů. I had to miss the concert in order to attend a meeting I needed to be at, so I  can't add anything to the published reviews. Based on them, I'm looking forward to the broadcast on WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Saturday […]. It is also streamed over the web at [that time].

[…]

So I think this'll be worth hearing, although the Martinů may be a bit "advanced." Enjoy!

And here's the link for the review in the Intelligencer, which I neglected to include in my original post.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/12/19

WCRB does not identify this week's BSO presentation as a concert from a specific date. The conductor, Seiji Ozawa, was Music Director of the Boston Symphony from 1973 through 2002, so we will likely be hearing music from that era. I'm guessing it's from "studio" recordings rather than live concerts. Here's how WCRB describes it:

Saturday at 8pm, in a timeless holiday season tradition, Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra bring to life Tchaikovsky's magical tale of Christmas, Sugar Plum Fairies, and one very handsome prince.

Saturday, December 19, 2020
8:00 PM

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa, conductor

BACH/STRAVINSKY Chorale Variations on Vom Himmel hoch
TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker
BERLIOZ Overture and "Shepherd's Farewell" from Part 2 of L'enfance du Christ

So it seems that there are none of the usual performance detail pages, program notes, or reviews available, and it's nothing I wrote about. I'm sure you know enough about "The Nutcracker." If not, I'm leaving you to your own devices to research it. But, for those for whom "Vom Himmel Hoch" and "L'enfance du Christ" aren't familiar here are some links and comments.

This wiki article includes the text and standard 19th Century English translation. Here is a performance.

"L'enfance du Christ" is agood piece about Jesus' birth and the flight into Egypt to escape King Herod's attempt to murder him as a rival for the throne. The shepherds' Farewell is definitely a highlight of the work. Here's a program note from the Los Angeles Philharmonic whic gives an idea of the entire work and of the place of the excerpts we'll get.

Here's the text of the Shepherds' Chorus in French:

CHŒUR DES BERGERS

Il s’en va loin de la terre
Où dans l’étable il vit le jour.
De son père et de sa mère
Qu’il reste le constant amour,
Qu’il grandisse, qu’il prospère
Et qu’il soit bon père à son tour. 

Oncques si, chez l’idolâtre,
Il vient à sentir le malheur,
Fuyant la terre marâtre,
Chez nous qu’il revienne au bonheur.
Que la pauvreté du pâtre
Reste toujours chère à son cœur. 

Cher enfant, Dieu te bénisse!
Dieu vous bénisse, heureux époux!
Que jamais de l’injustice
Vous ne puissiez sentir les coups.
Qu’un bon ange vous avertisse
Des dangers planant sur vous.

And an English setting (noy exactly a translation, more a loose paraphrase, but it gives the general idea):

Thou must leave thy lowly dwelling,
the humble crib, the stable bare.
Babe, all mortal babes excelling,
content our earthly lot to share.
Loving father, loving mother,
shelter thee with tender care!

Blessed Jesus, we implore thee,
with humble love and holy fear.
In the land that lies before thee,
forget not us who linger here!
May the shepherd’s lowly calling,
ever to thy heart be dear!

Blest are ye beyond all measure,
thou happy father, mother mild!
Guard ye well your heavenly treasure,
the Prince of Peace, the Holy Child!
God go with you, God protect you,
guide you safely through the wild!

All in all, it should be an enjoyable program at 8:00 p.m. over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/12/12

 This week, the encore broadcast is the second of the two programs François-Xavier Roth led to begin January 2016.

Here's what WCRB says about it now:

Saturday at 8pm, the American soprano joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in works by Dutilleux and Canteloube, and François-Xavier Roth leads the BSO in music by Debussy and Stravinsky.

