BSO/Classical New England — 2021/12/18

 This evening WCRB is giving us the Juky 25 concert from Tanglewood. Here's what they've posted about it:

Saturday, December 18, 2021
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast from the 2021 Tanglewood season, Yefim Bronfman returns to the Berkshires as the soloist in Beethoven’s impassioned Piano Concerto No. 3, and Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a rhapsodic work by Iman Habibi, tonight at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Iman HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

Hear an interview with Yefim Bronfman and CRB's Brian McCreath in the audio player above.

The link to the interview is here: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2021-06-11/bronfman-harnessing-the-power-of-beethoven

Here's what I said about it in advance:

Sunday, July 25, 2021.  There will be two "warhorses" of the repertoire on Sunday after we sit through a new piece. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Sunday, July 25, 2021
7:00 PM

Yefim Bronfman returns to the Berkshires as the soloist in Beethoven’s impassioned Piano Concerto No. 3, and Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a rhapsodic work by Iman Habibi, Sunday at 7pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Iman HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

(Some emphasis added.)

You can't go wrong with Beethoven piano concertos and Schumann symphonies. The program note for "Jeder Baum spricht" — which you can find via the link on the performance detail page — doesn't give me great hope. When a contemporary composer is inspired by one of the classical masters, it's never as good as the original. Sometimes it turns out to be something I'd like to hear one more time or even become familiar with, but more often once is enough or too much (which is also true of new pieces in general). The thing is, you never know until you've listened to it that first time. So I'll have WCRB on at [8:00].

As I noted last week, the BSO has decided to make their performance detail pages fram last summer at Tanglewood inaccessible, so I'm afraid you won't be able to see the program note for "Jeder Baum spricht" or anything else on the program. The brief review in the Musical Intelligencer tells us a bit about "Jeder Baum spricht" and has good words for the performance of the Beetoven and the Schumann. I haven't found a review of the conert in the Globe, but here is an interview with the composer. I heard the piece when it was broadcast last July, but I have no clear memory of it. I don't think I was very favorably impressed. But it's short, and the reast of the show should be good. So I'll give it a listen until my brother calls from Japan.