BSO/Classical New England — 2021/02/27

This evening WCRB gives us the Boston Symphony concert of April 9, 2021. Here's what they say about it:

Saturday at 8pm, in an encore broadcast from 2016, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No. 3, and now-former Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and Principal Violist Steven Ansell are the soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante.

Saturday, February 27, 2021
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Malcolm Lowe, violin
Steven Ansell, viola

MOZART Sinfonia concertante in E-flat for violin
   and viola, K.364
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 3 (1889 version)

They don't add any interviews or links to other background material. There is some in what I wrote at the time, although I've had to edit out references to items that ar no longer accessible:

We get two very different works this week: Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra, and Symphony №3 by Bruckner in the 1889 version. Boston Symphony principals Malcolm Lowe and Steven Ansell perform the violin and viola solos, while Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts the concert. The orchestra's performance detail page […] give[s] the following description:

BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and principal viola Steven Ansell join Andris Nelsons and the BSO for one of Mozart's greatest concertos, the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. Mozart wrote this exemplar of Classical form and style during a lengthy trip to Paris. Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 was originally composed in 1872 but was subjected to a number of revisions by the composer (the present version being the "1889 version"). The symphony everywhere reveals its deep debt to Richard Wagner, to whom Bruckner dedicated the work "in deepest reverence.

(Emphasis in original.)

I was there for the Thursday concert and, to my surprise, found both pieces enjoyable. It was no surprise with the Mozart. Watching the performers did add to the enjoyment. But I was expecting the Bruckner to become tedious. A colleague once quoted a critic as saying that Bruckner's symphonies are like a walk in the woods: you see many nice things, but nothing happens. But somehow on Thursday evening it held my attention and did not seem too long. It was interesting music. As far as I could tell, both pieces were well played. I was especially impressed by the solos by James Somerville on horn and Elizabeth Rowe on flute.

The review in the Boston Globe is favorable — faintly so for the Bruckner. The reviewer spends more time describing the Mozart. So far, there is no review in the BMInt.

I definitely recommend listening on WCRB at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. […]

Need I say more?

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/02/20

 I'm running out of time. here are the essentials

https://www.classicalwcrb.org/post/haitink-leads-bso-mahlers-titan

Saturday at 8pm, Bernard Haitink leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's colossal Symphony No. 1, and Murray Perahia is the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4.

Saturday, February 20, 2021
8:00 PM

Bernard Haitink, conductor
Murray Perahia, piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
MAHLER Symphony No. 1

This concert is no longer available on-demand.

In an interview with WCRB's Brian McCreath, Bernard Haitink describes his long experience with Mahler, his 45-year (at the time of the interview) relationship with the BSO, and the first time he heard the BSO in person:

Listen 

Listening...

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TRANSCRIPT:

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/02/13

 This week we get a rebroadcast of the Boston Symphony concert of March 26, 2016. Here's WCRB's blurb:

Saturday at 8pm, pianist Nikolai Lugansky is the soloist in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 and Giya Kancheli's Dixi, with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Saturday, February 13, 2021
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Nikolai Lugansky, piano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Betsy Burleigh, guest conductor

KANCHELI Dixi, for chorus and orchestra (American premiere)
RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8

As you see, there are no interviews or other explanatory material. "Just the facts." My own preview, edited to be relevant to the rebroadcast, follows:

This week's concerts start with the American premiere performances of Dixi by Giya [Kancheli] and continue with the too often performed Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff, featuring Nikolai Lugansky as piano soloist. After intermission, we'll get Shostakovich's Symphony № 8. All is under the baton of Music Director Andris Nelsons. [The BSO's performance detail page describes] the concert (in reverse order) thus:

Continuing the BSO's survey of the Stalin-era works of Dmitri Shostakovich, Andris Nelsons leads the composer's wartime Eighth Symphony. Written only a decade earlier, Rachmaninoff's perennially popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, here played by the Russian virtuoso Nikolai Lugansky, is a tour de force of compositional craft. Georgian-born Giya Kancheli, one of the world's most esteemed living composers, remained primarily in Tbilisi until 1990 but has developed a significant worldwide reputation. He developed a personal style that draws strongly on the music of the Christian Orthodox church. Dixi(2009) is a 22-minute work for chorus and orchestra setting fragments of Latin text.

(Emphasis in original.)

