BSO — 2022/04/23

 Tonight's concert has nothing too tough to take. Richard Strauss isn't as light-hearted as Johann (no relation), but he's not jarring on the ears. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, April 23, and May 2, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in three works by German composer Richard Strauss, culminating with the nostalgically rich "Symphonia domestica."

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-STRAUSS PROGRAM

Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten
Symphonia domestica

For more information, you can consult the BSO performance detail page:

The second of the all-Strauss programs includes the symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, his Symphonia domestica, and his own Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten(“Woman Without a Shadow”), a 1946 distillation of his fabulist 1919 opera.

There are short blurbs about each piece on the page as well as links to the program notes.

The review in the Globe has no fault to find with the performance but is lukewarm in tone. The reviewer has serious questions about the choice of works, one having been performed last fall, and another shortly before the pandemic shutdown. The Intelligencer finds everything okay, with nothing to rave about.

I was there on Thursday. Although I had been looking forward to the "Four Last Songs," The Symphonic Fantasy was good. I had thought of the opera as forbidding because of its subkect matter. Maybe I heard it once on the radio. Anyway, I wasn't interested. But the Symphonic Fantasy was surprisingly pleasant. Of course, the opening piece was merry and enjoyable. But I found the Symphonia Domestica too long. There is nothing unpleasant about it. I just didn't find anything especially exciting or captivating about it, and it kept going too long. Maybe it can work better as background music for whatever you're doing, or maybe you'll be better attuned to the supposedly changing scenes.

Certainly, there is no need to avoid this concert, so why not listen and see what you think.