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.