BSO — 2022/01/08

The BSO is back live this week. I didn't go to the concert on Thursday, and I'm sorry I missed it. I'm looking forward to hearing the broadcast this evening. WCRB says:

Saturday, January 8, and Monday, January 17, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the American violinist returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, with Andris Nelsons also conducting Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and a world premiere by HK Gruber.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hilary Hahn, violin

HK GRUBER Short Stories from the Vienna Woods (world premiere; BSO co-commission)
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5

Since we're back to live concerts, there's also a performance detail page at the BSO website. It tells us:

Andris Nelsons leads a world premiere originally scheduled for spring 2020, the Viennese composer HK Gruber’s Short Stories from the Vienna Woods, a BSO co-commission with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. This orchestral score is a suite of music from the composer’s opera Tales from the Vienna Wood, based on the socially critical play by the same name by Ödön von Horváth. The title’s reference to the famous Strauss waltz mirrors the wide- ranging popular and classical variety of Gruber’s music.
Though he would later be the embodiment of the Viennese Classical composer, Wolfgang Mozart was still living in Salzburg when he wrote all five of his violin concertos. Beloved American violinist Hilary Hahn plays Mozart’s Concerto No. 5, from 1775, which in addition to its energy and elegance is notable for its unusual finale, which features the surprising “Turkish” episode that gives the concerto its nickname.
The BSO under Serge Koussevitzky gave the American premiere of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in 1945. Written in 1944, the symphony looks beyond the turmoil of World War II to celebrate the nobility of the human spirit.

THere is also a link to the program notes, which give at least some idea of how the Gruber piece will be. Thus far there is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer, but the one in the Globe is enthusiastic. It makes the Gruber seem interesting. That review is what has me looking forward to hearing the concert (until my brother calls).

You can listen this evening at 8:00 Boston Time, and there will be the usual rebroadcast in nine days, on January 17, also at 8:00.

Enjoy.