BSO — 2021/10/23

 WCRB says:

Saturday, October 23, 2021
8:00 PM

Celebrating the composer's 90th birthday, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Sofia Gubaidulina's The Light of the End, as well as Rachmaninoff’s powerfully dramatic Third Symphony, Saturday at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

Sofia GUBAIDULINA The Light of the End
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3

Hear and read Bernard Haitink's recollection of his first experiences with the BSO.

To hear a preview of Gubaidulina's The Light of the End with Andris Nelsons, click on the player above.

Transcript:

Brian McCreath [00:00:00] I'm Brian McCreath from WCRB, at Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons. And this really amazing program of two pieces, Sofia Gubaidulina's The Light of the End and Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony. Andris, you're doing a lot of Gubaidulina in the coming year, and you've even recorded this piece, that'll be released this week with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Tell me about what the qualities are that draw you to her music?

The rest of the transcript and the link to the audio of the interview are on the page.

The BSO says, on the performance detail page:

This all-Russian program led by Andris Nelsons opens with a BSO-commissioned piece by Sofia Gubaidulina, premiered by the orchestra under Kurt Masur’s direction in 2003. The work’s uniquely colorful harmonies and instrumental colors create its expressive drama. The title refers to the bright sound of antique cymbals at its conclusion. These performances celebrate Sofia Gubaidulina’s 90th birthday on October 24, 2021.
Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 dates from 1936, falling between the Paganini Rhapsody for piano and orchestra and Symphonic Dances. Like those works, the symphony is characterized by scintillating orchestration and Rachmaninoff’s noted gift for long-spun melody and compelling musical narrative.

There is a favorable review, with lots of description of the music — much more than of the playing — in the Intelligencer. The review in the Globe is mildly favorable as well.

I wasn't there on Thursday, so I have no specific impressions. I will say, based on what I read in the reviews, that I don't consider this "must listen" material. I'm a little bit curious to hear how the first piece goes. I'll probably miss the Rachmaninoff during the phone call from my brother in Tokyo, and I don't consider it a tragedy.

If you want to hear it but can't listen tonight, there are the opportunities to listen to it later which I mentioned last week.

BSO — 2021/10/16

 WCRB gives the basics about this evening's concert (plus an interview with the soloist):

Lisa Batiashvili is the soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in William Grant Still's tribute to the Finnish composer, as well as a Symphonic Fantasy on Richard Strauss's opera "The Woman Without a Shadow," Saturday night at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

STILL Threnody: In Memory of Jan Sibelius
STRAUSS Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

To hear Lisa Batiashvili describe her deep history with Sibelius's concerto and much more, click on the player above.

Interview transcript:

The BSO performance detail page has links to program notes, performer bios (click on the thumbnails), and this description:

Acclaimed Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili returns to Symphony Hall for performances of Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. A violinist himself, Sibelius employed his distinctive, Finnish folk music-influenced style in this fiery and lyrical concerto, the final version of which was premiered under Richard Strauss’s direction in 1905. Strauss’s own Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten (“Woman Without a Shadow”) is a 1946 distillation of his fabulist 1919 opera; the BSO hasn’t played music from the opera since the 1960s under Erich Leinsdorf. The concert opens with the great American composer William Grant Still’s Threnody: In Memoriam Jan Sibelius, composed in 1965. Though from very different traditions, Still and Sibelius were known to admire one another’s music.

It might be useful to read the notes about the Still and Strauss pieces. The review in the Globe is enthusiastic, that in the Intelligencer more curmudgeonly, though informative about the music.

I wasn't there on Thursday, so I can't comment. I can say that I'm curious to hear the unfamiliar music before the intermission, and I generally find Sibelius worth hearing.

So, I'd say it's worth listening to this one on WCRB at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

BSO — 2021/10/09

 Strauss and Mozart are on this evening's program. WCRB gives us the basics and some extras (video and a chance to hear or read an interview) on their BSO page:

Saturday, October 9, 2021
8:00 PM

The twin sisters take center stage in Mozart’s elegant Concerto for Two Pianos, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s "Death and Transfiguration," Saturday night at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christina and Michelle Naughton, pianos

STRAUSS Love Scene from Feuersnot
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
MOZART Concerto in E-flat for two pianos, K. 365

To hear a preview of the concert with the Naughton sisters and CRB's Brian McCreath, click on the player above (transcript below).

Watch a performance of the Naughton sisters at CRB's Fraser Performance Studio:

Transcript of Christina and Michelle Naughton's interview with CRB's Brian McCreath:

And this from the BSO performance detail page:

Andris Nelsons is joined by Philadelphia-based sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton for Mozart’s Concerto in E-flat for two pianos. Mozart probably wrote this elegant and brilliant concerto for himself and his sister Nännerl to play in about 1779; they had been performing together as siblings since early childhood. Maestro Nelsons continues his multi-season exploration of Richard Strauss’s music with both the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. A rarely heard scene from the composer’s legend-based 1901 opera Feuersnot— music not performed by the BSO since 1911—opens the program, followed by the composer’s beautiful and profound symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration.

