Winter Orgy® Period 2018

Once again, an Orgy Period has begun on WHRB without my realizing it. Here's a link to the Program Guide. (I just realized as I wrote it that "a link to the program guide" has the same cadence as "a link to the '45," which is a slogan on Drambuie labels referring to Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion of 1745.)

As you can see, I missed the Warhorse Orgy on Sunday; and the Ballet Orgy is already in progress and will continue tomorrow and Thursday..

Orgies still to come include:
     Comic Opera Overture on Dec. 7,
     Charles Gounod Orgy, Dec. 9 & 10,
     Oliver Knussen Retrospective at 5:00 a.m. on Dec. 11,
     Shakespeare Orgy, Dec. 11 & 12,
     Viennese Society for Private Musical Performances, Dec. 13,
     Asian Composers, Dec. 14,
     Female Contemporary Composers, Dec. 15, and
     Deutsche Grammophon Orgy, Dec. 17-20.

In general the classical music orgies are in the time slot when WHRB normally plays classical music: 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.

There is also this calendar which lists all the orgies, classical and other, without specifying times or works to be performed. Note also that every Saturday afternoon, beginning in December and continuing through the season, WHRB presents the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

Listen on air or on line over WHRB.

BSO — 2018/12/01

Tonight's concert starts a half hour early.

We are in for a treat: the Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach. As Christmas music it is to the German speaking world what Handel's "Messiah" is to English speakers.But there is this difference: texts of Messiah begin with Jesus' birth and take us all the way through his death and resurrection to his heavenly triumph, whereas the Christmas Oratorio deals only with his birth and the events of his infancy. It is divided into six parts — each comparable in size to a cantata such as Bach composed for Sunday church services — intended to be performed in a service on a different day: the first, second, and third days of Christmas (all of which were holidays), New Year's Day (when Jesus' circumcision was commemorated), the following Sunday, and Epiphany (celebrating the visit of the Magi). Even though a purist might say they should be performed on separate days, we have so few chances to hear them live, that it's good to have even this opportunity. And in the program booklet there is an essay by Bach scholar Christoph Wolff in which he suggests that Bach might at least have thought it possible that they could be performed together.

Without further ado, here's how the performance detail page at the BSO's website describes it:

Assembled and composed for Leipzig's Christmas season, Bach's Christmas Oratorio is a celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ originally performed over the course of six days beginning on Christmas Day 1734. As was often Bach's practice, he re-used music from several earlier works, including the independent secular cantatas nos. 214-216. In addition to chorus, the work features soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, as well as an orchestra configured differently for each of the six sections. The BSO hasn't performed this important work since Charles Munch conducted it in 1960. For these performances, Andris Nelsons and the orchestra are joined by an outstanding group of soloists and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis added.)

There are the usual links to other information. If you're not already familiar with the piece, I recommend reading the program notes and, if possible, following along in the well-translated text. Even by itself the music is worth hearing, but I think sung music is even more meaningful and interesting when you know what they're singing about.

The Globe gives a scathing review. The Intelligencer finds a few shortcomings but is pleased overall.  Both were quite satisfied with the soloists. I was there on Thursday, having exchanged a ticket for this one, and noticed some of the things the reviewers mention, but none of it really bothered me.The syncopations in the bass aria in Part I and the chorus in Part V didn't come through quite as clearly as I would have liked, but it wasn't a major problem. That bass aria is my favorite number in the whole oratorio. I'm glad I was there.

So I definitely recommend listening to WCRB on line or on air this evening at 7:30 EDT. The rebroadcast on Monday, December 10, will begin at the usual time, 8:000 p.m., and add time as needed at the end of the show. The rebroadcast on December 3 will, as expected, be of last week's concert, the Beethoven 4th and 5th symphonies.

Enjoy!

BSO — 2018/11/24

This week's concert is all Beethoven. I'll let the program detail page provide details.

