Tanglewood — 2013/08/23-25

This is the last weekend of the 2013 Tanglewood Season. The BSO will be playing on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, with the Boston Pops on Saturday. Sunday afternoon's concert will give us the customary season-ending Beethoven 9th Symphony. Specifics follow.

August 23  The 8:30 p.m. Friday concert is an "Underscore Friday," in which a member of the orchestra gives an introduction to the music from the stage. This evening, per the program note, there will be "introductory comments from the stage by BSO trumpet player Michael Martin." As it happens, I've missed the previous two "Underscore Friday" concerts this season, so this will be a first for me. The program is described thus for us on the orchestra's performance detail page.

The BSO kicks off the final weekend of its 2013 Tanglewood season on Friday, August 23, at 8:30 p.m. with a program featuring pianist  Peter Serkin and led by BSO Assistant Conductor  Andris Poga in his Tanglewood debut. Mr. Serkin will join Mr. Poga and the orchestra for Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds, a Bach-inspired work from the beginning of the composer's neoclassical period, about which he wrote "I have gone back in the centuries and have begun over again, on a historic foundation. What I write today has its roots in the style and methods of Palestrina and Bach." The program also includes Prokofiev's Haydnesque Symphony No. 1,  Classical, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

As usual, if you go to that page you will find links to program notes and audio previews, as well as to performer bios when you click on their photos.


August 24 brings "Film Night at Tanglewood." The performance detail page puts it this way:

A beloved summer tradition continues on August 24 at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed with  John Williams' Film Night.  Joining maestro Williams and the  Boston Pops for this special program-which features selections by Alfred Newman, Henry Mancini, Max Steiner, and more-are guest conductor  David Newman, son of Alfred Newman and a film composer in his own right, and superstar vocalist and Broadway and screen actress  Audra McDonald, who recently won a Tony Award for her performance as the leading lady inPorgy and Bess. Ms. McDonald will join the orchestra for selections from a number of films, including  A Star Is Born,  State Fair, and  The West Point Story. Mr. Williams will also lead the Pops in his own film music, including pieces from Jaws,  Indiana Jones, and  Hook.

If I understand the program notes correctly, Maestro Newman will conduct the first half, some of which will be music composed by his father; and after intermission, Maestro Williams will conduct some of his own compositions. It's not clear to me whether Maestro Williams or Brian Hertz will be on the podium when Ms. McDonald sings.


August 25

The BSO's 2013 Tanglewood season comes to a close on Sunday, August 25, at 2:30 p.m. with the traditional performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, led by BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink. Maestro Haitink, the orchestra, and Tanglewood Festival Chorus will be joined for this season's valedictory concert by soprano  Erin Wall, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor  Joseph Kaiser, and bass-baritone John Relyea. Completed in 1824 near the end of the composer's life when he was completely deaf, mostly destitute, and increasingly ill, this monument of musical innovation and accomplishment has stood as an iconic tribute to and example of the ability of the human spirit to triumph over adversity ever since.

Visit the performance detail page (from which the quote was taken) for the usual links to further info.


You can listen to the concerts over Classical New England, by radio if you're within range, otherwise via their webstream. As usual, there is a pre-concert program a half hour before each concert's stated start time, and there are links of various sorts on the station's BSO page. BTW, if you haven't already noticed, you might want to scan the home page of the website for links to descriptions of some of their other programming.

After this weekend, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will be off until the Symphony Hall season begins in Boston on September 21. I'm not sure what CNE will be presenting on the two intervening Saturday evenings, but I expect it will include rebroadcasts of some BSO concerts. I'll let you know, if I find out. Otherwise, you can just listen in at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m.

Tanglewood — 2013/08/16-18

August 16  Friday evening we have a concert by the Boston Pops (which is why I label the summer posts "Tanglewood — [date]": it's not always the BSO). There is still a performance detail page, with a link to the program notes, and it tells us the following:

Keith Lockhart will lead the Boston Pops in an evening concert in the Shed on Friday, August 16, with celebrated pianist, vocalist, and archivist of the great American Songbook, Michael Feinstein. The evening will feature some of the most beloved tunes in the American songbook repertoire. Special guests include Broadway and television star Cheyenne Jackson and actress and singer Faith Prince.

