Classical music — orchestral and opera — has been one of my major interests for most of my life. I'll use this blog to tell about some of the concerts I'm attending and the opportunities to listen to some of them and other good programs on the web.
Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and frequent collaborator Kirill Gerstein in the U.S. premiere of a new concerto by the Spanish composer Francisco Coll. A one-time protégé of composer Thomas Adès, Coll composes music of “great energy and sonic imagination.” Beethoven’s dramatic “Coriolan” Overture begins the program, which ends with the same composer’s Seventh Symphony, a universal favorite bursting with lyricism and exuberance.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Kirill Gerstein, piano
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN “Coriolan” Overture Francisco COLL Piano Concerto (U.S. premiere; BSO co-commission) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Kirill Gerstein describes the unique qualities of Francisco Coll's music and, specifically, Piano Concerto, what its challenges are and why those challenges are ultimately so rewarding. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
Francisco Coll is a painter as well as composer, his creative processes often overlapping to include art works specifically associated with the music he writes. Below is Piano Concerto, a painting created in conjunction with the new concerto performed in this concert.
Courtesy Of The Artist
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Francisco Coll/BSO
Piano Concerto - Francisco Coll
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Kirill Gerstein,
Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and frequent collaborator Kirill Gerstein in the U.S. premiere of a new concerto by the Spanish composer Francisco Coll. Co-commissioned by the BSO with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the concerto was premiered by Gerstein and the orchestra under Simon Rattle’s direction in spring 2026. Coll’s music is performed by the major orchestras of Europe. A one-time protégé of composer Thomas Adès, he composes music of great energy and sonic imagination. Works of Beethoven begin and end the program: his dramatic Coriolan Overture and the Seventh Symphony, a universal favorite bursting with lyricism and exuberance.
Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Boston Symphony in the passionate Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde andSibelius’s Symphony No. 7, as well as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with soloist Yefim Bronfman.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor Yefim Bronfman, piano
Richard WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde Jean SIBELIUS Symphony No. 7 Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor
Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in two masterpieces of the symphonic form, beginning with Haydn’s Symphony No. 22 and ending with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. In between, Daniil Trifonov is the soloist in Shostakovich’s rollicking First Piano Concerto, with BSO Principal Trumpet Thomas Rolfs.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Daniil Trifonov, piano Thomas Rolfs, trumpet
Joseph HAYDN Symphony No. 22, The Philosopher Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No. 1 Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 2
Haydn's Symphony No. 22 is a favorite of mine. Perhaps the feeling of repose at the beginning seems to characterize the mindseet of a philosopher. At any rate, I like it.
For the final concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-2026 season, Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in John Adams’ spaciously pulsating Harmonium and, with four stellar soloists, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and its “Ode to Joy.”.
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor Andrea Carroll, soprano Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano Andrew Haji, tenor Morris Robinson, bass Tanglewood Festival Chorus Jean-Sébastien Vallée, guest choral conductor
John ADAMS Harmonium Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9
Returning for his second BSO program this season, Dima Slobodeniouk leads one of the American composer John Adams’ first major works, Harmonium for chorus and orchestra. Written in 1981 for the San Francisco Symphony, this grand, half-hour work sets a poem by John Donne and two by Emily Dickinson in gradually unfolding, majestic textures. With its slowly evolving harmonic fields and rhythmic energy, Harmonium marked the future Pulitzer Prize winner and composer of the operas Doctor Atomic and Nixon in China as an important and original voice in American music. Beethoven's larger-than-life, ecstatic Symphony No. 9 closes the season.
I suppose we all know what to expect with the Beethoven, but the Adams will be new to me, so I found the program note worth reading.
I'm sorry I missed posting about yesterday's concert. My high school class 65th reunion, along with staffing the town's Task Force Against Discrimination's booth at the farmers' market, distracted me. If you listened, you got to hear Poulenc's "Gloria"and Holst's "The Planets." If you missed it or want to hear it again, WCRB offers concerts "On demand" for a while.
For the BSO’s final performance of the Tanglewood season, Earl Lee conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with soloists Federica Lombardi, Isabel Signoret, Pene Pati, and Ryan Speedo Green and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The concert begins with the world premiere of Words and Prayers of My Fathers by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, commissioned by the BSO and conducted by BSO Choral Director James Burton.