I wish I had read the program note about "Death and Transfiguration" before I heard it on Thursday. It starts quietly and soon there comes a loud blast. I thought, "That must be death, transfiguration to follow." Instead it went on and on. It turns out the loud blast wasn't actually the man's death but something that starts him reflecting on his life of striving for the ideal through childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. Only after that long recapitulation* does death actually come followed by the transfiguration in which the ideal is finally grasped.

*Strauss suggests that the one who has stiven for the ideal may be an artist. This has me thinking that he later wrote a tone poem called "Ein Heldenleben," a hero's life (imagining himself to be the hero). This piece could be subtitled "Ein Kunstlerleben," an artist's life (with Strauss as the artist, perhaps).

Neither of the publications I go to has published a review. I found no fault with anything in the performance. Where I sat I had a reasonably good view of one of the keyboards, and the only way to tell who was playing was by sight. At times they even switched in mid-phrase. All in all an impressive BSO debut for the Naughton sisters. They were very well received by the small audience, and they gave an encore after being called back to the stage for the third time. They did it seated at one piano. It was loud and boisterous, apparently from after 1950, but nothing I recognized.

It wasn't a "must listen" concert, but there was nothing unpleasant about it. I'm glad I was there, and I think you'll like it if you listen at 8:00 this evening via WCRB.

BTW, pre-Covid, they used to rebroadcast the concert on the second Monday following the performance. There is no mention now of that happening, so I suppose that's no longer standard operation procedure. There is a section on the right side of the home page for "Past BSO Broadcasts." It lists the three most recent broadcasts. So if you miss something live, or want to hear it again, you can go there.

BSO — 2021/10/02

 Live, from Symphony Hall, it's the Boston Symphony Orchestra!

That's right, folks: the BSO 2021-22 subscription season has begun with concerts in front of live audiences. Oprning night was Thursday, and we get to hear the program performed again this evening.

Here's the synopsis from WCRB, who will transmit it via radio and internet:

Saturday, October 2, 2021
8:00 PM

In a return to concerts at Symphony Hall after 19 months, Anne-Sophie Mutter is the soloist in John Williams’s Violin Concerto No. 2, led by the composer, and Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Bartók, live on Saturday night at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons and John Williams, conductors
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

BEETHOVEN Overture, The Consecration of the House
John WILLIAMS Violin Concerto No. 2
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

More is available through various links at the BSO's performance detail page, which describes the proceedings thus:

Led by both Music Director Andris Nelsons and Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams, the BSO presents a special pair of concerts to welcome back live audiences to Symphony Hall after a nearly 20-month absence. Opening the concert, Mr. Nelsons leads Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture, the first work ever performed by the BSO in 1881. Mr. Williams then takes the podium for the first Boston performances of his own Violin Concerto No. 2, written for superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, which she premiered at Tanglewood in 2021. Completing the program is Bartók’s uniquely dramatic Concerto for Orchestra, one of the BSO’s most famous commissions, originally premiered by Serge Koussevitzky in 1944.

I was there on Thursday, and I found the Beethoven very enjoyable. It's a fine piece, and they played it well. The Williams violin concerto was unenjoyable. As the Boston Globe reviewer says, it's too long. Worse than that, I didn't detect any musicality in it. In a way, I suppose, it showcased Ms. Mutter's talent, but it seemed incoherent. Where were the themes? Where was the development? At least the sounds weren't unpleasant to hear. For an encore, they played an arrangement of something by Williams from "The Long Goodbye," which had a tune and was nice to hear.

The Bartók concerto is something I've heard a number of times. It's one of the BSO's signature pieces. Thanks to the program notes, (which I recommend reading, especially the actual description of the piece toward the end) I was able to follow it better than on previous occasions, and I found it interesting to listen to as the elements referred to in the program notes unfolded. Even though it's "modern music," it was pretty good — certainly way better than the Williams piece.

The reviewer in the Boston Musical Intelligencer really liked the Williams violin concerto — both the work and the performance — although even he at one point used the word "bewildering" to describe it. He seemed to think the other pieces were not performed vigorously enough, but didn't detect any actual mistakes.

The Globe reviewer didn't want to be crowded in with all those people, even though they were all vaccinated and masked. She spent a lot of time complaining about it. Apart from not liking the Williams, she was unenthusiastic about the performances given the other two pieces, although she had no specific criticisms. She just wished she weren't there.

But you don't have to be there to enjoy the return of the BSO to Symphony Hall. Just go to WCRB at 8:00 this evening, Boston Time (EDT) and enjoy (at least the first and last pieces flawlessly, if unspectacularly, performed). The BSO is back!