BSO — 2022/10/29

 The reviewer in the Globe characterized the pieces in this evening's concert as warhorses, which surprised me with regard to the Shostakovich. I'llpost the link in due course, but first let's see what we get from WCRB.

Saturday, October 29, 2022
8:00 PM

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida is the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, and Andris Nelsons harnesses the full force of the BSO in Shostakovich’s powerful Symphony No. 5.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Mitsuko Uchida describes the exceptional qualities of collaborating with Andris Nelsons and the BSO, how her annual time at Vermont's Marlboro Festival informs her concerto performances, and what recording Beethoven's Diabelli Variations revealed to her about the composer. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Mitsuko Uchida, who has returned to Boston for Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, the Emperor Concerto. Mitsuko, it's so

The conversation on audio is 21 minutes. I haven't listened or read it yet, but it should be interesting.

Now let's see what the BSO performance detail page has to offer.

Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO for Ludwig van Beethoven’s monumental Emperor piano concerto. Criticism in the Soviet press of Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District put him in a precarious position with Soviet authorities. His response was the powerful and outwardly triumphant Fifth Symphony.

Detailed notes for each work are available via links on the overall page.

The Globe has a review which is very favorable about the performance, although the reviewer wishes they had chosen other pieces to take on tour. There are also some snippets of news at the end. The reviewer at  the Intelligencer was quite taken with the whole thing.

This concert was part of my subscription, but I had a meeting to attend on Thursday, so I'll be hearing it for the first time this evening — regrettably unable to be at Symphony Hall for it, since the Beethoven is one of my favorite pieces. After reading the reviews, I even want to hear the Shostakovich. Fortunately my brother has decided to postpone his weekly phone call until tomorrow, so I'll be able to hear it all.

I definitely recommend it, especially the Beethoven; and you might as well at least give the Shostakovich a try. Listen in via WCRB at 8:00 this evening, and don't forget the rebroadcast at 9:00 an Monday, November 7.

BSO — 2022/10/22

 On Thursday, you could say I heard a surprise symphony — not Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony, but Mahler's 6th. I had trekked in to Boston thinking that they were going to play Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto and Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, but when I looked at the program booklet, it turned out that it   would be the Mahler. Here's how WCRB puts it:

Saturday, October 22, 2022
8:00 PM

The Boston Symphony scales the depth and breadth of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 led by Music Director Andris Nelsons.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 6

Andris Nelsons talks with CRB's Brian McCreath about Mahler's Sixth Symphony, how its emotional power is different from the Fifth Symphony, and how his interpretation of the piece has changed over the years. Also, Nelsons talks about the BSO's upcoming tour to Japan, which include, coincidentally two pieces with major roles for ... cowbells (Mahler's Sixth Symphony and Strauss's Alpine Symphony). To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons. And Andris, it's great to see y

The interview with Maestro Nelsons takes 20 minutes on audio, maybe less to read. I haven't looked at it, but it could be informative.

Here's a bit from the orchestra's performance detail page, where you can find a link to their program notes:

Gustav Mahler’s intensely emotional Symphony No. 6, written in 1903–04, is arguably his most heartfelt symphonic statement — his wife Alma called it "the most completely personal of his works." The Sixth features three powerful and ominous hammer blows in its finale, which evidently represented for Mahler "three blows of fate." 

At the performance on Thursday, someone shouted "Bravo" after the third movement. I don't know if she thought it was the end of the symphony — probaably so — or if she just thought that movement had been very well played. In any case, I had found it very pleasant. I also found the entire symphony very engaging. Often a long piece such as this seems to be dragged out and I find myself wishing that the composer would "bring it home," but not here. It held my interest throughout, even though I didn't notice some of the details mentioned in the prograam notes, such as the alternating major and minor keys.

The Globe gives a favorable review, concluding that it was "by far Nelsons’s and the orchestra’s strongest showing of the season." The Intelligencer is also highly favorable.

So that's a thumbs up from me and from both reviewers. Check it out.

BSO — 2022/10/15

 As always, WCRB gives us a synopsis along with a link to an interview (this time with the debuting conductor) and a transcript of said interview:

Saturday, October 15, 2022
8:00 PM

Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada leads the Boston Symphony for the first time in a rich program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 with soloist Emanuel Ax.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Peter TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy after Shakespeare
Wolfgang MOZART Piano Concerto No. 18
Béla BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Georges ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No. 1

In a preview of the program, Andrés Orozco-Estrada describes the character of each piece, how he prepares to lead an orchestra for the first time, and who his models were as he learned his craft as a young conductor. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who is here with the Boston Symphony for the very first time. Thank you for some of your time today. Is this the first time you've been to Boston?

Andrés Orozco-Estrada This is it! It's my first time, and I'm very happy being here for the first time.

I've read some of the interview, and it's interesting to learn how the pieces on the program were chosen. The BSO performance detail page gives this blurb:

Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada in his BSO debut is joined by American pianist Emanuel Ax for Wolfgang Mozart’s high-spirited Piano Concerto No. 18. The familiar, yearning Romeo and Juliet Overture is one of several works Pyotr Tchaikovsky based on Shakespeare plays. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s lurid Miraculous Mandarin Suite and the Romanian French composer George Enescu's folk music inspired Romanian Rhapsody both make exciting and colorful demands on the orchestra.

The program notes for the individual pieces are available by clicking on their brief descriptions.