Saturday, December 12, 2020
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast from January 16, 2016

Boston Symphony Orchestra
François-Xavier Roth, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano

DEBUSSY Jeux
DUTILLEUX Le Temps l'Horloge
CANTELOUBE Selections from Songs of the Auvergne
STRAVINSKY Petrouchka

Here, edited, is what I said nearly five years ago:

In a desperate — but not really necessary, IMO — attempt to attract new audiences, the BSO will be giving a different program on Friday from that on Thursday and Saturday — an amalgam of last week and this week's regular programs. They'll be giving last week's Mozart and this week's Stravinsky at 8:00 p.m. They call it a "Casual Friday," which is laughable, because every concert is casual as far as acceptable dress is concerned: shirts and shoes are required for "gentlemen" but t shirts will do, and hats are permitted indoors. What is different from normal breaches of etiquette is that the use of electronic devices will be permitted, nay, encouraged, during the show. As they put it on their [performance detail] page for Friday:

This evening's concert is the first of three in our "Casual Fridays" Series. There are two more concerts this season- one in February and one in March. Tickets range between $25 to $45, include a complimentary pre-concert reception and patrons are invited to wear their favorite casual attire. This series also includes the use of tablets in a designated area in the rear of the orchestra floor where you can view customized content, designed to enhance the concert experience, to include an in-depth look at the conductors and soloists, and informative notes on the program. Then, immediately after the performance, head to Higginson Hall in Symphony Hall's adjacent Cohen Wing, where, besides enjoying live music, snacks, and a cash bar, you are invited to mingle and share what you've just experienced at the BSO concert.

For the more stodgy among the audience, the program on Thursday and Saturday, includes music by Debussy, songs by Dutilleux and Canteloube sung by Renée Fleming, and Petrushka by Stravinsky in the 1911 version — all with François-Xavier Roth on the podium. The [performance] detail page for this concert provides […]the following (out of order) description of what they'll perform:

François-Xavier Roth returns for a second week of concerts at Symphony Hall with a French-leaning program. These BSO performances of Henri Dutilleux's song cycle Le Temps l'Horloge ("Time and the Clock") mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. An important figure in BSO history, Dutilleux wrote these songs for Renée Fleming as a BSO co-commission for the orchestra's 125th anniversary. Fleming gave their American premiere with the BSO in 2007. She also sings selections from Canteloube's ravishing, folk-song-based Songs of the Auvergne. Opening and closing the program are ballet scores composed for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes-Debussy's luminously orchestrated Jeux ("Games"), an abstract ballet about a game of tennis, and Stravinsky's Petrushka, which follows the travails of a hapless living puppet at a Shrovetide Fair in Russia.

(Emphasis added.)

The reviewer in the Boston Musical Intelligencer, being a musicologist, observed a lot in all four pieces that escaped my notice, and found it all quite satisfying. The Globe review was less detailed on musical fine points, but generally laudatory.

I was there on Thursday. I thought Ms. Fleming sang beautifully, but the songs themselves were nothing to write home about. The Canteloube, after the intermission, at least had the benefit of music that fit the text, so if you listen, it would be a good idea to read the program notes and the texts. I didn't notice any real connection between the words of the Dutilleux songs and the successions of notes to which they were sung. Petrushka is not so brutal as Rite of Spring, and it has a couple of nice tunes that keep coming back, so it's listenable. As for the Debussy ballet which opens the program, although I didn't catch all the stuff the BMInt reviewer did, it wasn't too bad, especially for Debussy.

As always, you can hear it […] at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EST) over WCRB's broadcast and streaming facilities. […]

In summary, I found the program listenable enough. As I said to someone who hadn't been there, "I'm glad I heard the pieces, but I don't need to hear any of them again." You might like some or all of it better. So, while I wouldn't call it a "must hear," I think it's worth a listen. […].

Since the performance detail pages from "way back then" are, regrettably, no longer on line, you'll have to do an online search for "Songs of the Auvergne," if you want to follow along with the lyrics.

At this moment, I think I may listen to the Beethoven Orgy on WHRB, 95.3 FM, instead of this. As I said, I don't need to hear any of those pieces again.

Winter Orgy® Period 2020

I've already missed the Warhorse Orgy this time around, and by the I've written and posted this, the Hilliard Ensemble Orgy will be over. But that's all the classical music orgies that are scheduled until Friday. Then we get the main event, The Beethoven Orgy®, in honor of his 250th birthday. It begins on December 11 at 8:00 a.m., EST, and continues through December 18, concluding each day at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., with occasional interruptions such as the Memorial Church Service on Sunday morning. They promise every piece of music Beethoven wrote, with some special presentations interrupting the chronological flow.

