BSO/Classical New England — 2021/05/01

 This week WCRB gives us the first BSO Saturday concert of 2017. Here's how they summarize it:

Saturday at 8pm, in an encore broadcast from 2017, virtuoso musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage at Symphony Hall in works by Vivaldi, Krommer, Jolivet, Rota, and Schumann.

Saturday, May 1, 2021
8:00 PM

Ken-David Masur, conductor
Cynthia Meyers, piccolo
William R. Hudgins and Michael Wayne, clarinets
Thomas Rolfs, trumpet
Toby Oft, trombone
James Sommerville, Michael Winter, Rachel Childers, and Jason Snider, horns 

Vivaldi - Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 433
Krommer - Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets and orchestra, Op. 91
Jolivet - Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings
Rota - Trombone Concerto
Schumann - Concert Piece for four horns and orchestra

This concert is no longer available on demand.

In a conversation at Tanglewood, BSO piccolo player Cynthia Meyers describes her musical path to the BSO to Ron Della Chiesa in an interview recorded at Tanglewood:

As you see, there is an interview with the piccolo player. If you don't want to listen, a transcript follows what I've copied here.

At the time, I wrote about it as follows (edited to remove material no longer relevant):

The orchestra returns to Symphony Hall this week with an unusual program, featuring wind players of the orchestra as soloists in generally unfamiliar works. The BSO performance detail page describes it as follows:

Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948. BSO principal trombone Toby Oft plays the Trombone Concerto of Italian composer Nino Rota-best known for scoring Coppola's The Godfather but a versatile and prolific composer of concert and stage works as well. Finally, Robert Schumann's Konzertstück ("Concert-piece") for four horns provides an exhilarating showcase for principal horn James Sommerville and his virtuoso colleagues Rachel Childers, Jason Snider, and Michael Winter.

(Most emphasis added.)

I was there for the performance on Thursday, and I found it all pleasant enough — except for the Jolivet, which I'd call "not unpleasant." As originally programmed, the Jolivet concerto was to finish the first half, but I guess they decided it would be better not to have the Vivaldi and Krommer adjacent. I thought everybody played very well, except for a couple of wobbles in the horns. The Jolivet trumpet concert was "modern." The others, including the Rota, were normal music. But none of them were particularly memorable. In the Krommer clarinet concerto, I imagined the Hudgin's tone was a bit brighter, and Wayne's a bit mellower. The BMInt reviewer suggests something similar. So it was a great night for the wind players to have some time in the spotlight. I'm glad I was there for it, and I think you be glad to have listened, if you do.

The reviews are favorable. The Globe noted the occasional problems with the horns. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a fairly good synopsis of the music (and likes the Jolivet much more than I did).

The horn soloists in the Intelligencer photo are, l.-r., Snider, Winter, Childers, and Sommerville. Clint Hutchinson, flute player, is in the center, just slightly behind Ms. Childers. In the back, behind Mr. Hutchinson, is assistant tympanist Daniel Bauch. The conductor, Ken-David Masur, is standing on the right, and in the back row behind him are two trumpeters, but I'm never sure which is which.

Anyway, you can listen, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, over WCRB.[…]

So there's an interesting concert available here, competing with the Warhorse Orgy on WHRB and the Red Sox-Rangers game on WEEI. You can hardly go wrong.

BSO — 2017/01/07

The orchestra returns to Symphony Hall this week with an unusual program, featuring wind players of the orchestra as soloists in generally unfamiliar works. The BSO performance detail page describes it as follows:

Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948. BSO principal trombone Toby Oft plays the Trombone Concerto of Italian composer Nino Rota-best known for scoring Coppola's The Godfather but a versatile and prolific composer of concert and stage works as well. Finally, Robert Schumann's Konzertstück ("Concert-piece") for four horns provides an exhilarating showcase for principal horn James Sommerville and his virtuoso colleagues Rachel Childers, Jason Snider, and Michael Winter.

(Most emphasis added.)

I was there for the performance on Thursday, and I found it all pleasant enough — except for the Jolivet, which I'd call "not unpleasant." As originally programmed, the Jolivet concerto was to finish the first half, but I guess they decided it would be better not to have the Vivaldi and Krommer adjacent. I thought everybody played very well, except for a couple of wobbles in the horns. The Jolivet trumpet concert was "modern." The others, including the Rota, were normal music. But none of them were particularly memorable. In the Krommer clarinet concerto, I imagined the Hudgin's tone was a bit brighter, and Wayne's a bit mellower. The BMInt reviewer suggests something similar. So it was a great night for the wind players to have some time in the spotlight. I'm glad I was there for it, and I think you be glad to have listened, if you do.

The reviews are favorable. The Globe noted the occasional problems with the horns. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a fairly good synopsis of the music (and likes the Jolivet much more than I did).

The horn soloists in the Intelligencer photo are, l.-r., Snider, Winter, Childers, and Sommerville. Clint Hutchinson, flute player, is in the center, just slightly behind Ms. Childers. In the back, behind Mr. Hutchinson, is assistant tympanist Daniel Bauch. The conductor, Ken-David Masur, is standing on the right, and in the back row behind him are two trumpeters, but I'm never sure which is which.

Anyway, you can listen, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, over WCRB. There's another page on their website which has a link to their podcast, with interviews with three of the evening's soloists. It also has a link (fine print upper left, to the remaining broadcast schedule for the season. I'd have expected this concert to be rerun on January 16, but they don't say they will.

Winter Orgy® Period 2011 — Already in Progress

My apologies! I wasn't paying attention to WHRB, and the Orgy® Period began a couple of weeks ago. The first classical music orgy was the Percy Grainger Orgy, on December 3. Many of the orgies this year have focused on performers, rather than composers, but at this point, they are in the midst of the Franz Liszt Orgy, which will end Friday evening at 10:00.

Saturday evening there will be an Ivor Novello Orgy from 6:00 to 10:00.

The Carl Maria von Weber Orgy will be Sunday, December 18, from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. That is the last of the classical music orgies so titled, but on Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to midnight they will observe the Gian Carlo Menotti Centenary (with "Amahl and the Night Visitors"* reserved until December 24 at 4:30 p.m.); and Wednesday, December 20, they will observe the Nino Rota Centenary from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

All of this is available on the web at the link above.

* I believe I saw the world premiere of this one hour opera, which was a television performance in 1951. I know I saw it on TV back in the early 1950's.


Meanwhile the Boston Symphony went on tour to California for four concerts, and the Boston Pops are giving their holiday concerts for the rest of the month. You may want to check out what WCRB streams in the regular concert times. Last Saturday, they repeated a concert from earlier in the season. Also, this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. they will give a live broadcast/webstream of the Handel and Haydn's "A Bach Christmas" concert,  which will include music of other baroque composers as well. I think I'll listen to that — tearing myself away from the Weber Orgy. BSO concerts will again be streamed live beginning on January 7.