August 17  On Saturday, the Boston symphony returns to the stage for the first of two Mozart/Mahler programs — this one under the baton of Bernard Haitink.

Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink joins the BSO at Tanglewood for the first time in five years on Saturday, August 17, leading the BSO in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 with soloistIsabelle Faust and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, featuring sopranoCamilla Tilling.

Go to the performance detail page for links to the background information (including performer bios by clicking on their pics).


August 18  Sunday brings the second Mozart/Mahler concert, with Christoph von Dohnányi at the podium. This is the "Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert."

Emanuel Ax joins conductor Christoph von Dohnányi and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert and the second weekend program dedicated to the music of Mozart and Mahler. Mr. Ax will perform as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, K.271, and the program closes with Mahler's Symphony No. 1.

See the performance detail page for the links to background info, including audio previews, program notes, and performer bios.


Classical New England will have their regular pre-game shows 1/2 hour before the concerts.
Visit their BSO page for all sorts of links: interviews, previous concerts on demand etc.

Tanglewood — 2013/08/09-11

August 9  We have Sibelius and Brahms on offer Friday evening.

Christoph von Dohnányi takes the podium on Friday, August 9, at 8:30 p.m. leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra and soloist Gil Shaham in Sibelius's Violin Concerto, a virtuosic work that eschews strict traditional forms for a freer, more organic style; similar to Sibelius's most popular symphonies, the concerto provides plenty of energy and excitement, as well as splendid, sweeping climaxes. The program concludes with Brahms's rich and multifaceted Symphony No. 2, which combines pastoral beauty with melancholic reverie then gains momentum and sprints to a thrilling finale.

As always, go to the performance detail page for links to background material.


August 10  Saturday brings another Brahms Symphony and (continuing a series begun last week) a Beethoven Piano Concerto. The program also includes a piece by a favorite of James Levine, the recently deceased centenarian Elliott Carter. Go to the performance detail page for the links. It describes the program as follows:

On Saturday, August 10, at 8:30 p.m., pianist Yefim Bronfmanjoins Maestro von Dohnányi and the orchestra for Beethoven's stormy Third Piano Concerto, a dramatic, tumultuous work in which Beethoven takes an audible step away from the style of Mozart, his towering forebear in the piano concerto genre. Also on the program are Brahms's towering Symphony No. 4-Brahms's ultimate fusion of past and present, combining a mastery of Classical, Baroque, and even Renaissance techniques with his own lush Romantic idiom-and Elliott Carter's meditative Sound Fields, the composer's only workfor string orchestra, performed in commemoration of Mr. Carter's recent passing.

August 11  The final concert of the weekend is an all Beethoven program, including another of the piano concertos, a symphony, and an overture, to wit:

On Sunday afternoon, August 11, at 2:30 p.m., Christian Zacharias returns to the BSO for an all-Beethoven program, building on a relationship as conductor/pianist with the orchestra that began with his BSO conducting debut during the orchestra's 2010-11 season. To open and close the concert, Mr. Zacharias will conduct the composer's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus and his Symphony No. 6, Pastoral. At the heart of the program, Mr. Zacharias leads the Piano Concerto No. 2 from the keyboard. Used as a means for the young Beethoven to display his virtuosic pianistic talents in concert and make a reputation for himself in Vienna, the work is quite Mozartean in form and character but hints at the storminess that was soon to come.

Here's the link to the performance detail page.


Classical New England will broadcast and stream all three virtually live (there is a delay of a few seconds) with introductory material beginning 1/2 hour before the scheduled concert times. Their BSO page has lots of potentially interesting links to things beyond just these three concerts.