This concert was not part of my sbscription, so I can't tell you how it went, but the reviewer in the Globe was happy. The review in the Intelligencer is effusive (or should I say "effervescent"?).

So, based on all that, I recommend listening in on WCRB radio or online this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO — 2022/10/08

This evening's concert is all music that is less than 100 years old — including one piece that is brand new.

Here's WCRB's listing:

Saturday, October 8, 2022
8:00 PM

Violinist Jennifer Koh is the soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3, “The First of May.”

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Jennifer Koh, violin
Linus Schafer-Goulthorpe, boy soprano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Elizabeth OGONEK Starling Variations (world premiere)
Leonard BERNSTEIN Serenade after Plato’s Symposium
BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 3, The First of May

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons describes Shostakovich's Third Symphony and how its unabashed celebration of the Soviet Communism of the 1920's both reflects the composer's outlook at that point in his life and infuses the piece with a startling relevance to today's Russia. To listen, click on the player above, and read the transcript below:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons, who is here in Boston for a really interesting program, 

Further information can be found via the BSO's own performance detail page, including links to program notes for the individual pieces and this general synopsis:

Andris Nelsons leads two works new to the BSO repertoire: the BSO-commissioned Starling Variations by American composer Elizabeth Ogonek and Dmitri Shostakovich’s rarely heard 1930 Symphony No. 3 for chorus and orchestra, an early, jingoistic hymn to the Soviet experiment, continuing Nelsons’ and the BSO’s multi-season survey of the composer’s complete symphonies. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus also joins the BSO for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, sung in Hebrew and featuring Linus Schafer-Goulthorpe, boy soprano, as soloist, and American violinist Jennifer Koh makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut as soloist in Bernstein’s Serenade.

Regrettably, the program note for "Chichester Psalms" doesn't provide the texts. In the hall, surtitles gave English translations, but that's useless for people listening at home. Perhaps you can find the texts by doing an online search.

I was at the Thursday performance. The opening piece,"Starling Variations" was introduced by the composer, who didn't add much to the program note. I found most of it fun to listen to knowing that it was inspired by the way swarms of starlings swoop, divide, and recombine. Next up was the "Serenade after Plato's Symposium." Although I had read the "Symposium" in college and had just glanced at the program note, I wasn't fascinated. It wasn't difficult listening, but not very memorable — in other words, it wasn't bad, but mostly uninteresting. After intermission, the "Chichester Psalms" were more engaging, (even though I didn't pick out any of the stuff from "West Side Story"). The music seemed to fit the meaning of the words. The soloist did a good job in Psalm 23. Finally, the Shostakovich struck me as typical Shostakovich bombast with little to recommend it as music after the opening bit for the clarinets. The text the chorus sang (again, the BSO won't give the text except for surtitles, but maybe it's on line somewhere) struck me as sadly misplaced enthusiasm for communism. Even the program note ends with an apologetic tone. But the basses got to do nice work. On the other hand, a post-concert subway rider was gushing about the Shostakovich — thought it was great. My favorites were the Ogonek and the "Chichester," and I thought the Shostakovich was the worst piece on the program.

So far, there is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. Writing in the Boston Globe, A.Z. Madonna was happy with what she heard, finding that the orchestra performed the Shostakovich well, enjoying the "Serenade" more than I did, and liking the way the rest was performed.

I don't share the critic's enthusiasm/ IMO the concert is okay until they get to the Shostakovich, and then not very good even if well played. You can hear it all, or as much as you want, at 8:00 this evening, Boston Time.

Edited to add: The text of Chichester Psalms is in this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester_Psalms

BSO — 2022/10/01

 We get some unfamiliar music, including a very recent composition and two piano concertos, and then some good old Haydn. As always we turn to WCRB for the basics, plus an interview available on their page:

Saturday, October 1, 2022
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Haydn’s 100th Symphony, and electrifying soloist Yuja Wang takes the stage at Symphony Hall for not one, but both of Shostakovich’s piano concertos.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Thomas Rolfs, trumpet

Julia ADOLPHE Makeshift Castle
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No. 1
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No. 2
Joseph HAYDN Symphony No. 100, "Military"

To hear a preview of Shostakovich's piano concertos with Yuja Wang, click on the player above, and read the transcript below:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Yuja Wang, who has returned to the Boston Symphony with Shostakovich, both piano concertos this time, unlike last time 

I had  a ticket for the Thursday performance but didn't feel like trekking in to Boston, so I can't tell you much except that the Haydn is good stuff. For the rest, there's the interview — which suggests that the second piano concerto may be easier to tak than the first — and the BSO performance detail page, with its link to program notes and this blurb:

Dynamic Chinese pianist Yuja Wang plays not one but both of Dmitri Shostakovich’s piano concertos, written 24 years apart, part of the BSO and Andris Nelsons’ multi-season exploration of the composer’s major works with orchestra. The concert closes with Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 100, whose nickname comes from the surprising appearance of percussion in the slow movement. The American composer Julia Adolphe, who has earned praised for the sonic and narrative inventiveness of her music, says of her new work, “Makeshift Castlecaptures contrasting states of permanence and ephemerality, of perseverance and disintegration, of determination and surrender.”

The program notes give hope that "Makeshift Castles" will be okay and that even the Shostakovich won't be too jarring. So far, there is no review in the Intelligencer. The Globe is generally favorable.

Bottom line: I'm not exactly recommending the first half, nor saying not to listen, but I definitely encourage listening to the Haydn.