BSO — 2023/03/25

 This evening's concert could be "challenging." Here's the word from WCRB:

Saturday, March 25, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 3

Thomas Adès returns to the Boston Symphony to conduct Igor Stravinsky’s dreamy retelling of Perséphone and two of his own works inspired by Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century Italian epic poem Commedia.

Thomas Adès, conductor
Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Danielle de Niese, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor

STRAVINSKY Perséphone (libretto and translation)
Thomas ADÈS Inferno Suite
ADÈS Paradiso

To hear a preview of Inferno Suite and Paradiso with Thomas Adès, use the player above or the tab below. For a preview of Stravinsky's Perséphone with Danielle de Niese, use tab below:

Interview With Thomas AdèsInterview With Danielle De Niese 

And here's the BSO performance detail page:

English composer Thomas Adès returns to lead two works from The Dante Project, a three-part ballet score from 2021 based on Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century Italian epic poem Commedia. The piece was written to mark the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death. Igor Stravinsky’s mythology-based Perséphone for narrator, tenor, chorus, and orchestra is a magically surreal neoclassical retelling of the goddess Persephone’s abduction by Hades, god of the underworld.

Sung in French with English supertitles

Friday afternoon’s appearance by Edgaras Montvidas is supported by a gift in loving memory of Alan J. Dworsky.

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Thomas Adès, conductor
Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Danielle de Niese, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor
The Boys of the St. Paul’s Choir School
 James Kennerly, director

STRAVINSKY Perséphone
Intermission
Thomas ADÈS Inferno Suite
Thomas ADÈS Paradiso

The reviews are in. The Globe's is a rave, while in the Intelligencer we are exhorted to listen even though music of these styles may not be our cup of tea.

I didn't hear it, but Stravinsky is Stravinsky, it seems, and, if nothing else, Adès is apparently loud. So maybe give it a try, but don't be surprised if you don't like it.

BSO — 2023/03/18

 The third concert in the BSO's series “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope” is being given this evening. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, March 18, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, March 27

In the third program of “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope,” the women’s vocal ensemble joins the BSO in composer Julia Wolfe’s commemoration of the fight for women’s suffrage, and Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Aleksandra Kurzak, soprano
Lorelei Ensemble (Beth Willer, Artistic Director)

Henryk GÓRECKI Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Julia WOLFE Her Story, for vocal ensemble and orchestra

To hear an interview with Beth Willer, founder and Artistic Director of Lorelei Ensemble, listen with the player above, and read the transcript below.

To hear an interview with Giancarlo Guerrero, listen with the player below and read the transcript in the tab below.

Giancarlo Guerrero InterviewBeth Willer Interview

Note that there are two interviews available.

Here's what the BSO says on their performance detail page:

In this third concert in a series exploring complex social issues, frequent guest Giancarlo Guerrero leads American composer Julia Wolfe’s BSO co-commissioned Her Story, featuring the Lorelei Ensemble women’s vocal group. Originally commissioned to commemorate the centenary of women’s right to vote in the U.S., the piece broadly speaks of the continuing struggle for women’s rights. The three movements of Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songsmovingly contemplates the anguish of the separation of a mother from her child.

Festival: Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope is supported by the generosity of the Elinor V. Crawford Living Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation.

GÓRECKI performed with English supertitles 

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Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Aleksandra Kurzak, soprano
Lorelei Ensemble
Beth Willer, conductor
Eliza Bagg, soprano
Taylor Boykins, alto
Sarah Brailey, soprano
Meg Dudley, soprano
Christina English, alto
Stephanie Kacoyanis, alto
Michele Kennedy, soprano
Emily Marvosh, alto
Sophie Michaux, alto
Sonja DuToit Tengblad, soprano
Anne Kauffman, stage director
Jeff Sugg, scenic, lighting, and production designer
Márion Talán De La Rosa, costume designer
Andrew Cotton, sound designer

GÓRECKI Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Intermission
Julia WOLFE Her Story, for vocal ensemble and orchestra (Co-commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the National Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commission is through the generous support of the New Works Fund established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the Morton Margolis Fund.)

Neither the Globe nor the Intelligencer has published a review that I can find, so for further information about the music, you'll need to look at the BSO website for the program notes and/or listen to the interviews on the WCRB page. All I can say is that the Lorelei Ensemble is good, and so's the BSO.

See what you think.

BSO — 2023/03/11

 Sorry. I've been preoccupied. Here are the usual links.

https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2022-11-11/wilkins-the-bso-and-voices-of-loss-reckoning-and-hope

https://www.bso.org/events/bonds-davis-dawson

https://www.classical-scene.com/2023/03/10/reckoning-hope/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/10/arts/clarinets-right-remain-silent-speak-out/

Should be interesting.

BSO — 2023/03/04

 WCRB says:

Saturday, March 4, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, March 13

André Raphel conducts the Boston Symphony in the first part of “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope,” including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Petite Suite and William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, as well as Uri Caine’s The Passion of Octavius Catto, commemorating the life of the 19th century civil rights pioneer.

André Raphel, conductor
Barbara Walker, vocalist
Uri Caine Trio
Catto Chorus

Samuel COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Petite Suite de Concert
William Grant STILL Symphony No. 1, Afro-American
Uri CAINE The Passion of Octavius Catto

LOUD SOUND WARNING: About 25 minutes into The Passion of Octavius Catto, a starter's pistol is fired several times.

Read program notes for this concert

To hear a preview of the program with André Raphel, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with André Raphel, who is here with the Boston Symphony for a fascinating program:

And here's the synopsis from the performance detail page:

American conductor André Raphel leads this first program in a series exploring complex social issues. The centerpiece of these concerts is Philadelphia jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine’s gospel and popular music-based The Passion of Octavius Catto, which tells of the 19th-century civil rights leader’s fight for justice. English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s charming potpourri Petite Suite de Concert dates from about 1911. In four movements, “Longing,” “Sorrow,” “Humor,” and “Aspiration,” William Grant Still’s 1930 Afro-American Symphony, his best-known work, is a blues-tinged panorama of the composer’s heritage.

Festival: Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope is supported by the generosity of the Elinor V. Crawford Living Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation.

Support for these performances of “The Passion of Octavius Catto” has been generously provided by Vita L. Weir and Edward Brice, Jr., and Pamela Everhart and Karl Coiscou.

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André Raphel, conductor
Uri Caine Trio
Uri Caine, piano
Mike Boone, bass
Clarence Penn, drums
Barbara Walker, vocalist
Catto Chorus

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Petite Suite de Concert 
STILL Symphony No. 1, Afro-American
---- Intermission----

Uri CAINE The Passion of Octavius Catto

There is not a review but a preview of this and the next two weeks in the Globe.  The Intelligencer has nothing I could find. Since it wasn't part of my subscription, I can't shed any light beyond what you read in the BSO's program notes, other than to say that I have generally good impressions of Coleridge-Taylor and Still and no idea about Caine.