Tanglewood — 2017/07/07-09

The BSO's Tanglewood season begins this weekend. With a couple of exceptions, when other groups such as the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra will be on stage, they will play concerts every Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 from July 7 through August 27. WCRB will stream and broadcast the Friday and Saturday concerts live, and they will present the Sunday concerts at 7:00 p.m. In addition to their homepage (previously linked), with its Listen Live button, WCRB also has a Tanglewood page, which gives highlights of the season and links a half-hour podcast preview with the orchestra's Artistic Administrator, Tony Fogg.

Since the programs aren't [resented earlier in the week, there are no reviews available. Sometimes I may have thoughts of my own. Some of the pieces to be played were included in concerts in Symphony Hall over the winter. In that case, there may be a review of the earlier concert.


Friday, July 7, 2017.  The opening night gala gives us a single work, described as follows by the orchestra's program detail page:

JUL 7

 2017 

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

Opening Night at Tanglewood
MAHLER Symphony No. 2, Resurrection

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra open their 2017 Tanglewood season Friday, July 7, with a gala performance of Mahler's grand, deeply emotional, and ultimately triumphant Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. Soprano Malin Christensson (in her Tanglewood debut) and mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink join Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra, along with the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis supplied.)
The program detail page also includes links to performer bios (click on the thumbnail pictures), program notes, and audio previews.


Saturday, July 8, 2017.  The first, non-BSO concert of the season brings the Boston Pops and singers for this program of Sondheim. Once more, the program detail page tells us about it:

JUL 8

 2017 

SATURDAY, 8:00 PM

Sondheim on Sondheim at Tanglewood
Boston Pops Orchestra

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Hailed as "a funny, affectionate, and revealing tribute to musical theater's greatest living composer and lyricist," the symphonic Sondheim on Sondheim  with the Boston Pops is not to be missed! This retrospective of the life and work of America's finest contemporary musical theater creator is told through his own words via film, live performers, and his amazing music. Experience this acclaimed sampling of Sondheim's extraordinary output, now for the first time with lush new arrangements for full orchestra.

(Some emphasis supplied.)

Sunday, July 9, 2017.  The Boston Symphony "returns." Of course, since there is considerable overlap in the membership of the BSO and the Pops most of them were not away on Saturday evening. This time, as the BSO program detail page tells us, it's for Mozart and another Mahler Symphony. There also links as described in the discussion of Friday's concert.

JUL 9

 2017 

SUNDAY, 2:30 PM

Andris Nelsons conducts Mozart and Mahler

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons returns to the podium for his second concert of the season on Sunday, July 9, for an afternoon program featuring 15-year-old Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich in his BSO and Tanglewood debuts performing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, and Mr. Nelsons' second Mahler symphony of the weekend-Symphony No. 4 featuring soprano Kristine Opolais. 

(Emphasis supplied.)

Remember, WCRB delays the broadcast/webstream until 7:00 p.m.

Classical New England/ Tanglewood Preview — 2017/07/01

Next weekend the BSO opens their Tanglewood Season. WCRB previews it this evening at 6:00 p.m.

Tanglewood 2017

Saturday at 8pm, WCRB's Brian McCreath brings you a preview of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer season, with music by Dvorák, Ravel, Mendelssohn, and more.

See the station's homepage to listen over the web and to find links to information about other programming. Should be interesting. They transmit three concerts every weekend during this season.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/06/24

This week's BSO rebroadcast by WCRB is the concert of November 26, 2016, the one that came right after the Brahms mini-fest we've been hearing the past three weeks. Here's the program, as "printed" in the station's encore broadcasts page:

Pressler Plays Mozart

Moritz Gnann, conductor
Menahem Pressler, piano

MENDELSSOHN Overture, The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 27
DVORAK Symphony No. 9, From the New World

Of course I posted about it when it was originally performed, so you can check the link to see what I and the reviewers thought about it. As I mentioned in my post at the time, the Mozart concerto is a favorite of mine. It was the first thing I played when my great aunt gave us a new record player in the 1950's and I fell in love with it.

It's a very fine concert, and I'm confident you'll enjoy it. As always, the show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, June 24.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/06/17

As noted in the previous two posts, last fall's Brahms mini-fest included performances of his two piano concertos and four symphonies. The concertos and symphonies 2 and 4 were programmed for Fridays and Saturdays, while the concertos and symphonies 1 and 3 were on the bill for Tuesdays and Thursdays. So the odd-numbered symphonies didn't make it to the Saturday concerts. But WCRB recorded them in performance and broadcast them on March 4 of this year, when the orchestra was away on tour. This week, those recordings will be the "encore broadcast" while we wait for the Tanglewood season to begin. Of course, I posted about it at the time.

