BSO — 2024/11/09

 Now for something (not completely) different, The BSO is giving us a Duke Ellington Anniversary Celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the composer's  death. WCRB gives us the particulars, along with an interview that explains it all:

Saturday, November 9, 2024
8:00 PM

The BSO and Thomas Wilkins mark the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death with four of this American musical genius’s symphonically ambitious works, beginning with the orchestral Three Black Kings and Night Creature. Then, pianist Gerald Clayton is the soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming. And Renese King leads a cast of incredible vocalists in selections from Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, conceived as a parallel to traditional European church music, featuring styles at the core of jazz, including gospel, the blues, and spirituals in a multi-dimensional, oratorio-like presentation.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Gerald Clayton, piano
Renese King, vocalist
The Duke Ellington Tribute Singers: Christina DeVaughn, Amy Onyonyi, Carolyn Saxon, Renese King, Karen Tobin-Guild, Laura Vecchione, Michael Bradley, Daon Drisdom, Philip Lima, Davron Monroe, Samuel Moscoso, Donnell Patterson

Duke Ellington Anniversary Celebration

ALL-ELLINGTON PROGRAM

Three Black Kings
Night Creature
New World A-Coming, for piano and orchestra
Selections from the Sacred Concerts

In a preview of this program, conductor Thomas Wilkins describes the way each piece reflects particular aspects of Duke Ellington's musical expression and perspectives on life, spirituality, and art. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Thomas Wilkins, who's back here with the Boston Symphony for a really, really special concert. Thom, thanks so much for your time today. And thanks for talking about Duke Ellington, a fantastic program this week.

Thomas Wilkins Duke Ellington is a great guy to have to talk about, I got to tell you.

Brian McCreath Absolutely. So, let's talk about Duke Ellington in the context of these pieces that you have programmed for this, a kind of specific look at Duke Ellington as the concert composer. You know, we think of Cotton Club and "Mood Indigo," these fantastic parts of the Duke Ellington story. But this is a little different: major pieces that were conceived of as concert pieces, and even with full orchestra in a couple of cases and arranged for full orchestra in every case for the concert.

Until I read the transcript of Brian McCreaths interview with Thomas Wilkins, I thought that Duke Ellington's music was more appropriate for a Boston Pops concert. Clearly, when it comes to this program I was wrong.

In the BSO's performance detail page we find useful links to the program notes for each piece as well as the following brief overall description:

Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Gerald Clayton, piano
Renese King, vocalist
The Duke Ellington Tribute Singers
Christina DeVaughn, Amy Onyonyi, Carolyn Saxon, Renese King, Karen Tobin-Guild, Laura Vecchione, Michael Bradley, Daon Drisdom, Philip Lima, Davron Monroe, Samuel Moscoso, Donnell Patterson

ALL-ELLINGTON PROGRAM
Three Black Kings
Night Creature
New World A-Coming, for piano and orchestra
-Intermission-
Selection from the Sacred Concerts

The BSO and Thomas Wilkins mark the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death with three of this American musical genius’ symphonically ambitious “Tone Parallels” — his personal take on the tone poem; Gerald Clayton is soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming. Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts of 1965, 1968, and 1973, conceived as a parallel to traditional European church music, feature styles at the core of jazz, including gospel, the blues, and spirituals in a multidimensional, oratorio-like presentation.

The Globe reviewer had no complaints, and the Intelligencer is highly favorable.

I wasn't there to hear it on Thursday or Friday, so I'm definitely looking forward to listening to this evening's performance.