Tanglewood — 2013/08/02-04

Yikes! I thought I still had a day to post about this weekend's Tanglewood concerts. I just realized that it's already Friday, and the first concert of the weekend is already over. Here's their description of what I missed:

Several Friday-evening Shed performances will be part of the popular UnderScore Friday series this season. At these performances, patrons will hear comments about the program directly from an onstage BSO musician. Dates: July 12, August 2, August 23. 

Stéphane Denève, chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, returns to Tanglewood on Friday, August 2, at 8:30 p.m. leading a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with pianist Lars Vogt. Compared with the Third that preceded it and the Fifth that followed, the Concerto No. 4 is a sharply contrasting interlude, a less imposing but more original sideways step with which Beethoven explored the lyrical and discursive possibilities of the form. The program opens with Strauss's searching tone poem Death and Transfiguration, a young man's vision of a far-off death, and ends with Poulenc'sStabat Mater for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Hopefully, you were alert enough to realize that this was a concert night and listened even without my prompting. Of course, the links on the performance detail page may still be of interest, especially the audio of the concerto and the interview with Maestro Denève.


August 3  Still to come, as of this writing, is a Saturday evening program of music by Ravel and Beethoven conducted by Charles Dutoit with Lang Lang as soloist in the Beethoven. A fuller description follows:

Acclaimed Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit leads the BSO in two programs, Saturday, August 3, and Sunday, August 4, continuing the BSO's multi-year survey featuring Maestro Dutoit in repertoire from the early- to mid-twentieth century. On Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m., Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang  joins the BSO and Maestro Dutoit as soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. The program will also include Ravel's hauntingly beautiful Pavane for a Dead Princess, one of his many works inspired by the music and culture of Spain, and the composer's complete ballet score Daphnis et Chloé, a signature piece for both Mr. Dutoit and the orchestra.

Again, see the performance detail page for links to performer bios (by clicking on the photos), program notes, and audio previews.


August 4  The Sunday afternoon concert has Maestro Dutoit returning to conduct two pieces by Stravinsky, with Yo-Yo Ma soloing in the Dvořák Cello Concerto. As always, the performance detail page gives links to bios, program notes, and audio material, as well as the "official description" of the program:

On Sunday, August 4, at 2:30 p.m., cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins the orchestra for Dvořák's romantic Cello Concerto, an ardent piece full of tuneful melody and impassioned music that is one of the composer's finest works and is infused with the Slavic flavor present in all of Dvořák's oeuvre. The program also includes Stravinsky's brief orchestral fantasy, Fireworks, an early work that finds the composer still writing in the mold of his mentor Rimsky-Korsakov, and The Rite of Spring, an iconic work that demonstrates Stravinsky's early maturity and which celebrates its centennial in 2013.

Classical New England will broadcast and stream the concerts at the usual times (see previous posts for specifics). See their BSO page for links. BTW, I just noticed that they have links to the Verdi Requiem broadcast and the all Mozart program on that page. I'm not sure how long they'll be available, since no earlier concerts are linked on that page.

Tanglewood — 2013/07/26-28

After several cancellations, this weekend's Tanglewood will go ahead nearly as planned as far as the music to be played is concerned.

July 26  Christoph Eschenbach had been scheduled to conduct this concert, which was to have included him playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12. But he had to cancel because of an inner ear infection which makes flying inadvisable. In his place, Edo de Waart will conduct and Garrick Ohlsson will be piano soloist in Mozart's 27th Piano Concerto and the orchestra will play his Symphony No 41, "Jupiter". As explained on the BSO performance detail page, this is Berkshire Night at Tanglewood.

Conductor Edo de Waart will take the Boston Symphony Orchestra podium on Friday, at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed, he leads the orchestra in an all-Mozart program that features soprano Christine Schäfer in the concert aria for soprano, piano, and orchestra "Ch'io mi scordi di te…Non temer, amato bene," K.505, considered one of Mozart's greatest achievements in the genre. 

Links to program notes and audio previews are also available there as usual.