There's also a 1920's Orgy (not just classical) and a Shakespeare Orgy, and on December 24 the David Eliot Orgy, originally presented when he retired. David Eliot joined Harvard Radio as a student and, after his graduation in 1964, became the leader of the station until ALS forced his retirement in 2018. He died from the disease last month.

Here's a link to the program guide. There you'll find listings of the music to be played on each day of the orgies and listings of orgies in other genres — jazz, rock, folk, traditional — which you may also enjoy listening to. That page also gives a button for listening on line and the frequency to listen over the airwaves if you're within range.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/12/05

 Five years ago, it was HolidayPops season in Symphony Hall, so WCRB has fast-forwarded a month to January 9, 2016, for the following:

Saturday at 8pm, François-Xavier Roth leads the BSO in Gossec's Symphonie à 17 parties and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, as well as Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp, featuring BSO Principal Flutist Elizabeth Rowe and BSO Principal Harpist Jessica Zhou.

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Encore broadcast from January 9, 2016

Boston Symphony Orchestra
François-Xavier Roth, conductor
Elizabeth Rowe, flute
Jessica Zhou, harp

GOSSEC Symphonie à 17 parties
MOZART Concerto in C for Flute and Harp, K.299
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

The page also has interviews with the conductor and with the soloists in the Mozart.

Below, edited and revised to remove content no longer valid, is what I posted back at the time:

It should be a very enjoyable concert when the Boston Symphony Orchestra resumes its subscription series on January 7-12. Guest conductor François-Xavier Roth opens the concert with the Symphonie à 17 parties in F by François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829), whose music has never before been played by the BSO. Then Elizabeth Rowe,flute, and Jessica Zhou, harp, are soloists in Mozart's Concerto in C for Flute and Harp. After intermission we will hear Beethoven'sSymphony № 3, "Eroica." […]Here's what [the performance detail page says] about the program:

BSO principal flute Elizabeth Rowe and principal harp Jessica Zhou join French conductor François-Xavier Roth for Mozart's masterful Concerto in C for Flute and Harp. The Belgian-born François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829), whose music the BSO has never played, was a Haydn contemporary who outlived both Beethoven and Schubert. Active in Paris during the Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, he composed virtually nothing in the final thirty years of his life. One of two noted exceptions is the ebullient 1809 Symphony for Seventeen Parts. By contrast, Beethoven's towering Eroica Symphony, composed five years earlier, ushers in seismic changes in the form, scale, and impact of the symphonic genre.

Reviews are tepid. In the Globe,  the reviewer found the Mozart well played by the soloists, the Gossec given a perfunctory performance by the players, and the Beethoven lacking overall cohesion. The BMInt reviewer was much happier with the Beethoven and liked the Gossec. He was satisfied with the playing of the Mozart, but considers the music inferior Mozart.

I found the Gossec pleasant but not extremely inspired. Maybe hearing it again on Saturday will open it up more for me. Anyway, it should be enjoyable to listen to. The other two pieces are familiar, especially the Beethoven, and I found the performances satisfying. Personally, I was happy to see a couple of the new members of the orchestra take leading roles. Clint Foreman had the first chair in the flute section for the Gossec and the Beethoven, since Elizabeth Rowe had soloist duties in the Mozart, and he carried off his solos quite well, as far as I could tell, despite apparently being bothered by a cold. Wesley Collins was given first chair in the violas for the Gossec. At a couple of points, he seemed to smile approvingly at the second chair player after they played a passage, as if to say, "Yes! you/we nailed it!"

WCRB will [rebroadcast and stream the concert at 8:00 p.m. EST.]

Despite all the reservations expressed by the reviewers, I think it is a concert that everybody can enjoy hearing. I'd even call it a "must hear," so I cordially recommend that you listen.

My recommendation still holds: listen if you can.