Saturday, June 3, 2023

Classical New England — 2023/06/03

 This week's encore broadcast isn't a symphony concert but an an evening of chamber music from last summer at Tanglewood. Here's the description from WCRB:

Saturday, June 3, 2023
8:00 PM

Pianist Emanuel Ax anchors a celebration of Czech composers, including Dvorák, Janácek, and Kaprálová, with Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Antoine Tamsetit, at Tanglewood.

Emanuel Ax, piano
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Antonín DVOŘÁK Romantic Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 75
DVOŘÁK Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, Nos. 3-5, for viola and piano
Vítězslava KAPRÁLOVÁ Ritournelle, for cello and piano, Op. 25
Leoš JANÁČEK Fairy Tale, for cello and piano
DVOŘÁK Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 87

This concert was originally broadcast on August 12, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

It was given on a Friday evening, which is usually a time for an orchestral concert, but management has apparently decided they need to shake things up a bit. The performance detail page is still available with its link to full program note after this general description:

Pathways from Prague, Program 3

DVOŘÁK Romantic Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 75
DVOŘÁK Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, Nos. 3-5, for viola and piano
KAPRÁLOVÁ Ritournelle, for cello and piano, Op. 25
JANÁČEK Fairy Tale, for cello and piano
DVOŘÁK Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 87 

Featuring three Tanglewood favorites and the Tanglewood debut of French violist Antoine Tamestit, this final concert of the Emanuel Ax-curated Pathways from Prague series explores chamber music by three Czech composers. Opening with rarely heard works for violin and piano and viola and piano by Antonín Dvořák, the concert closes with the composer’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 87, from 1889—one of his supreme achievements in chamber music. Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma play works for cello and piano by Leoš Janáček — his rhapsodic, three-movement Fairy Tale — and Vitěslava Kaprálová, who, though she died in 1940 at age 25, had an outsized impact on Czech music. Her brief, energetic Ritournelle, Op. 25, was among her last completed works.


Ticket includes admission to 6pm Prelude Concert.

Gates open at 5:30pm

Pamela Frank has regrettably withdrawn from this concert due to health concerns. The program has been adjusted to accommodate a smaller ensemble.

The Intelligencer apparently didn't review the concert. As usual the Globe published a review of all three major weekend concerts, and the reviewer was very happy with this one.

I didn't write anything about it back then, but based on the description and the review, it sounds like a nice "chang of pace."

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