T Tanglewood — 2023/07/29-30

Well, here's the scoop from WCRB.

Tonight:

Saturday, July 29th, 2023
8:00 PM

Contralto Avery Amereau sings Berlioz's Les Nuits d’été (Summer Nights) with the BSO and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, along with other exciting selections by Messiaen, Ravel, and Agata Zubel.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Avery Amereau, contralto

Olivier MESSIAEN Les Offrandes oublieés
Hector BERLIOZ Les Nuits d’été
Agata ZUBEL In the Shade of an Unshed Tear
Maurice RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2

Isabel Leonard, who was originally scheduled to sing Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’ete, has withdrawn from this performance due to illness.

Tomorrow:

Sunday, July 30th, 2023
7:00 PM

This Sunday at 7pm, Anna Rakitina conducts the BSO at Tanglewood in Prokofiev's Suite from "Romeo and Juliet," as well as Ellen Reid's "When the World as You've Known It Doesn't Exist," and star violinist Joshua Bell is the soloist in Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1.

Anna Rakitina, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
Eliza Bagg, Martha Cluver,
and Sonja DuToit Tengblad, vocalists

Ellen REID When the World as You’ve Known It Doesn’t Exist
Niccolò PAGANINI Violin Concerto No. 1
Sergei PROKOFIEV Suite from Romeo and Juliet

Hear an interview with Joshua Bell.
Learn more about Ellen Reid's "When the World as You've Known It Doesn't Exist."

I think I'll listen to the Red Sox game this evening, maybe catch the end of the concert when the game is over. But I wouldn't blame you for listening to the whole thing. I don't recall "Les Nuits d’été," but Berlioz is usually good, and the Ravel isn't half bad either. On Sunday, Joshua Bell is not to be missed, and the Prokofiev is pretty good IIRC. If you go to the page from WCRB, you can get the links for the interview and the "Learn more" at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2023/07/23

 WCRB tells us https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2023-06-08/midkiff-and-wilkins-with-the-bso-at-tanglewood about this evening's Tanglewood broadcast of the afternoon concert:

Sunday, July 23rd, 2023
7:00 PM

Jeff Midkiff is the soloist in his own Mandolin Concerto From the Blue Ridge. Thomas Wilkins leads the BSO at Tanglewood in Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade and Ellington’s Suite from The River.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Jeff Midkiff, mandolin

Samuel COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Ballade in A minor
Jeff MIDKIFF Mandolin Concerto, From the Blue Ridge
Duke ELLINGTON Suite from The River

There's not much more at the BSO site. https://www.bso.org/events/bso-wilkins-ellington

This could be enjoyable.

Note that the Sunday show begins at 7:00.

Tanglewood — 2023/07/22

Saturday, July 22nd, 2023
8:00 PM

David Afkham leads the BSO at Tanglewood in Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and his Piano Concerto No. 25 with soloist Martin Helmchen, as well as Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll.

David Afkham, conductor 
Martin Helmchen, piano

Richard WAGNER Siegfried Idyll
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503

MOZART Symphony No. 41, Jupiter 

Tanglewood — 2023/07/14-16

 WCRB has this to say about this evening's concert:

Friday, July 14th, 2023
8:00 PM

Great American Songbook ambassador Michael Feinstein and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet join Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood in a celebration of iconic American composer George Gershwin.

Keith Lockhart, conductor
Michael Feinstein, vocalist and piano
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

ALL-GERSHWIN PROGRAM
Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?

It's the Boston Pops and Gershwin — should be a great evening.

Tomorrow it's a night at the opera:

Saturday, July 15th, 2023
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons conducts a concert version of Mozart’s famous Italian opera “Così fan tutte” with the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
James Darrah, director
Nicole Cabell, soprano (Fiordiligi)
Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano (Dorabella)
Meigui Zhang, soprano (Despina)
Amitai Pati, tenor (Ferrando)
Elliot Madore, baritone (Guglielmo)
Patrick Carfizzi, bass-baritone (Don Alfonso)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
James Burton, conductor

I've never given this opera my undivided attention, but it's Mozart, so it's perfectly pleasant and acceptable, probably very enjoyable at times.

