Tanglewood — 2016/07/08-10

Tanglewood resumes this weekend, with the usual schedule of major concerts Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon. This year WCRB has decided to record the Sunday concert and broadcast and stream it in the evening. So we have three evenings each weekend of music from Tanglewood.

Friday, July 8.  The opening night concert features Joshua Bell. Here's the BSO performance detail page's description:

The Boston Symphony Orchestra opens its 2016 Tanglewood season on Friday, July 8, at 8 p.m., with an Opening Night at Tanglewood program featuring music by Ravel, Saint-Saëns, and Prokofiev, led by Canadian conductor Jacques Lacombe. The performance features American violinist and Tanglewood favorite Joshua Bell as soloist in Saint-Saëns's romantic Violin Concerto No. 3. Mr. Lacombe opens the program with Ravel's raucous and colorfully Spanish-flavored Alborada del gracioso, and closes it with Prokofiev's popular Symphony No. 5, a work composed in just one month in 1944 and given its American premiere in 1945 by Serge Koussevitzky and the BSO.

Joshua Bell made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1989 at age 21, and has returned to the festival every summer since. Jacques Lacombe made his BSO debut at Tanglewood during the 2014 season, and returns this summer for the third year in a row.

(Some emphasis added.)

The page also has links to audio previews and program notes, with performer bios available by clicking the thumbnail pictures.

None of the pieces is on my favorites list, but it should all be nice to listen to. Prokofiev can be a bit modern, but he's no Stravinsky, and he gave us  "Peter and the Wolf,"so I think it'll be worth hearing


Saturday, July 9.  Here's the description from the BSO's program detail page:

Jacques Lacombe returns to lead a second consecutive program with the BSO. Debussy's revolutionary symphonic poem  Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun and Ravel's atmospheric and beautiful  Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2, two quintessential French impressionist works that are specialties of the orchestra, open the program. For the second half, Mr. Lacombe and the BSO are joined by soprano  Nadine Sierra and tenor  Jean-Francis Monvoisin, both making their BSO and Tanglewood debuts, as well as baritone  Stephen Powell and the  Tanglewood Festival Chorus, for the drama and the spectacle of Orff's rousing  Carmina burana.

Seiji Ozawa, following advice from his doctor to postpone any plans to travel abroad at this time, has had to cancel his Tanglewood appearances this summer due to lack of physical strength.

At the end of Maestro Ozawa's month-long stay in Europe (where he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in Paris) this past April, due to overwork Ozawa developed a fever which resulted in weight loss. Upon his return to Japan, Ozawa continued with another demanding period of work, which further weakened his immune system. After thorough discussions with his doctors, family, and all concerned, Maestro Ozawa has decided to follow his doctors' advice and during the next few months primarily focus on recovering his physical strength. Ozawa, therefore, has had to reschedule his performance activities for this summer, which has unfortunately resulted in cancellation of his concerts at Tanglewood. We wish Seiji a speedy recovery and look forward to his return visit to Tanglewood in future seasons.

Quote from Seiji Ozawa
"I am very very sad and sorry that I will have to miss this summer's Tanglewood. I miss the Ground of Tanglewood and all my old colleagues and friends. Missing being in our house in West Stockbridge and playing tennis there. I am concentrating on eating and I am gaining more body strength now. I am so much looking forward to returning to Tanglewood SOON. My young colleagues, music students of Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland will be there with you. They are so concentrated on playing Chamber music and Ensemble. I hope you will all enjoy their music-making as much as I enjoy."

Quote from Mark Volpe, BSO Managing Director
"I know that Seiji is very disappointed not to be able to join us this summer at Tanglewood, as he was so very much looking forward to returning to the festival and working with his beloved Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center, introducing us all to his treasured Swiss Academy, and reconnecting with the many audience members who have supported him so passionately over the years. All of us at the BSO will miss Seiji's presence this summer, but we understand that he has to follow his doctors' advice to take the time needed to recover his strength after a busy work schedule in Europe and Japan in April and early May. We wish Seiji a speedy recovery and look forward to his return to Tanglewood in future seasons."

(Some emphasis added.)

The program detail page has the usual links to background information. I hadn't realized that Seiji Ozawa was scheduled to conduct. It's too bad his health isn't up to the trip.