Beethoven often composed several major works at the same time, each a distinctly different expressive outlet. He began sketching his Fifth Symphony in 1804 but didn't complete it until four years later. The innovative construction of that piece and its unprecedented intensity are embodied in the opening four notes, the most famous theme in classical music. In the interim between the Fifth's first sketches and its completion, Beethoven wrote some of his most lyrical music-for the opera Leonore (which would become Fidelio) and the Fourth Symphony. The latter's consistent high spirits contrast starkly with the struggle against fate embodied in the Fifth.

(Some emphasis added.)

Music Director Andris Nelsons will be at the podium, and the order of performance will be the 4th followed, after intermission by the 5th. (Why is it such a seeming requirement for the writers of the blurbs to treat the pieces in a different order from the performance?) Of course the usual links are available at the page.

At this point, there are no reviews available. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, the first performance was Friday afternoon. But after all, it's Beethoven and this is the BSO, so what could go wrong. Maybe some nuance will be brought out, or maybe someone will do a bit exceptionally well or flub something; but you know that basically it'll be worth listening to. Unfortunately for me, I think the 4th is the worst symphony Beethoven ever wrote. The first movement is okay, and the second is lovely, but the last two are coarse and unappealing to me. And I'll have to miss the 5th, because my brother will be making his weekly call from Japan when they're playing it. Fortunately, there is the rebroadcast on December 3. I can hear it then.

Anyway, you'll want to have your ears figuratively glued to your radio or computer this evening at 8:00 Boston Time, when WCRB will transmit it for your listening pleasure.

BSO — 2018/11/17

This has been a very busy couple of days. I'll post the link to the BSO's program detail page and copy their blurb about this week's concert. I don't have time for the usual other rigmarole. Enjoy!

Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger, a longtime collaborator of Andris Nelsons, returns to Symphony Hall as soloist in a concerto composed for him, the Viennese composer HK Gruber's Aerial. Featuring piccolo trumpet and cow's horn as well as standard trumpet, the concerto makes full use of Hardenberger's considerable virtuosity and expressive range. Mahler composed his Fifth Symphony in 1901-02. His first completely instrumental symphony since No. 1, it marked a new, highly individual, and influential approach to writing for orchestra that would carry through the remainder of Mahler's symphonies. The Fifth includes the famous and moving Adagietto movement for strings and harp.

(Some emphasis added.)

BSO — 2018/11/10

The premieres just keep on coming. This week it's the American premiere of a work written to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Latvian independence (which, coincidentally is the 100th for Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland). At the orchestra's program detail page, you can follow the links to sonic and written background on that piece — including a note from the composer — and the rest of the program. There we also find this synopsis:

The BSO and Andris Nelsons give the American premiere of Latvian composer Andris Dzenītis's orchestral work Māra, a BSO co-commission with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. This is one of two works being performed by the BSO this season to mark the 100th anniversary of Latvian independence (declared November 18, 1918). Dzenītis calls his new work, which is dedicated to Andris Nelsons and takes its title from a goddess in Latvian mythology, "the musical encoding of my personal understanding of what it means to be Latvian." Opening the program is Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, to be recorded live as part of Andris Nelsons and the BSO's multi-season exploration of the composer's symphonies. Shostakovich wrote this symphony while he was still a student, and it immediately established him as one of Russia's leading artistic figures. Completing the program is Act II of Tchaikovsky's vibrant, beloved ballet score The Nutcracker, which includes the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the famous series of exotic national dances well-known from the popular Nutcracker Suite.

(Some emphasis added.)
Although the detail page says the Shostakovich comes first, but both the program notes and the reviews make it clear that the Dzenītis opens the concert, followed by the Shostakovich.

I had a ticket as part of my subscription, but I forwent the opportunity to attend  because I was experiencing some soreness/tenderness in my lower abdomen, rising to the level of discomfort or pain when I'd get up from a chair. So I thought that all the moving about would be inadvisable. (The symptoms may be very gradually diminishing as the days drag on or fly by, as the case may be.)

The reviews are in and they tell me I wish I had felt up to going on Thursday, and that I want to hear it this evening.  As always, the Globe doesn't have much space, but finds no fault with anything. In the Intelligencer, the reviews of the Dzenītis and Shostakovich were extensive enough to double as program notes, and the reviewer found no fault. But after intermission, he was a bit less pleased with the "Nutcracker," to a considerable extent because he felt that as the BSO played it, it would be difficult to dance to. He grudgingly admitted that as just music it was good.