Then on Sunday, the program takes us from the sublime to the ridiculous or maybe just the bombastic:

Sunday, July 16th, 2023
7:00 PM

Erin Morley, Reginald Mobley, Will Liverman, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus bring you Orff’s bawdy and intimate Carmina Burana.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Erin Morley, soprano
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Will Liverman, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
James Burton, conductor
Boston Children’s Chorus,
Emily Howe, conductor
Kenneth Griffith, music director

Ludwing Van BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
Carl ORFF Carmina burana

When I was in college, the Latin professor was pleased to have a musical setting of these medieval poems available. Later I learned that early music people had been able to decipher the melodies indicated in the original manuscript. I much prefer the medieval music settings (e.g.,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Elgdpk65gM&t=2715s just dip in here and there if you don't want to listen all the way through) to Carl Orff's vulgar 20th century music for the poems. Of course, the Beethoven is magnificent and well worth listening to.

The BSO's calendar has links to each concert, but I don't see any program notes for background information about any of the music.

So enjoy what you can. Maybe you'll even like Orff's music for Carmina Burana.

BTW, the "i" in carmina is short, so it's CARmina, not carMEEna.

Tanglewood — 2023/07/07-09

 The Boston Symphony has returned to Tanglewood and will present concerts in the customary format: separate concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday evening over the next seven weekends. (Occasionally, the concerts are by a different ensemble, such as the Boston Pops, or the Tanglewood Musical Center Orchestra.) WCRB  transmits the Friday and Saturday concerts live, and the Sunday concert by a delayed braodcast in the evening. Here's what well get for opening weekend, per WCRB: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2023-06-08/opening-night-at-tanglewood-with-trifonov-and-the-bso

Friday, July 7th, 2023
8:00 PM

Music Director Andris Nelsons, soloist Daniil Trifonov, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra kick off a new summer season with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, along with Marsalis' “Herald, Holler, and Hallelujah” and Tchaikovksy’s Symphony No. 4.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano

Wynton MARSALIS Herald, Holler, and Hallelujah
Sergei PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3
Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

Then on Saturday we get the Pops: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2023-06-08/lockhart-the-pops-and-ragtime-at-tanglewood

Saturday, July 8th, 2023
8:00 PM

Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops in a specially written concert version of the Broadway hit Ragtime! Nikki Renée Daniels, Alton Fitzgerald White, Elizabeth Stanley, and John Cariani are among the celebrated cast of performers.

Boston Pops Orchestra 
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Jason Danieley, Stage Director
Alton Fitzgerald White (Coalhouse Walker Jr.) 
Elizabeth Stanley (Mother) 
John Cariani (Tateh) 
Nikki Renée Daniels (Sarah)
David Harris (Father)
A.J. Shively (Mother’s Younger Brother)
Klea Blackhurst (Emma Goldman)
Ragtime Ensemble

Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert

For whatever reason, WCRB hasn't posted the program for Sunday yet (or if they have, I can't find it) but here's the equivalent information from the BSO's own page: https://www.bso.org/events/bso-bullock-hahn?performance=2023-07-09-14:30

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Julia Bullock, classical singer
Hilary Hahn, violin

Iman HABIBI Zhiân (world premiere; BSO commission)
Jessie MONTGOMERY Freedom Songs (BSO co-commission)
Intermission
BRAHMS Violin Concerto

The BSO page doesn't include program notes for any of the pieces to be played, and of course there are no reviews possible yet. So, more I cannot tell you.

 

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/07/01

WCRB gives us something different this evening: a retrospective on the Ozawa years through recordings and interviews. Here's the program:

Saturday, July 1, 2023
8:00 PM

Seiji Ozawa's 29 years as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the longest tenure for any conductor in that position in BSO history. He also led more BSO recordings of individual works than any other conductor. In this program, four members of the orchestra - Principal Horn Richard Sebring, violinists Tatiana Dimitriades and Bonnie Bewick, and Associate Principal Double Bass Lawrence Wolfe - along with BSO Vice President for Artistic Planning Tony Fogg, tell the stories of the most memorable recordings they made with Ozawa.

On the program:

MAHLER - Symphony No. 3, movements IV and V 
with soprano Jessye Norman, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the American Boychoir

MAHLER - Symphony No. 4, movements III and IV
with soprano Kiri Te Kanawa

RAVEL - Alborada del Gracioso

BARTÓK - Violin Concerto No. 2, movement III
with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter

DUTILLEUX - The Shadows of Time

BERLIOZ - The Damnation of Faust, Part 1
with tenor Stuart Burrows and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Since this is not a (re)broadcast of a live concert, there is no performancse detail page nor review to link. These are not pieces of music that are on my personal favorites list, although Mahler is pretty good and Berlioz usually gives us something worth hearing. I just don't remember anything specific from these pieces. The reminiscences could be very interesting, so on balance, I think this should be a good show.