This concert wasn't part of my subscription, and it's just as well, since it's Holy Week, and I wouldn't have gone. I always attend the Holy Thursday evening Mass. So I can't give any personal observations. I won't even hear much or any of it during the live broadcast since I'll be in church for the Easter Vigil, and then there will be the weekly call from my brother in Japan. I did, however, buy a ticket for the concert next Tuesday, which will include the Kancheli and Shostakovich pieces, but will drop the Rachmaninoff and open with Shosty's Suite from the incidental music to Hamlet, which they played, and I heard, in February. I'm glad to be able to hear that unfamiliar music again, rather that having to sit through the Rhapsody once more.

The Globe reviewer leans more to describing the music than the way it was performed, but he finds elements of the latter to admire and nothing to criticize. He is bemused, however, by the Kancheli piece (unsurprisingly, given how it's described in this review and the BMInt's). The Boston Musical Intelligencer, as usual, has a longer review. Like the Globe, it is not highly impressed by "Dixi," but the reviewer has praise for elements of the performance, as well as for the playing in the Rachmaninoff. He saves his warmest praise, however for the orchestra's handling of the Shostakovich, section by section, and soloist by soloist. He is however mildly critical of the conductor for somehow failing to develop an overall cohesive approach to the symphony, despite his impressive handling of various sections.

In the light of all that, I'm prepared to be unimpressed by "dixi," when I hear it next Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to some impressive playing in the Shostakovich 8th. As always, you can hear the Saturday performance live over WCRB (broadcast or webstream) at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time[…].

Overall, then, I'd say this probably isn't quite at the level of "must hear," but it seems there will be some good playing and singing. Despite my carping, the Rachmaninoff will probably be the easiest to take for many listeners (myself included, probably, although I'm developing a tolerance for Shostakovich).

If you're interested, you know where to find it.

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/02/06

 This evening WCRB rebroadcasts the BSO concert of March 19, 2016. Here's the description from WCRB:

Saturday at 8pm, the Boston Symphony Orchestra performs the Violin Concerto by John Williams with soloist Gil Shaham, and Stéphane Denève conducts Jennifer Higdon's Blue Cathedral and the Symphony No. 3, the "Organ" Symphony, by Saint-Saëns.

Saturday, February 6, 2021
8:00 PM

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin

HIGDON blue cathedral
WILLIAMS Violin Concerto
SAINT-SAENS Symphony No. 3, "Organ"

This concert is no longer available on demand.

Stéphane Denève describes the connections between the first two pieces in the concert and reveals the way a single note in Saint-Saëns's "Organ" Symphony carries that theme into the second half (transcript below):

 

Gil Shaham previews the Violin Concerto by John Williams and describes the process of learning the piece with the composer (transcript below):

There are transcripts of the interviews on that page, and they are interesting to read.

Here, edited, is what I wrote back then:

This week's BSO concert provides some interesting music. The orchestra's performance detail page […] gives this description:

French conductor Stéphane Denève, a frequent BSO guest in recent seasons, leads this diverse program including John Williams's Violin Concerto, a soaring and heartfelt work that has been championed by Gil Shaham-and which he recorded with John Williams and the BSO. Opening the program is music by another American composer, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon, whose colorful, atmospheric tone poem Blue Cathedral is her most frequently performed orchestral work. Closing the program and featuring the grand Symphony Hall organ is the sonorous, ultimately uplifting Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns.

(Most emphasis added.)

The Globe review finds nothing to dislike. So far, the Boston Musical Intelligencer hasn't published a review. If they do, I'll note it.

I was there on Thursday evening and found it all okay. The first piece, "Blue Cathedral," is pretty well described in the program notes, and it was nice to be able to follow it as it unfolded. I noticed that the four horn players had the glasses with water in them, which they were to play by dipping a finger in the water and rubbing the rim. (You can try this at home.) They didn't actually play them until toward the end, as it got quiet, but even the quiet music drowned them out for a while. Eventually they were faintly audible for five or ten seconds. Other musicians then started playing the chinese bells. The whole effect was charming. The Williams violin concerto didn't remind me of his movie music. Gil Shaham seemed to do a very nice job with it, but the piece itself isn't something I feel I need to hear again (although I'll give it another hearing during the broadcast — it isn't unpleasant). In the Saint-Saëns I had never actually noticed the organ before it enters loudly in the final movement. But this time I heard it quietly accompanying some of the softer parts earlier in the piece. Listen carefully, and you may hear it too. The sound is just a bit different from the woodwinds.

The place to listen is WCRB via radio or web at 8:00 p.m. EST (Boston Time)[…].

The BMInt did publish a favorable review. In the absence of program notes, its description of the pieces, along with WCRB's interviews, will give some sense of what's happening.

Perhaps the music isn't the greatest of all time, but it should be good listening, and the unifying theme may give some additional meaning to it.