Earl Lee, conductor James Burton, conductor (Simon) Federica Lombardi, soprano Isabel Signoret, mezzo-soprano Pene Pati, tenor Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Carlos SIMON Words and Prayers of My Fathers (world premiere; BSO commission) Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9
The BSO performance detail page notes that Zubin Mehta is unable to conduct the Beethoven as scheduled. It also gives all the usual links to performer bios and program notes. You may especially want to read the note about "Words and Prayers of My Fathers." https://www.bso.org/events/bso-august-24-zubin-mehta?performance=2025-08-24-14:30
There are two great evenings of music in store for us. (I'm sorry I missed last evening, but I had returned from several days away and it slipped my mind. If you checked it out without waiting for my preview, I'm sure you enjoyed the concert of music by Bach, Mahler, and Mendelssohn.)
Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the world premiere of John Williams’s Piano Concerto, inspired by three legendary jazz pianists and written for soloist Emanuel Ax, part of a program that also includes the epic musical journey of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano
John WILLIAMS Piano Concerto (world premiere) Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 1
To hear a preview of John Williams's Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
Brian McCreathI'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Emanuel Ax. And Manny, thank you so much for a little of your time today. I appreciate it.
A major new work by John Williams, a full-fledged Concerto for Piano and Orchestra composed for and premiered by Emanuel Ax with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at Tanglewood—it speaks for itself. This warm coming-together of artists who have a deep connection with Tanglewood, its history, and its future can only be topped by the performance itself on Saturday evening in the Shed. In this brilliant, virtuoso concerto, Williams draws on his lifelong love of the piano and some of its most individual talents: its three movements pay homage to jazz greats Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. The concerto shares the Saturday concert with Gustav Mahler’s powerful and lyrical Symphony No. 1. With its broad melodies, hints of birdsong, and its second-movement rustic dance, the symphony channels Mahler’s love of the outdoors and the countryside while also serving as a true orchestral showpiece.
Lang Lang is the soloist in the beautifully romantic Piano Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saëns in a program led by Andris Nelsons that also includes Gabriela Ortiz’s exuberant La Calaca, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Lang Lang, piano
Gabriela ORTIZ La Calaca, for string orchestra Camille SAINT-SÄENS Piano Concerto No. 2
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Again, the BSO performance detail page for the weekend has a synopsis by Robert Kirzinger, as follows:
Sunday’s concert features another outstanding pianist, Lang Lang, playing Camille Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the best known of the composer’s works. Saint-Saëns, a virtuoso pianist himself, played its premiere in Paris in December 1868. The concert opens with Mexican composer and 2025 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music Director Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, a hypnotically rhythmic, dancing work whose title refers to the stylized, music-loving skeleton figures of Day of the Dead celebrations. Beethoven’s sunny Pastoral Symphony—complete with birdsong, a country dance, and a brief (musical) summer storm—completes the program.
This is the week the Boston Symphony returns to Tanglewood, and WCRB will be broadcasting their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday concerts from now through the end of the season on August 24. As usual, the Sunday afternoon concerts will be recorded to be transmitted Sunday evening. Here's what we get this weekend.
The 2025 Tanglewood season opens with an All-Rachmaninoff program, headlined by pianist Daniil Trifonov.The concert begins with the composer’s daunting Piano Concerto No. 3 and closes with the drama and excitement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, all led by Music Director Andris Nelsons.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Daniil Trifonov, piano
ALL-RACHMANINOFF program Piano Concerto No. 3 Symphonic Dances
In an All-Beethoven program, Yefim Bronfman is the soloist in composer’s Third Piano Concerto, and Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in the iconic Symphony No. 5.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Yefim Bronfman, piano
ALL-BEETHOVEN program Leonore Overture No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 Symphony No. 5
Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor Yefim Bronfman, piano
ALL-BEETHOVEN program Leonore Overture No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 Symphony No. 5
The Leonore Overture No. 3 is the one that is usually played in concerts and recorded, so this should be interesting. The program note gives some background. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing this concert on Sunday evening.
This is the site for schedules, online ticket purchases, notes about works to be performed, information about various events including the Pops and Tanglewood seasons, online purchases of Symphony recordings and other merchandise, information about Symphony Hall, and more.
they broadcast and stream Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, live performances in their studios, and concerts that they have recorded elsewhere, as well as commercial recordings
they broadcast and stream the Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinees and their own "Sunday Night at the Opera," recorded concerts by orchestras in other cities, as well as commercial recordings
located in Colorado Springs, CO — they broadcast and stream locally produced programming, including recordings of concerts by the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, as well as other orchestras around the country, the Met and commercial recordings
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ABC Classic FM — www.abc.net.au/classic/
all classical
Australian broadcaster — also streams their programs