So here's another concert I can recommend listening to over the facilities of WCRB at 8:00 p.m., EST, this evening and/or the rebroadcast at 8:00 on Monday, November 19.

BSO — 2018/11/03

This evening a couple of "golden oldies" surround a piece which the BSO is giving its American premiere this week. On the orchestra's program detail page we read:

In this London-oriented program, Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the American premiere of the first of several BSO co-commissions this season, English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's Remembering: In Memoriam Evan Scofield. Evan, son of the great jazz guitarist and Turnage collaborator John Scofield, died of cancer at age twenty-five. The piece was co-commissioned by the BSO with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra. Opening the program is Haydn's Symphony No. 93, one of the first of the group of bold, innovative symphonies he wrote for performance in London during his visits there in the early 1790s. The English composer Edward Elgar's tour-de-force of orchestral and expressive imagination, the Enigma Variations, is a series of widely varied portraits of his friends via transformations of a common musical theme.

(Some emphasis added.)
The page also has the usual links to background material.

I was there for the first performance of the program on Thursday. I didn't notice anything spectacular in the playing of the Haydn or the Elgar, but they are enjoyable to listen to. At the end of the Turnage piece, the composer joined the conductor on stage after the initial bows, and I was part of the warm ovation for him. I like to applaud composers who produce listenable works. As the program notes point out, the work is in four parts. The first part struck me as jazzy. The second seemed noisy and cacophonous. If that had been the whole thing, I wouldn't have been so inclined to applaud the composer. The third part had both jazzy and noisy elements. In the last part, which was the first composed, we finally got calm and elegiac music such as one would expect in a piece expressing sorrow.

The review in the Globe is favorable (but not a rave) and gives an insight into the meaning of the first three parts of "Remembering." The Boston Musical Intelligencer's review, less encumbered than the Globe's by space limitations, is also favorable, with more detail.

So I definitely recommend listening over WCRB at 8:00 p.m. EDST this evening, November 3, and/or at 8:00 EST on Monday, Nov. 12. A second page on the station's website gives links to a conversation with composer Turnage and another, about the program, with Andris Nelsons.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2018/10/27

This week's concert begins with Lux Æterna, by Maija Einfelde, conducted by James Burton, the conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. That brief work is followed by Mahler's massive Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," conducted by Music Director Andris Nelsons. The BSO's program detail page has the usual links to further information. It also has this blurb about the concert:

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler's all-embracing ninety-minute Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, along with Chinese soprano Ying Fang and Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink. The fourth movement is a setting of "Urlicht," a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a source of texts for many of Mahler's songs, and the vast finale includes a setting for chorus and soprano of verses from Klopstock's poem "Resurrection." James Burton will conduct Maija's Einfelde's Lux aeterna, for mixed chorus, the first of two Latvian works performed this year to mark the centenary of the country's independence.

Reviews are in. The reviewer in the Globe gave a decidedly critical review of the performance of both works, but the reviewer for the Boston Musical Intelligencer was happy with the result. It wasn't part of my subscriptions, so I can't settle the disagreement.

You can hear the show beginning at 8:00 p.m., EDST, on air or on line via WCRB. If you have to listen to the Red Sox in Game 4 of the World Series at that time, you can catch the rebroadcast/stream on Monday, Nov. 5, also at 8:00 p.m.

BSO — 2018/10/20

This week we get a curtain-raiser by John Harbison, followed by two works by early 20th Century Russian composers. Here's the blurb from the orchestra's performance detail page:

BSO Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur is joined by outstanding American pianist Garrick Ohlsson for a work heard relatively rarely despite the popularity of its composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1. The early First Concerto exhibits the same spirit of Russian lyricism and virtuosity found in his perennially popular Second and Third concertos. Opening the program is John Harbison's Jazz Age-flavored foxtrot Remembering Gatsby, an orchestral work foreshadowing his acclaimed opera based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. This is one of several Harbison works this season celebrating the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston-based composer's 80th birthday year. Closing the program are excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet score Romeo and Juliet, which includes some of the composer's best-known music.