July 27  Music Director designate Andris Nelsons was scheduled to conduct the Manzoni Requiem by Verdi, but he suffered a concussion which was bad enough that the doctors advised him not to fly to America. The BSO managed to get Carlo Montanaro to conduct the piece. I'd never heard of him, but this appears to be fairly standard repertory for him. One of the basses in the chorus reports after rehearsals, that Maestro Montanaro goes for speed and emotion more than the nuance and precision which characterized Daniele Gatti's performance with the BSO last winter. So "fasten your seatbelts," and enjoy the ride. Again, links are available on the performance detail page, along with the following description:

Singing the demanding solo parts are soprano Kristīne Opolais (wife of Andris Nelsons), mezzo-soprano Lioba Braun, tenor Dmytro Popov (all three in their BSO debuts), bass-baritone Eric Owens; the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will also be featured. This performance of Verdi's Requiem pays tribute to the bicentennial of the composer's birth in 1813. The Requiem, composed in memory of the Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, a hero of Verdi's, combines all of the composer's dramatic talent and the soaring vocal writing familiar from his operas with the traditional Requiem mass structure.

Please note that there is no intermission in this concert.

BTW, after Nelsons cancelled, it turned out that Ferrucio Furlanetto had a bad cold and couldn't sing the bass part, which led to his replacement by Eric Owens.


July 28  Sunday afternoon at 2:30 Ludovic Morlot, a former assistant conductor of the BSO, now the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, will take Christoph Eschenbach's scheduled place at the podium to conduct the scheduled Dvořák and Prokofiev program, with Garrick Ohlsson again taking on the soloist role (this time as scheduled). Go to the performance detail page for audio and text links. Here's the "official" synopsis from that page.

American pianist and frequent Tanglewood guest Garrick Ohlsson joins the BSO for Prokofiev's exuberant Piano Concerto No. 3. Composed between 1917 and 1921, most of the work on the concerto was done during the summer of 1921, which Prokofiev spent in a town on the coast in Brittany. A mainstay of the modern concerto repertoire, it is one of the composer's most popular works. Dvořák's Carnival Overture and the beloved Symphony No. 9, From the New World, round out the program.

The Friday and Saturday concerts begin at 8:30, Massachusetts time, and the Sunday Matinee at 2:30. As usual, Classical New England plans to broadcast and stream the virtually live, with preliminary material which they have produced beginning a half hour before the scheduled start of the concert. While CNE's own BSO page doesn't add any further info about the concerts themselves, it summarizes them very succinctly and it contains links to other BSO related material and their schedule for the remaining Tanglewood 2013 broadcasts/webstreams.

Tanglewood — 2013/07/19-21

This weekend we have mid-late 19th Century music on Friday and Saturday evenings and baroque on Sunday afternoon.

July 19  brings us Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms. The BSO performance detail page puts it like this:

Russian maestro Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, makes his Tanglewood debut on Friday, July 19, at 8:30 p.m., leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program of Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms. Eminent French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the orchestra as soloist in Liszt's devilishly difficult Totentanz, a barnstorming fantasia based on the Dies irae that is one of the showiest works in the repertoire. To begin the program is the pomp and grandeur of Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and concluding the evening is Brahms's monumental Symphony No. 1, with which the composer finally took up the imposing symphonic mantel of Beethoven.

      – some emphasis supplied
This we they have given us links to notes and audio material.


July 20  returns to Wagner for the final act of Die Walküre. You can find links to the program notes at the performance detail page. There you can also click on performer photos for bios. They synopsize the concert as follows:

On Saturday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m., German conductor Lothar Koenigs, music director of the Welsh National Opera, makes his BSO conducting debut, leading the orchestra in a concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Die Walküre. Though the act begins with the furor of the famous "Ride of the Valkyries," what fallows is some of the most intimate and emotionally charged music of the composer's massive Ring cycle. The cast of leading Wagnerian singers includes sopranos Katarina Dalayman (Brünnhilde) and Amber Wagner (Sieglinde), and bass-baritone Bryn Terfel (Wotan). The performance, along with the prelude toDie Meistersinger on Friday evening, is part of the BSO's celebration of Wagner's Bicentennial in 2013.

