BSO — 2012/04/26-28 Info and Reviews

Here's what the BSO website says about this week's concert.

In the second of his three BSO programs this season, Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads Beethoven's warm and ever-popular Pastoral Symphony, which depicts a pleasant day in the country (notwithstanding a brief thunderstorm). Equally pastoral, but from a different world, is Debussy's lush, languid, modern Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, which reveals the still-young composer's mastery of a new musical language. Austrian pianist Till Fellner makes his BSO debut in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, composed while he was working on his great opera The Marriage of Figaro.

I was there on Thursday evening as part of my regular subscription series, and again on Friday afternoon with a priest friend who had wanted to go with me to a concert and selected this week's program. He didn't want to have to be driving after dark, so he didn't join me on Thursday evening. I could have exchanged my Thursday evening ticket for one on Friday afternoon, but I decided that the Mozart and Beethoven would be worth hearing twice; and I'm glad I did. I thought Mr. Fellner, making his debut with the BSO, did very well, and the orchestra also was flawless. The reviewer for the Boston Globe also found it very good.

So I think you won't be disappointed if you listen to the stream from Classical New England at the usual times. And you may also want to check out the background features there as well as at the BSO site.

BSO — 2012/04/12-14 & 18-24 Info and Reviews

Sorry I've been late posting about these, but it's not too late to listen to the on demand webstream from Classical New England.

I missed the earlier performance,

Former Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen makes a long-awaited return to the BSO podium with a sparkling program, including a recent work of his own, the highly admired Violin Concerto. The critically acclaimed and popular Canadian-born virtuoso Leila Josefowicz, for whom Salonen wrote the piece, is soloist in these performances. Ravel's familiar Le Tombeau de Couperin is the composer's own orchestration of four movements from his 1917 piano suite of the same name. Stravinsky's complete The Firebird ballet score, composed in 1910 for the Ballets Russes, launched the composer's international reputation with its kaleidoscopic orchestration and exotic sound. It remains one of his most popular works. http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/23006/

because I had a meeting to attend that Thursday.

 I was at Symphony Hall for the Beethoven and Mendelssohn on the 19th

 BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads three weeks of programs to conclude the 2011-12 season. He is joined by popular actress Claire Bloom as narrator and the bright young singers Layla Claire and Kate Lindsey for Mendelssohn's delightful complete incidental music to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, also featuring the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Opening these three weeks of concerts, each of which features a Beethoven symphony, is the composer's Symphony No. 1, a piece many years in the making that helped establish Beethoven's status as the major inheritor of the Viennese Classical style from Mozart and Haydn. http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/23009/

 and thought they were good.

The earlier concert sounded good on the radio, and the Globe reviewer was enthusiastic. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/04/13/esa-pekka-salonen-makes-triumphant-bso-return-with-his-violin-concerto/Rm5yvrfiwFJiLtwG2EMahP/story.html The review for this week's program wasn't quite such a rave, but overall favorable. http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/04/20/sturdy-beethoven-sparkling-mendelssohn/fp3VAfbmy8DAngxdv6h3aK/story.html

So I think you'll find them both listening to. http://www.wgbh.org/995/

BSO — 2012/04/5-7 Info and Reviews

This week's offering is  "A German Requiem" by Brahms. The BSO website offers the usual sort of background info about the program as well as this brief summary: 

A German Requiem, Brahms's largest work, originated with music he wrote following Robert Schumann's attempted suicide in 1854 and evidently was also connected with the death of Brahms's own mother. The result is an utterly personal, scarcely ceremonial Requiem for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, and orchestra, episodically setting texts from the Bible. Christoph von Dohnányi and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are joined in these concerts by English-Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska in her BSO debut and the young German bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann.

Since it's Holy Week, I was in church Thursday evening and will be again this evening. But the Boston Globe reviewer was very favorable. There is also a bass in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus who provides interesting insights into the preparation and performance over a series of five posts (so far). Preparing was apparently quite a bit of work, with a demanding conductor, but he seemed quite pleased with the final result. The posts are well worth reading for insight into what you're hearing.

I'm invited to brunch after Mass on Sunday, so I may not even be able to catch the rebroadcast on Classical New England, but I definitely want to hear the "on demand" sometime in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the full treatment on Saturday evening or the actual performance portions on Sunday. And, as usual, CNE also has their own background material on their website.

 

BSO — 2012/03/27-31 Info and Reviews — Also St. Matthew Passion

BSO.  This week's Boston Symphony is unusual: before the intermission a keyboard concerto of Bach's, reworked into the supposedly "original" violin concerto which Bach wrote and then transcribed; then fast forward 200 years for something by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski; and after intermission Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. Bach is usually the province of "early music" specialists; Lutosłaswski isn't exactly a household name; and the Fourth is not one of the more frequently performed of the Beethoven symphonies (and rightly so, IMO). Surprisingly, to me anyway, it turned out to be a good program.

