BSO/Classical New England — 2023/02/25

The orchestra isn't performing in Symphony Hall this week, so WCRB is treating us to an encore broadcast as noted here:

Saturday, February 25, 2023
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8, 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," in an encore broadcast on CRB.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

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

This concert was originally broadcast on October 16, 2021 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear a conversation with Lisa Batiashvili and CRB's Brian McCreath with the audio player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: 

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath from

I wrote about it at the time it was performed, and I have nothing to add except that my vague memory is that it was okay.

The links to the reviews in my post still work, but the one to the performance detail page doesn't. It is archived here. The links to the notes on each piece still work there.

WCRB doesn't promise another rebroadcast nine days hence, and based on past practice I wouldn't expect one. So "it's now or never." Enjoy.

BSO — 2023/02/18

 The newest piece from the BSO this evening was composed in 1939. As always, we start with WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, February 18, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 27

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the Boston Symphony for Saint-Saëns’s virtuosic Egyptian Concerto, and Israeli conductor Lahav Shani leads the BSO in his Symphony Hall debut with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s dazzling Symphonic Dances.

Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

To hear a preview of Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Sym

The BSO's performance detail page tells us just a bit more about each piece  and provides the usual links:

Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, making his Symphony Hall debut, and elegant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian, a brilliantly virtuosic but tuneful Romantic-era work for which Thibaudet is an ideal interpreter. Sergei Prokofiev’s delightful First Symphony was conceived as a 20th-century successor to works by Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ingeniously constructed, brilliantly colorful Symphonic Dances was his last finished work. 

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Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical (15)

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian (29)

---- Intermission----

RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances (33)

The reviews are in. The Globe likes the way all the music was performed. The Intelligencer is maybe a notch less fulsome but still quite favorable.

I misread the season preview brochure and thought that this concert was one I wasn't especially interested in, so I decided to stay home. It was nice to relax, but I'm sorry I missed the show. Interestingly (to me) the brochure from last spring said the piano concerto would be by Aram KLhachaturian, another 20th Century piece. I don't see any explanation of the change, but maybe they thought it would make the concert "too much of a muchness," and opted for the 19th Century concerto instead.

Enjoy this evening and on the 27th.

BSO — 2023/02/11

A brand new piece and one we don't hear often, then after intermission a warhorse. Here's WCRB's synopsis and the beginning words on the interview transcript:

Saturday, February 11, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 20

British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his Boston Symphony debut with Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, and Andris Nelsons conducts the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances and Beethoven’s poetic Symphony No. 7.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello

Carlos SIMON Four Black American Dances (world premiere)
BLOCH Schelomo: Rhapsodie hébraïque, for cello and orchestra
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

To hear a preview of Bloch's Schelomo with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

For information about Carlos Simon's Requiem for the Enslaved, visit Hub New Music.

For information about Sheku Kanneh-Mason's Song, visit Decca.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who's here in Boston for actually the third time, but the first time with the Boston Symphony. Sheku, thanks a lot for your time today. I appreciate it.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason Thank you so much for havin

The BSO performance detail page gives the following brief blurb along with links to the full program notes:

Exciting young English cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his BSO debut in Ernest Bloch’s 1916 Schelomo ("King Solomon"), in which the expansively melodic cello role represents the voice of the king. Opening the concert is the premiere of a BSO-commissioned work by the talented Washington, D.C.-based composer Carlos Simon. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 builds in excitement from its atmospheric introduction through its thrilling finale.

The reviews, both in the Intelligencer and the Globe, are favorable, although the Globe isn't happy with some of the tempi in the Beethoven.

I had a meeting to attend on Thursday, so I missed my chance to hear it then although it was part of my subscription. So I'm especially looking forward to hearing the first half of the concert this evening. I'm confident the Beethoven will be okay despite the critic's quibbles. I'll miss at least part of it because of my brother's call from Tokyo, but that's okay. There will be a chance on the 20th.

Enjoy!

BSO — 2023/02/04

 This evening we get to hear large swaths of Wagner's opera "Tannhäuser." I saw a Metropolitan Opera performance when it was transmitted to theaters several years ago, and I think it's a good show. Here's how WCRB describes the concert:

Saturday, February 4, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 13

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a stellar lineup of soloists in highlights from Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Amber Wagner, soprano (Elisabeth)
Marina Prudenskaya, mezzo-soprano (Venus)
Klaus Florian Vogt, tenor (Tannhäuser)
Christian Gerhaher, baritone (Wolfram)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

ALL-WAGNER
Overture and “Venusberg Music” from Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser, Act III

To hear a preview with Andris Nelsons, use the player above and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons, who's back in Boston to lead a concert of excerpts

Next we look at the BSO performance detail page, which has links links to the very helpful program notes:

Andris Nelsons and the BSO’s continuing tradition of performing opera in concert brings us excerpts from Richard Wagner’s early opera Tannhäuser, which had its premiere in Dresden in 1845. A German minstrel-knight, Tannhäuser (tenor Klaus Florian Vogt), struggles to reject the world’s sensual pleasures, represented by the "Venusburg Music" of the opera’s Act I. He is redeemed by the pure love of Elisabeth, sung by Amber Wagner, and with the help of the wise minstrel Wolfram, sung by Christian Gerhaher.

Sung in German with English supertitles

This week’s performances by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.

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Andris Nelsons, conductor
Amber Wagner, soprano (Elisabeth)
Klaus Florian Vogt, tenor (Tannhäuser)
Christian Gerhaher, baritone (Wolfram)
Marina Prudenskaya, soprano (Venus)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor

ALL-WAGNER program

Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser (25)

---- Intermission----

Tannhäuser Act III (60)

The reviews are both favorable. The Globe thinks the opening of the overture was too slow. The Intelligencer is similar, but the reviewer garbles the story line.

The thing is, the opera is fiction using the historical characters of the great medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia (also known as Elizabeth of Hungary), and the poet/minstrel Tannhäuser. There was also a jubilee year in which pilgrims flocked to Rome. But basically, the opera is a pretty good story of sin, love, and redemption.

If you'd like to follow along with the libretto, here's a link. http://www.murashev.com/opera/Tannhäuser_libretto_English_German

I recommend listening this evening at 8:00, Boston Time, and on Febreuary 13, also at 8:00.