     – some emphasis supplied


July 21  On Sunday afternoon, the orchestra goes for baroque. (The pun is an oldie but goodie, IMO, and I didn't try to resist.) The performance detail page has links to program notes and performer bios, and informs us

Conductor, violinist, and violist Pinchas Zukerman returns to the Shed stage on Sunday, July 21, at 2:30 p.m. for an afternoon of Baroque music, following the success of his all-Bach program with the BSO in 2012. The program will also feature a number of the BSO's players as part of the orchestra's ongoing commitment to feature the individual members of the orchestra. The afternoon's program includes Vivaldi's Concerto in B-flat for violin, cello, and strings, featuring Mr. Zukerman and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth; Vivaldi's Concerto in C minor for violin and strings, Il Sospetto; Bach's Concerto No. 2 in E for violin and strings, and Telemann's Concerto in G for viola and strings. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F, featuring BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe, principal oboe player John Ferrillo, and principal trumpet player Thomas Rolfs, completes the program.

     – some emphasis supplied

I'm happy to see our modern orchestra including baroque music in the repertory. For one thing, it's just enjoyable to listen to. For another, while the historically informed performances may be much more like what the composers expected and audiences heard back then, I see no need for modern ensembles to give up the repertoire entirely.


Classical New England will broadcast and stream all three concerts, as usual, with only a few seconds' delay, and their BSO page gives a brief summary of what is in store for this weekend and the remaining weekends of the Tanglewood season. I forget whether the warm-up material starts an hour or a half hour before concert time. Well, it's not too important either way. If you arrive early, you hear some music. And if you miss half of the preliminaries, that's not the important part, anyway.

Enjoy!

Tanglewood — 2013/07/12-14

July 12  This evening (as I write) the BSO will give us three works: Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, the Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand, by Ravel, with Leon Fleisher as soloist, and (presumably after intermission) Scheherezade, by Rimsky-Korsakov. The performance detail page explains that this is an "Underscore Fridays" concert:

Several Friday-evening Shed performances will be part of the popular UnderScore Friday series this season. At these performances, patrons will hear comments about the program directly from an onstage BSO musician. Dates: July 12, August 2, August 23.

Strangely, although they tell us that James Sommerville will be the musician who talks about the pieces, there is no mention of the names of the conductor or the soloist in the Ravel. You have to click on the pictures to find out that Kazushi Ono is conducting and Fleisher is playing the piano. (Double click the photos for bios.) The page is also short on program notes, linking none except for the Ravel.

July 13  Saturday brings us West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. David Newman will conduct the orchestra, while the movie is played. Performance detail says

There will be one twenty minute intermission during this performance.

The cinematic magic of West Side Story comes alive at Tanglewood on Saturday, July 13, when conductor David Newman, in his BSO debut, leads the orchestra in a live performance of Bernstein's electrifying score while the newly re-mastered film is shown on large screens in high definition with the original vocals and dialogue intact. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story won ten Academy Awards©-more than any other musical film-including Best Picture. Released in 1961 with choreography by Jerome Robbins and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, the film is one of the greatest achievements in the history of movie musicals. West Side Story ©1961
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All rights reserved. A.M.P.A.S.

I imagine it will be quite a challenge to sync the orchestra with the recorded singers. There isn't the flexibility that you have when all performers are live.

July 14  On Sunday afternoon, per performance detail:

STRAVINSKY - Suite from Pulcinella
HAYDN - Cello Concerto No. 1 in C
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 8
Audio Podcast - Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos speaks with Brian Bell about the Beethoven 8th Symphony, being performed this Sunday at Tanglewood.

Again, note the dearth of information: no notes or audio preview of the Stravinsky or Haydn and no mention of the cello soloist's name. By clicking on the photo, we discover that it's Lynn Harrell.

I'd like to hear the Friday, but I'd also like to go to the baseball game of the college summer league  North Shore Navigators. I saw West Side Story performed by high school students a few years ago, and I don't especially need to hear it again. Sunday afternoon's program sounds good: I'm looking forward to it.