First, though here's the BSO website, where you can get their information about the music. They summarize it as follows:

Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos, who has appeared with the BSO as soloist, conducts the orchestra for the first time in two works and is soloist and conductor for Bach's Violin Concerto in D minor. The Polish composer Witold Lutosławski's sonorous, moving Musique funèbre was composed for the tenth anniversary of Bartók's death and was a watershed work for its composer. Beethoven's high-spirited, gregarious Symphony No. 4 closes the program.

As for reviews, the Globe was generally approving, but with reservations. IMO the Bach piece worked quite well as a violin concerto. The program note indicates the there are enough examples of how Bach transformed violin concertos into harpsichord concertos that people can make good guesses at how a hypothetical violin concerto would have looked when all they have top go on is the keyboard version. In this instance, you wouldn't know it wasn't Bach's original. The Lutosławski piece was intended to be  12-tone music. but I could hardly recognize it as such. Much of the time, the pitches he chooses out of the possible 12 actually harmonize. So it was pretty easy listening. Even the jarring dissonance in the middle was tolerable. I think for the audience in the hall, it benefited from the way the players were seated in a semicircle. You could see the music traveling from the cellos on the far right to the first violins on the left, as each section entered; you could see clearly which sections were playing; and at the end, you could see them dropping out from left (top violins) to right (second cellos) until finally there was just a solo cellist. But I think it should be worth hearing even without the visual element. I've never really liked the final two movements of the Beethoven Fourth Symphony. They seemed gruff and boisterous, without much musical value. But on Thursday in symphony hall, they finally sounded like music, not organized noise. I suppose I have to give credit to the conductor for that.

You can hear it all on Classical New England on Saturday at 8:00, with "pre-game" show at 7:00 p.m., and background interviews preceding the concert and during intermission. The repeat should be at 1:00 on Sunday, and "on demand" streaming for two weeks thereafter. As with the BSO website, there are links to background info on the concert.

St. Matthew Passion.  On Sunday afternoon at 3:00 you can hear a live performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion by he Handel and Haydn Society broadcast and streamed by Classical New England, the same folks who bring you the BSO Saturday concerts. For details and links to additional information, see this page of their website. The Globe's reviewer was quite pleased with the first performance, on Friday evening.


My brother and I have tickets to this performance, so you'll be listening along with us if you tune in or log on.

BSO — 2012/03/21-24 — Updated March 24

This week, the BSO is performing music by Kodály, Dvořák, and Mendelssohn. Here's what their website says. You can also find links to further information on the program there.

The phenomenal German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann returns for the too rarely heard Dvořák's Violin Concerto, a powerful and beautiful Czech-flavored piece here conducted by the young Slovakian conductor Juraj Valcuha in his BSO debut. Opening the concert is the Hungarian Zoltán Kodály's Dances of Galánta, a 1933 orchestral masterpiece steeped in Central European folk music. Mendelssohn's always fresh Symphony No. 3,Scottish, was one of the fruits of the young genius's long trip to the British Isles in his early twenties.

It's part of my subscription, but I had another event to go to this evening (an interfaith seder), so I exchanged my ticket for Friday afternoon. Time permitting, I'll post my own thoughts and link the Boston Globe review sometime between now and the broadcast/webstream on Saturday evening over Classical New England.

Update: I found the Friday performance quite enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to rehearing it on Classical New England. The reviewer for the Boston Globe also found much to enjoy and nothing to criticize in the performance.

BSO — 2012/03/6-17

The Boston Symphony is on a hiatus from its subscription series of concerts. Last week they were performing in Carnegie Hall in New York City. This week they are giving youth concerts and family concerts in Symphony Hall.

I don't know what Classical New England will be doing to fill the time slots in which they usually present the BSO concerts. You can listen and find out, I suppose. That's what I plan to do. Maybe the website will tell. I haven't checked it out.

Next week we should be back to live concerts on Saturdays and rebroadcasts on Sundays.

John Harbison on Bach's St. Matthew Passion

On February 29, I attended a lecture by the composer John Harbison on the "St. Matthew Passion." He acknowledged that there were many ways of viewing the work, but he chose to look at it under the aspect of abandonment — that the text suggests that the Christian feels abandoned by Jesus. Of course, on the Cross Jesus quoted the Psalm verse which asks, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" But traditionally we have been invited to sympathize with Jesus' sufferings, and feel sorrow for our responsibility for them, but until now I don't think I've ever heard that we are invited to feel as he felt, especially in that precise moment. (The "Stabat Mater" asks that we feel as Mary felt.)

Harbison played several examples. He started with the opening chorus, with its call to lament (klagen). There are lines such as "Jesus takes leave of us," (Jesus von uns Abschied nimmt) "So is my Jesus captured now," (So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen.) "Give me back my Jesus," (Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder!) and the address to the faithful as "you forsaken chickens." (Ihe verlaßnen Küchlein) Finally, there is the closing recitative and chorus where the faithful bid good night to Jesus and sit weeping by the tomb.