Here's a link to the page which gives the programs of all this spring's encore broadcasts; and here's one for WCRB's home page, where you have the button to listen live to the webstream at 8:00 p.m. on June 17 if you can't, or don't want to, listen via radio at 99.5 FM in the Boston area.

Enjoy, Brahms lovers!

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/06/10

This evening's BSO rerun continues the Brahms mini-festival from last fall. The WCRB encore broadcasts page tells us:

Grimaud, Nelsons, and Brahms

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hélène Grimaud, piano

ANDRES Everything Happens So Much (world premiere; BSO commission)
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

That page also tells us what's coming up on the next two Saturdays. The concert was originally given on November 19, 2016, and I posted about it at the time. As you can see, the Globe reviewer and I both liked the new work that opens the concert, as well as the rest pf the show.

You can hear it all over WCRB Saturday evening , June 10, at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (= EDST).

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/06/03

Last fall the BSO gave a Brahms "mini-fest" consisting of all four symphonies and both piano concertos over a two week period. Each week's concerts also had a curtain raiser composed for the occasion on commission from the orchestra. This week WCRB gives us the first broadcast of the mini-fest, originally performed and recorded on November 12, 2016. WCRB's encore broadcast page lists the pieces and performers:

June 3

Hélène Grimaud Plays Brahms

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hélène Grimaud, piano

NATHAN the space of a door (world premiere; BSO commission)
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

I posted about it at the time.

The broadcast and webstream will begin at 8:00 this evening, June 3, over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/27

This week the encore broadcast gives us Charles Dutoit and Yo-Yo Ma in music of Walton, Elgar, and Holst. Here's the listing from WCRB's Encore Broadcasts page, which also tell us what's coming up in June.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Elgar

Charles Dutoit, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

WALTON Portsmouth Point Overture
ELGAR Cello Concerto
HOLST The Planets

As usual, I posted about it when it was performed, on October 22, 2016. As you can see, although I didn't care much for the Elgar concerto, I quite enjoyed the Walton overture and the Holst, particularly the ending. The reviewers were much more favorable. So give it a listen on WCRB on air or online at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. The program notes will add to the enjoyment of the Holst, but aren't necessary.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/20

In this week's BSO broadcast/webstream, as WCRB tells us on their homepage:

Nelsons Conducts Bruckner

May 20, 2017: In an encore broadcast, Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts the Symphony No. 3 by Bruckner, and Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and Principal Violist Steven Ansell are the soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante.

(Emphasis added.)
The Mozart comes first, the Bruckner after intermission. The concert was given on April 9, 2016, and I posted about it at the time. I enjoyed both parts and recommended listening. You can check the original post for specifics and links,

The concert will be broadcast and streamed on May 20 at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (no Monday repeat).

The schedule of remaining encore broadcasts is here.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/05/13

The Boston Symphony 2016-17 season ended last week, and Tanglewood will begin on July 7. Meanwhile, WCRB will fill the Saturday time slot with rebroadcasts. This week it's the concert of March 5, 2016 — with music of  Ravel and Falla — which I posted about at the time. Check out the station's schedule of May and June BSO "encore broadcasts," and listen on air or on line at 8:00 p.m., May 13 over WCRB. There will not be a Monday repeat.

BSO — 2017/05/06

This concert is the season finale for the BSO. The remaining Saturdays of May and those of June will have the time slot filled with "encore broadcasts" of concerts previously given. Here's a complete list; I'll have something to say about each on its weekend. But today the concert being broadcast and streamed is live. Here's the description from the orchestra's program detail page (going in reverse order of performance):

Soprano Kristine Opolais returns to Symphony Hall as soloist in Mahler's mellifluous Symphony No. 4, a musical journey from earth to heaven that is also the last of Mahler's symphonies to use words from the folk poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth's Magic Horn). On this same program, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performs Rachmaninoff's last piano concerto, the Fourth, which the composer worked on over the course of ten or more years before giving the premiere in Philadelphia in 1927. Even after that he revised the piece extensively twice, creating the final version in 1941. Opening the concert is a suite of orchestral music from Shostakovich's score for Grigory Kozintsev's 1941 stage production of Shakespeare's King Lear, to be recorded for the BSO's ongoing Shostakovich cycle under Andris Nelsons for Deutsche Grammophon.

(Some emphasis supplied.)

The usual links to background information are available on the program detail page.

The review in the Globe is very enthusiastic and points out a number of elements which the reviewer found especially good. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a lot of information about the music, as well as the performance, and is generally quite favorable.

Due to a slight indisposition, I decided not to go to the Thursday performance. The reviews have me wishing I had been there; and I'm looking forward to hearing it this evening at 8:00 over WCRB, which will rebroadcast the concert on May 15, also at 9:00. Check out their website for links to other information, including the podcast in which conductor and pianist talk about pieces on this program.