(Some emphasis added.)

I stayed home with a cold on Thursday evening, so I can't tell you anything about how they did. I have vague memories of a prior performance of "Remembering Gatsby," and it was okay. The Globe review praised Garrick Ohlsson's playing as "relaxed and almost contemplative no matter the tempo," and had no fault to find with any of the concert. The review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer seems to agree with the Globe about the playing of the Rachmaninoff — but with fancier vocabulary, The reviewer also finds little fault with anything else, giving a nice synopsis of the Harbison.

Well, the Harbison may not be to everyone's liking, but it's short; and it seems the rest is definitely worth hearing. You can listen in at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time over WCRB FM and on line. If you miss it this evening, there is the customary rebroadcast/stream on Monday, October 29 at 8:00, p.m. (Last Saturday's concert is similarly available this Monday, Oct. 22, at 8:00.)

Enjoy.

BSO — 2018/10/13

This week the Boston Symphony opens its/open their for my British readers 2018-2019 Symphony Hall season, so we will be able to hear a live concert from Symphony Hall. The orchestra's program detail page has links to their Media Center, audio previews of the concert, program notes from the program booklet, and a bio of the conductor (available by clicking on the thumbnail picture. It also gives this description of the concert (annoyingly listing the works out of the order in which they will be performed):

Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra-a work commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1944-anchors this season-opening program highlighting the virtuosity of the orchestra's string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections. Acclaimed Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, making his BSO debut, conducts that work, as well as Stravinsky's piquant Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.

(Emphasis added.)

The synopsis is inaccurate in one detail. The strings played the Tchaikovsky without a conductor on Thursday, and the program booklet indicates that it was planned to be without conductor on Friday and Saturday, as well.

I have seen three reviews of the Thursday performance: one in the Boston Classical Review, one in the Boston Globe, and one in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Classical Review liked the playing of the Stravinsky and Bartók, but the Tchaikovsky not so much. For the Globe, it was all good. The reviewer in the Intelligencer found the Tchaikovsky transformed into a "stone sculpture," was unhappy with how they did the Stravinsky, and was scathing about the performance of the Bartók. If you're familiar with the music, you can decide whose take agrees with yours.

I was there on Thursday and thought the Stravinsky (new to me) was unpleasant, the Tchaikovsky unremarkable, and the Bartók tolerable apart from the brass screams. I'm not enough of a musician to judge the reviewers' takes on how the music was performed. As far as I could tell, they were doing it competently.  But to my tastes, none of it was "must listening," and I'll probably pass up the chance to hear it again so I can listen to the Red Sox game. OTOH, if you're not a Sox fan, you'll probably enjoy the Tchaikovsky and some of the gentler parts of the Bartók.

As always, the show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EDST) and can be heard on air or on line via WCRB. You might want to check out other pages on their website and see what else they offer.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/10/06

This evening's concert is unusual in that it was originally performed on the afternoon of May 4, 2018, which was a Friday, but not at any other time that week. There was an all-Brahms program on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So this concert wasn't broadcast when it was given, and I haven't heard it in person either., meaning that I haven't previously posted about it. Here's the description from the BSO's performance detail page:

BSO Assistant Conductor Moritz Gnann leads this single Friday-afternoon program, which features principal oboe John Ferrillo in the Oboe Concerto of Alessandro Marcello, a slightly older contemporary of his fellow Venetian Antonio Vivaldi. Opening the program is a group of canzonas by the earlier Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, who was active in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Completing the first half of this program is a wind-ensemble arrangement of numbers from Rossini's delightful and familiar 19th-century comic opera The Barber of Seville. Mozart's G minor symphony, No. 40, is among the most enduringly popular of all thecomposer's works.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Globe seems not to have reviewed it, but the Boston Musical Intelligencer has this review by its publisher. Basically, he enjoyed the first half, but was disappointed in the second. (So I won't mind too much when my brother's weekly call from Japan interrupts my listening.)

Hear it all over WCRB at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (i.e., EDST).