BSO/Classical New England — 2023/05/27

 While we await the opening of the BSO 2023 season at Tanglewood, WCRB continues with encore broadcasts from Tanglewood 2022. https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2022-06-13/twin-vivacity-with-the-naughtons-at-tanglewood

Saturday, May 27, 2023
8:00 PM

Christina and Michelle Naughton are the soloists in Poulenc’s firecracker Concerto for Two Pianos, and Earl Lee leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and “Pulse,” by Brian Raphael Nabors.

Earl Lee, conductor
Christina and Michelle Naughton, pianos

Brian Raphael NABORS Pulse
Francis POULENC Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, Scottish

This concert was originally broadcast on August 5, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear an interview with Christina and Michelle Naughton, recorded at Symphony Hall in October 2021.

I was coming home from my visit to PEI so I didn't post about the concert last August 5, although I did post about the Saturday and Sunday concerts that weekend. Here's a link to the BSO performance detail page, which has the usual links to program notes etc. and synopsizes the show as follows:

BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee makes his BSO debut, joined by the virtuosic piano duo of twins Christina and Michelle Naughton in their Tanglewood debuts performing Francis Poulenc’s impish neoclassical Concerto for Two Pianos. American composer Brian Raphael Nabors’ exciting and rhapsodic Pulse reflects on the varieties of experience that we might encounter every day. Felix Mendelssohn found inspiration for his intensely Romantic Symphony No. 3 on a trip to Scotland in 1829. Composed a decade later, it was his last completed symphony.

The review in the Intelligencer mistakenly attributes the concert to Saturday evening. It describes the Nabors and Poulenc pieces more than speaking about the quality of the performance, The reviewer was unenthusiastic about how the Mendelssohn was played. The Globe review of the weekend was happier.

All in all, it seems worth listening to.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/05/20

 Another Tanglewood concert is this evening's rebroadcast on WCRB:

Saturday, May 20, 2023
8:00 PM

In a concert by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Andris Nelsons leads Gustav Mahler’s meditation on grief and triumph, and soprano Christine Goerke sings a rarely heard work by Berlioz.

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Christine Goerke, soprano 

Hector BERLIOZ The Death of Cleopatra
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 5

This concert was originally broadcast on July 23, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

This concert took place the day after the one they rebroadcast last week, so my comments from that weekend still apply, and the link to the BSO performance detail page still works. The portion of the Globe review of the weekend dealing with the Saturday concert is favorable, noting that it was a student orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The reviewer singled out the principal trumpet and the principal horn for well played solos in the Mahler. Again, no review in the Intelligencer.

So it should be a good evening.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/05/13

Now that the regular BSO season is ended, WCRB is giving us "encore broadcasts." This evening's is from last July at Tanglewood, as they tell us here:

Saturday, May 13, 2023
8:00 PM

Karina Canellakis returns to the Berkshires to lead the Boston Symphony in Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances,” and Emanuel Ax is the soloist in Chopin’s dramatic Piano Concerto No. 2.

Karina Canellakis, conductor 
Emanuel Ax, piano

Richard WAGNER Prelude to Lohengrin, Act 1
Frédéric CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

This concert was originally broadcast on July 22, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

I posted about it at the time, and the BSO performance detail page is still available.

There was no review in the Intelligencer, but the Globe had a review of the whole weekend, and the reviewer liked the show on the 22nd.

Bottom line: it's worth listening to, IMO.

BSO — 2023/05/06

 WCRB gives us the basics.

Saturday, May 6, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, May 15

In the final program of the 2022-2023 season, the Boston Symphony and Music Director Andris Nelsons traverse the devastating landscape of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar, and Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Britten’s deeply emotional Violin Concerto.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Matthias Goerne, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor
New England Conservatory Symphonic Choir, Erica J. Washburn, conductor

BRITTEN Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar 

BSO program notes

Read translations of the texts sung in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 (courtesy of BSO Archives)

To hear an interview with The Boston Globe's Jeremy Eichler about Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 – which Eichler recently wrote an article about, and which plays a central role in his forthcoming book Time's Echo – use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at WCRB with Jeremy Eichler of the Boston Globe. Jeremy, thank you for coming to the studio today. I appreciate it.

Jeremy Eichler Thanks for having me, Brian.

Brian McCreath You recently wrote an article in The Boston Globe about Shostakovich's 13th Symphony and

Note that the page has links both to the program notes and to the English translqtion of the texts of the symphony.

There is also this from the BS)O performance detail page:

The BSO and Andris Nelsons complete their multi-season survey of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies with No. 13, Babi Yar, based on poems by Yevgeny Yevteshenko. The title poem condemns Soviet revisionist history and antisemitism surrounding a Nazi massacre of Ukrainian Jews. The outstanding German bass-baritone Matthias Goerne is soloist. Opening the program, frequent BSO guest Augustin Hadelich plays Benjamin Britten’s early, lyrical and poignant Violin Concerto, the composer’s reaction to the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. 

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
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Matthias Goerne, bass
Tenors and Basses of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor
Tenors and Basses of the New England Conservatory Symphonic Choir
 Erica J. Washburn, conductor

BRITTEN Violin Concerto
Intermission
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar

The review in the Globe was extensive and very favorable, as is the one in the Intelligencer.

Hadelich was amazing in the Britten (and amazingly pale). The Shostakovich was powerful. Neither piece was pretty music, but it was fascinating. I recommend giving it a listen.

BTW this is the final concert of the season, Between now and Tanglewood, I expect reruns from WCRB as usual, while the Pops takes over Symphony Hall.