As usual, Classical New England will broadcast all three concerts and stream them live. The Friday and Saturday concerts are scheduled for 8:30 p.m., Boston (and Western Mass.) time, and Sunday's is at 2:30. p.m. The broadcast schedule doesn't make it clear whether the pre-concert features begin an hour or a half hour before concert time. There are links on CNE's BSO page to a couple of items connected with these concerts, and a fair amount of other items which could be of some interest.

Tanglewood — 2013/07/05-07

As mentioned in my post a week ago, during the Tanglewood season — unlike the winter season at Symphony Hall — programs are not repeated in live performance. This means that we get a different show each day. The season opens this evening, July 5.

July 5  Friday evening we get an all-Tchaikovsky program, with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the podium and Joshua Bell as violin soloist. The composer's Violin Concerto will precede the intermission and his Symphony No. 5 will follow it. The BSO's performance detail page has links to program notes and audio previews. The concert is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Saving Time (1/2 hour later than Symphony Hall concerts. "Pre-game" programming on Classical New England begins at 7:00, according to their website. But it looks as if they expect the Friday and Saturday concerts to begin at 8:00. I don't know if the later concert time will lead to an adjustment of the starting time of the preview show.

At any rate, Classical New England will be broadcasting and streaming all three concerts each weekend of the season.


July 6  Another concert conducted by Maestro Frühbeck will consist of a single work: Mahler's Symphony No. 3. Again consult the performance detail page for links to audio previews and program notes. Once more, the concert is scheduled to begin at 8:30. You can make your best guess about when the warm up on Classical New England will start.


July 7  Sunday's matinee is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Doubtless, there will be preliminaries at 1:00 or 2:00. This concert will not be performed by the Boston Synohiny but by the Boston Pops under the baton of their conductor, Keith Lockhart, wth guest artist Vince Gill. The BSO site doesn't give much more information, but the CNE page on their BSO broadcasts/streams gives the following snippet:

On Sunday, special guest star Vince Gill joins the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart for a tribute to the American West.

Boston Symphony & Pops — 2013/06/29-30

This evening, June 29, Classical New England will present the 75th Anniversary Tanglewood Gala Concert. This is a concert that was performed last season, on July 14. CNE describes it thus:

Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Gala
Conductors Keith Lockhart, John Williams, Stefan Asbury, David Zinman, and Andris Nelsons join the BSO, the Pops, and the TMC Orchestra in a celebration of Tanglewood.

And here's what I said in my post for that weekend:

For Saturday evening, they are giving us a "Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration."

To celebrate Tanglewood's 75th Anniversary, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and Tanglewood Festival Chorus will all appear, along with conductors John Williams, Keith Lockhart, Andris Nelsons, and David Zinman; soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, James Taylor, and Anne-Sophie Mutter. The program will be wide-ranging and will include works by Tanglewood legends including Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.

Here's a more complete rundown from the detail page.

Program to include -
COPLAND - Fanfare for the Common Man
BERNSTEIN - Three dance episodes fromOn the Town
- Selections from The Great American Songbook
HAYDN - Piano Concerto in D, 2nd and 3rd movements
TCHAIKOVSKY - Andante cantabile, for cello and strings
SARASATE - Carmen Fantasy, for violin and orchestra
RAVEL - La Valse
BEETHOVEN - Choral Fantasy

I'm definitely looking forward to the Choral Fantasy. The rest of it should be okay, too.

What none of us knew at the time was that conductor Andris Nelsons would be chosen to become the Music Director of the BSO. This is one of the two concerts he has conducted with the orchestra which have been broadcast. The other was during last winter's subscription season.


In the Sunday afternoon slot, they'll be retransmitting the Film Night concert conducted by John Williams which they gave us on the 22nd.


Next weekend the BSO's 2013 Tanglewood season begins. This means there will be live concerts friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, with a different program each time. Most concerts will be by the BSO, but there will be a few by other groups. I'll try to supply details each week.