BSO — 2025/04/26

 The "Decoding Shostakovich" series continues, with some non-Shostakovich material as well. Here's WCRB's summary:

Saturday, April 26, 2025
8:00 PM

This program pairs Shostakovich’s introspective, classically elegant Sixth Symphony with Stravinsky’s austerely profound Symphony of Psalms, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the BSO’s 50th anniversary. The BSO commissioned Aleksandra Vrebalov to compose a psalm setting using the same musical forces as Stravinsky’s masterpiece. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and winner of the prestigious 2023 Grawemeyer Award, Vrebalov composes music of deeply spiritual humanism influenced in part by Byzantine chant.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

Aleksandra VREBALOV Love Canticles for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; BSO commission)
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

There are links to the program notes, which could be good reading about these unfamiliar pieces, at the BSO's performance detail page, which begins with this synopsis:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

Aleksandra VREBALOV Love Canticles for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director, through the generous support of Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser and the New Works Fund established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.)
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
-Intermission-
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

This program pairs Shostakovich’s introspective, classically elegant Sixth Symphony with Stravinsky’s austerely profound Symphony of Psalms, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the BSO’s 50th anniversary. In fact, Shostakovich so revered Stravinsky’s piece that he made a two-piano arrangement of the score. Commissioned by the BSO especially for these concerts, Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Love Canticles sets Psalm texts in English from the King James Bible, using the same musical forces as Stravinsky’s masterpiece. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and winner of the prestigious 2024 Grawemeyer Award, Vrebalov composes music of deeply spiritual humanism influenced in part by traditional Eastern Orthodox chant.

Unusually, this evening's concert is the first performance of this program, so there has been no chance for anybody to publish a review. (Usually the Saturday concert is a repeat of what is given on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.) So you can hear the literal world premiere of the Vrebalov, and it could be worth hearing.

BSO — 2025/04/19

 WCRB tells us:

Saturday, April 19, 2025
8:00 PM

Mitsuko Uchida has, from an early age, been considered a standout interpreter of Beethoven. The Fourth Concerto’s opening lets the instrument speak for itself — intimately and delicately — leading the way for the rest of the ensemble. Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony is his last symphony and is full of quotations, codes, clues, and ambiguity.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 15

The BSO's performance detail page gives us links to the program notes for each piece and this slightly longer blurb:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
-Intermission-
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 15

Mitsuko Uchida has, from an early age, been considered a standout interpreter of Beethoven. The Fourth is considered the first of Beethoven’s piano concertos to depart from the format prescribed by Mozart (an orchestral introduction with a dramatic solo entrance). The concerto’s opening lets the instrument speak for itself — intimately and delicately so—to lead the way for the rest of the ensemble. Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony is his last symphony and is full of quotations, codes, clues, and ambiguity. This is an experience defying description that invites the listener to create their own personal interpretation.

The reviewer in the Globe liked both parts of the concert, especially the Beethoven. So far, there's no review in the Intelligencer.

It should be a good concert. By all means, listen to the Beethoven if you're free, and see what you think of the Shostakovich. I'll be in church for the Ester Vigil, but if it weren't Holy Saturday, I'd be listening.

BSO — 2025/04/12

 Unusually, there is no BSO concert being performed in Symphony Hall this evening, so WCRB is giving us the concert they recorded yesterday evening, described as follows:

Saturday, April 12, 2025
8:00 PM

Dmitri Shostakovich often folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Yo-Yo Ma brings the specter of resistance in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto; a prime example of the composer using music to protest an authoritarian regime. The program concludes with his Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Cello Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

This concert will take place on Friday, April 11th and will be broadcast on Saturday, April 12th.

The BSO's performance detail page gives us the following blurb:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Cello Concerto No. 1
-Intermission-
Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

A part of our series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the composer folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Yo-Yo Ma brings the specter of resistance to the stage. Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto is a prime example of the composer using music to protest an authoritarian regime; the cello stands defiant against the orchestra, often playing out its own theme not reflected in the ensemble, until it disseminates into a wild cadenza and is whisked away into a sudden abrupt end.

Program notes are linked and could be interesting.

The "series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich" is titled "Decoding Shostakovich" and runs from April 10 through May 7. There are symphony concerts and four lectures on Shostakovich and his times. I had a ticket for the Thursday concert, which had Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6 in place of the cello concerto, but I didn't go. The BSO had performed all the symphonies over the course of several years a while back. Some of them were tolerable, but I wasn't really interested in hearing them again — at least not enough to pay the cost of getting a ride home after the concert. I'll listen this evening, but with the idea that maybe I'll find something worthwhile, not that it's something I'm enthusiastic about.

There is no review in the Globe but two(!) in the Intelligencer. https://www.classical-scene.com/2025/04/11/decoding-shostakovich-6-11/ and https://www.classical-scene.com/2025/04/11/shostakovich-month/ The second one also gives a description of the whole "Decoding Shostakovich" month.

It could be "interesting."

BSO — 2025/04/05

 I'm not familiar with any of the pieces on this evening's Boston Symphony concert, so let's see what WCRB says:

Saturday, April 5, 2025
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
Edward ELGAR Violin Concerto

In a preview of this program, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk describes the emotional power of Hailstork's Lachrymosa: 1919, the extreme shift in energy among the different works on the program and the audience's role in facilitating that energy, and the qualities Frank Peter Zimmermann brings to Elgar's Violin Concerto. To listen, use the player above and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath This program. Three pieces that are so different from each other. Adolphus Hailstork's "Lachrymosa: 1919." Not a piece that I had known before, but what a gorgeous, beautiful, moving piece of music.

The interview might also be good preparation.

The BSO's performance detail page has the same description of the concert, but it also has links to the program notes for esch piece, which can be useful if you want to know what to expect (or to follow along aas things are being performed).

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
-Intermission-
ELGAR Violin Concerto

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’sLachrymosa: 1919 explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

The Globe doesn't seem to have a review, but there is a favorable one in the Intelligencer.

It seems that this will be a concert worth listening to.