I find it a startling take on the work as a whole. As Harbison himself pointed out, this is a Passion and therefore it does not include Easter. Furthermore, if it represents the feelings of loss those present at the actual events would have felt, it also includes notions of clinging to Jesus and being rescued by him. Certainly, it seems unlikely that Bach and his librettist Picander would have intended that the hearers should take away from the performance of the Passion an idea that they had been abandoned by Jesus. But it gave an aspect to think about, and as someone who has conducted the work on occasion, Harbison is certainly able to see aspects which are not immediately apparent.

During the question period at the end, a college-age girl asked Harbison what his name was. He responded with name and a very abbreviated bit of background. I wonder how the questioner learned of the lecture and decided to attend without knowing who the lecturer was.

BSO — 2012/03/1-3

This week we get Berlioz and Ravel. On the BSO website (which contains the usual links to program notes and audio previews) we read:

French pianist Cédric Tiberghien makes his BSO debut with Ravel's scintillating Piano Concerto in G. German conductor Christoph Eschenbach leads these concerts, which begin and end with Berlioz. Opening the program is the fantastical overture to the composer's picaresque Italian Renaissance opera Benvenuto Cellini. Closing the program is Berlioz's most famous work, the Symphonie fantastique, which traces the evolution of an artist's feverish romantic obsession with a woman who does not respond in kind.

I wasn't there on Thursday — not part of my subscription — so I can't say anything about it, but the Globe reviewer was quite pleased.

As usual, you can listen to the live broadcast/stream, the Sunday rebroadcast/stream, and then on demand for two weeks over Classical New England.

BSO — 2012/02/23-25 (and March 6 in New York) Info and Reviews

Sorry to be late with this, although you still have a chance to hear the rebroadcast/stream or listen "on demand" over Classical New England, as well as to see some background material on the website. What with Ash Wednesday services, attendance at concerts and the Met live in HD, and wakes and funerals, I neglected posting about this week's BSO.

Anyway, there is a single work on the program, the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven. Kurt Masur was to have conducted, but after three rehearsals, he realized that he was not physically capable of cubducting the whole thing in live performance. So he bowed out, and John Oliver, the conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus stepped in.

As usual, here's something from the orchestra's website, with links available there for notes and discussion.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is one of the most significant works by one of the greatest of all composers. This monolithic late work stands with the Ninth Symphony, the late string quartets, and the late piano sonatas as the culmination of Beethoven's transformation of music. Beethoven intended the Missa Solemnis celebration of the election of his patron Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of Olmütz in 1820, but didn't complete it until 1822. 

At the Thursday performance, I wasn't overly impressed. There were some good moments (notably the violin solo during the "Benedictus"), and none that I thought were actually bad, but overall, and especially in retrospect, nothing really grabbed me, and the performance as a whole was not inspiring and exalting, as I had expected and hoped it would be. The Globe reviewer liked it better. I should add that listening to the broadcast during dinner this evening, I found it more impressive. It seemed livelier somehow.

BSO — 2012/02/16-21 Info and Reviews

This week we have Ravel, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. In advance, it was completely unappealing to me, but I went because I had a ticket as part of my subscription. I was very pleasantly surprised: I really liked it all! And I credit the conductor for making it as outstanding as it was. Okay, here's the BSO website description (with notes and audio previews available at the link).

French conductor Stéphane Denève, who made his BSO debut in April 2011, shares this program with BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger. Stéphane Denève will conduct the February 16-18 performances, while Marcelo Lehninger will conduct the February 21st performance. They will be joined by a BSO audience favorite, the American pianist Peter Serkin, who performs Stravinsky's angular, Baroque- and jazz-influenced Concerto for Piano and Winds. Ravel's Mother Goose Suite makes musical magic from the old folk tales. The concert closes with the powerful Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich, which elevated the composer from brilliant wunderkind to the position of mature master.

What struck me most was the way Maestro Denève controlled the dynamics. The "Mother Goose" never seemed to rise above a mf, which gave it the proper fairy tale feeling. We had heard it just a few years ago, and I hadn't been looking forward to another performance, but this one was so much more attractive than the earlier that I'm glad I heard it.  Stravinsky had, as usual, written a lot of "wrong notes" into the concerto to keep it from being pretty, but Mr. Serkin played vigorously and Denève led the orchestra capably. Finally the Shostakovich. From previous encounters, I expected loud and louder, with thumping rhythms. They were on display, but there were also soft, lyrical sections which I hadn't recalled. Again, a piece I hadn't expected to enjoy which turned out to be worth hearing. I credit Maestro Denève for giving me a truly memorable evening when I had expected nothing special. The Globe's reviewer was less enthusiastic.

There are the usual opportunities to hear the program this evening, Sunday afternoon, and on demand from Classical New England.