French impressionism isn't my favorite cup of tea, and I have little use for Orff's setting of the mediæval Carmina Burana, but the works are much liked by others, so don't let me be a wet blanket on the Tanglewood lawn. I'm just happy I won't be missing something a really, really, really want to hear when my brother calls from Tokyo at 9:00.


Sunday, July 10.  The Boston Pops will give a concert at Tanglewood on Sunday afternoon but WCRB won't be giving it to us (I'd guess because of contractual problems with the soloist). Instead, as the station's BSO page informs us:

Sunday, July 10, 7pm

Film Night, from Symphony Hall!

In a special encore broadcast from Symphony Hall, Laureate Conductor John Williams and Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart team up to lead a program of cinematic magic, with music from unforgettable films across the decades!

The Friday and Saturday concerts can be heard via WCRB radio or web at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. That home page, in addition to the link to listen over the web, gives information about other special programming which may be of interest. Their BSO page, in addition to the description of the Sunday encore concert posted above, gives similar information about the remaining Tanglewood concert broadcasts and various other interesting items and links.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/07/02

This is the final weekend before the Boston Symphony begins its Tanglewood season. In the regular 8:00 p.m. time slot, WCRB will give will give us a rebroadcast of the concert given on October 31, 2015. I posted about it at the time. If you got there, you'll find that I liked it better than the reviewer in the Boston Globe. Here's a listing of the contents from the station's BSO page.

In an encore broadcast, Pinchas Zukerman is both the conductor and violin soloist in a program that includes Tchaikovsky's Mélodie, Andante cantabile, and Serenade, Elgar's Chanson de la nuit, and Schubert's Symphony No. 5.

(Most emphasis added.)

As always you can hear it over the air at FM 99.5, if you're within range, or on line via a link on their homepage. I'm looking forward to another hearing.


The BSO page also gives, among other things, a schedule of the broadcasts for the Tanglewood season, which, as noted, begins next week. There are numerous concerts through the week and on the weekends. WCRB broadcasts and streams the major three of each weekend: Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday afternoon. But this year, they will only transmit the Friday and Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m.. The 2:30 p.m. Sunday concerts will be transmitted on Sunday evenings at 7:00. I'm disappointed that they won't be broadcast live, although the delay will probably make it more convenient for me to listen, since there will not be regular competition with the Red Sox games on TV. At any rate, get set for three straight evenings from Tanglewood on weekends beginning on July 8 and continuing through August 27 (ending on Saturday this year rather than Sunday).

Since I will not have heard the programs earlier in the week, and no reviews will be available at my "press time," I'll only have links to the preview materials on the orchestras website and WCRB's, with maybe an occasional remark about a piece I'm familiar with — no extensive personal comments.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/06/18

This week's "encore broadcast" and webstream from WCRB is of a concert that was given on January 16 of this year. It contains music by Debussy, Dutilleux, Canteloube, and Stravinsky. The middle two pieces are sets of songs sung by Renée Fleming. François-Xavier Roth conducts.

I posted about it at the time with my own opinions and links to reviews and the station and the orchestra's information pages — no need to copy it all here: you can go back and look. You can also look at the station's home page, linked above, and their BSO page for further links and information about this and other BSO concerts available via WCRB.

The broadcast and stream begin at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time on Saturday, June 18. I'm planning to listen until my brother makes his weekly phone call from Japan.

Enjoy!

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/06/11

This week and for the next couple of Saturdays, WCRB goes back to rebroadcasting and streaming previous BSO concerts, as we wait for the Tanglewood season to begin. This evening's concert is one I enjoyed, although my post about the original broadcast wasn't exactly enthusiastic. It;s from January 9 of this year and includes music by Gossec, Mozart (his Concerto for Flute and Harp), and Beethoven (the Eroica Symphony). I'm looking forward to hearing it again. The station's BSO page has a brief description of the concert, plus a schedule of upcoming broadcasts and assorted links to other BSO material, such as concerts available for on demand listening. My post from back in January give you links for the Symphony's program page and for reviews.

Enjoy responsibly!

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/06/04

This evening at 8:00 WCRB gives us the third week of Boston Pops. Here's the description on their symphony page:

Sutton Foster!

The Tony Award wining star of Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie joins Keith Lockhart and the Pops at Symphony Hall for a program of Broadway favorites!

Next week, the schedule shows a return to encore broadcasts of symphony concerts as we wait for the beginning of the Tanglewood season.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/05/28

I'm pressed for time, but here's the basics for this evening from the WCRB homepage:

BOSTON POPS
A Gershwin Celebration with Nicole Cabell!The American soprano joins conductor David Charles Abell, vocalist Nmon Ford, pianist Charlie Albright and the Boston Pops for a Gershwin Celebration, in concert at Symphony Hall!
Saturday at 8pm on 99.5 WCRB

As usual, there are links to further information on that page, and you can also go to the BSO website.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/05/21

This week's broadcast and stream over WCRB will be a pops concert, rather than one by the Boston Symphony. It's a Movie Night program conducted by John Williams and Keith Lockhart. Here's what the WCRB BSO page says about it:

Laureate Conductor John Williams and Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart team up to lead a program of cinematic magic, with music from unforgettable films across the decades!

That page also has a link to an interview with John Williams to preview the concert.

It seems that this was a program presented on May 12 & 13, 2016. Here's a bit more information about the content from the Symphony's program detail page:

Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams shares the podium with Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart for this signature concert. The brilliant composer and conductor behind films including Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Harry Potter series, brings you a night of some of the most memorable movie music of all time. This is a concert not to be missed!

You can hear it at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21.

The next two weeks will also have Pops; then the BSO encore broadcasts will resume until Tanglewood season begins.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/05/14

While we wait for the opening of the BSO's Tanglewood Season, WCRB continues with weekly "encore broadcasts" and webstreams. This week, it's the concert given on October 3, 2015, which the station describes as follows on their BSO page:

In an encore broadcast, Music Director Andris Nelsons and the BSO perform an All-Russian program, including the Symphony No. 9 by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, with soloist Evgeny Kissin, and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.

(Most emphasis added.)

As indicated in the review I posted at the time, I enjoyed it back then, and now I'm looking forward to the rehearing at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EDT), on May 14.

Further information is available through the links in my review. There's also an introductory podcast available at the WCRB BSO page linked above.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/05/07

This week's WCRB Boston Symphony broadcast/webstream is as described here, on their BSO page:

In an encore broadcast, Yefim Bronfman is the soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Bartók, and Andris Nelsons conducts the Symphony No. 30, "Alleluia," by Haydn, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams."

(Emphasis added.)

The concert was performed on November 28, 2015, and I posted about it at the time, with links to various resources. Tune in or listen on line Saturday at 8:00 p.m. to hear the encore performance.

Spring Orgy® Period 2016

For any readers who have not read about earlier Orgy® Periods, WHRB is a largely student-run station at Harvard University, and the orgy periods began as a way for disc jockeys who were also students to avoid spending a lot of time deciding on programming during university exam periods. They would just play everything they had by a particular composer or performer, and then move on to another.

This spring's Orgy Period began yesterday, as usual, with the Warhorse Orgy. Today, until 9:00 p.m., it's the Pierre Boulez as Conductor Orgy, which started at 9:00 a.m. It will continue on May 3 and 4 from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. both days.

Subsequent Orgies are

• Harnoncourt Orgy — May 5, 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; May 6, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; May 7, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; and May 8, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
• Chicago Orgy (Chicago Orchestra, that is) — May 9, noon to 10:00 p.m.
• Gesualdo at 450 Orgy — May 10, noon to 10:00 p.m.
• Shakespeare Orgy — May 11,  7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.;  May 12, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; May 13, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; May 14, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
• Boulez as Composer Orgy — May 14, 4:00 to 10:30 p.m.; May 15, 1:30 to 7:00 p.m.

All timings, especially endings, are approximate.

It's striking, to me, anyway, that Gesualdo and Shakespeare were contemporaries. I tend to think of Gesualdo as earlier, for some reason. So we can hear music from the time of Shakespeare, followed in subsequent days by music inspired by Shakespeare.

Between these classical music Orgies are some Orgies of jazz and rock music. There will also be some regularly scheduled programming and, toward the end of the month, the Harvard Commencement and surrounding events. For the complete program guide, go to https://www.whrb.org/programming/program-guide .

You can listen by clicking the "Listen" button at https://www.whrb.org or, if you're within range of their signal, over 95.3 FM.