BSO — 2014/01/23-25

This week's concert presents works by Wagner, Lutosławski, and Shostakovich. Here's what the BSO's performance detail page says about it.

For his first full BSO subscription concerts, Latvian BSO Assistant Conductor Andris Poga is joined by eminent American pianist Garrick Ohlsson for the great Polish composer Witold Lutosłaswki's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, a rhapsodic work from 1988. Its only previous performances by the BSO were led by the composer himself at Symphony Hall in October 1990. Opening the program is Wagner's boisterous overture to his early opera Rienzi, composed partly in Poga's hometown of Riga, Latvia, and premiered in 1842 in Dresden. Shostakovich's utterly characteristic final symphony, No. 15, closes the program. The Russian composer wrote this big piece in 1971.

Emphasis added.

See that page also for the usual links to background material.

I was at the Friday matinee and really enjoyed it. In the first place, the Rienzi overture is a stirring piece of music which I am always happy to hear. The BSO at one time frequently began its concerts with a "curtain raiser," often an opera overture or concert overture. Recently these brief starters for the concert have become less common, but I think they are a good way to begin. The Lutosławski concerto was performed in substitution for the originally programmed world premiere of the piano concerto by Justin Dello Joio, which the BSO  had commissioned. Apparently it wasn't completed in time to be rehearsed and presented at these concerts. The Lutosławski was not unpleasant to listen to, although it seemed kind of disjointed. After intermission, the Shostakovich symphony was quite enjoyable (with quotes from the William Tell Overture in the first movement, and the "fate" motive from Wagner's Ring Cycle in the fourth, and a wonderful conclusion featuring unusual percussion). There were numerous solos or duets from various instruments, and the composer did a good job of quieting the orchestral accompaniment so that they could be clearly heard. All seemed very ably performed. The Globe's review was largely positive.

As usual, you can listen in to the Saturday evening performance (8:00 p.m., Boston Time) on Classical New England. It will be broadcast and streamed again on February 3, again at 8:00 p.m. Also as usual, CNE's page devoted to the BSO has a link to an interview with the conductor, a schedule of the remaining BSO concerts this season (including a reminder that last week's Mozart/Bruckner concert will be rebroadcast/streamed on January 27), and various other links.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2014/01/16-18

It's Mozart and Bruckner this week. More from the BSO performance detail page, where you also get the links to performer bio (click on the photo) and links to audio previews and program notes:

German conductor-pianist Christoph Eschenbach returns as both soloist and conductor for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, a work of chamber-musical understatement and surpassing elegance that Mozart wrote for his own Vienna performances in late 1782. On the other end of the symphonic scale is Bruckner's magisterial Symphony No. 9, a work left incomplete (in just three movements) at the composer's death in 1896. This cathedral-like symphony shows the continuing influence of Wagner in its harmonic language and scope, with the particular Austrian lyricism and gift for counterpoint for which Bruckner was known.

(Emphasis added)

I was there for the Thursday performance and was figuratively blown away by the Mozart. It may be partly the heightened attention in the hall, but it was as if there were parts of the concerto I'd never heard before. I think it's at least in part because of the performance itself. I tried to get a standing ovation going for Eschenbach, but everybody else waited for the Bruckner.  The Globe reviewer also found it remarkable. He and I were also pleased with the Bruckner. It was very satisfying, although I'll confess that maybe I hadn't got enough sleep the night before or taken a long enough nap that afternoon, because toward the end I became somewhat dozey.

You can hear for yourself with the concert broadcast/webstream over Classical New England beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, with the encore on January 27, also at 8:00 As with the other concerts, it will also be available on line for on demand listening. There's an interview with the maestro as well as a performance by him and oboist Keisuke Wakao of the BSO linked on CNE's BSO page.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2014/01/09-11

This week Robert Spano leads a few members of the Boston Symphony and several other ensembles in Alejandro Golijov's Pasión según San Marcos. Go to the BSO performance detail page for links to background material and an interview with the composer. They describe it as follows:

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano, whose ties to the BSO go back two decades, returns to lead a work given its United States premiere by the BSO under his direction in 2001-Osvaldo Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos("The Passion According to St. Mark"). The Jewish, Latin American-raised Golijov was one of four composers from different religious and musical traditions asked to compose a Passion setting to mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death and the end of the second millennium. Golijov's vibrant, immediate, pan-Latin American approach draws on multiple musical and Christian traditions in presenting this universal narrative. The BSO is joined by a cast of stylistically diverse performers central to the original creation of this remarkable piece.

I was there for the Thursday performance. I found that the loud percussion and Latin rhythms were at times a distraction from the actual meaning of the text. Others who are more accustomed to that style of music may find it easier to relate to. But there were definite moments of beauty as well, especially a couple of soprano arias: one as Jesus at the Last Supper and the other as Peter weeping over his betrayal of Jesus. Much is made of the fact that the composer is Jewish, but I saw nothing in the text or the music to give the work the character of "a Jew looks at the Passion according to Mark," except the final piece, which is a setting of an Aramaic translation of the mourner's Kaddish — which is perfectly appropriate at that point, and could even have been thought of by a Christian composer.

Anyway, it seems a straightforward, if spectacular,  presentation, in Latin American musical forms, of the St. Mark Passion. The Globe review was more factual than opinionated — certainly finding no real fault. IMO it's worth hearing. It would be very worthwhile to listen to the podcast linked on the BSO performance detail page and to read the program notes in advance. I haven't been able to locate the full text online, but if you can find it, that would also be good to have.

As usual, the performance can be heard over Classical New England, beginning at 8:00 p.m., with preliminary show at 7:00, a rebroadcast/stream on January 20 at 8:00, Boston time, and on demand availability thereafter. Check out their BSO page for a link to another interview with the composer.

Classical New England — 2014/01/04

For the last Saturday before the Boston Symphony resume their concerts, Classical New England has decided to repeat a concert from last summer's Tanglewood season, specifically, August 17, 2013. As they put it:

In an encore from the 2013 Tanglewood season, soprano Camilla Tilling joins the BSO for the Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler, and Isabelle Faust is the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, with conductor Bernard Haitink.

(Emphasis added)

Their BSO page, in addition to the above, has their schedule for the rest of the BSO's season, including rebroadcasts, and other links. The BSO's own performance detail page has links to program notes.

Classical New England — 2013/12/28 & New Year's Day

My apologies for getting so distracted by other things that I didn't get around to posting about what was being offered last Saturday. I hope you found it on your own, if you were interested. Of course, I realize that you can listen to the broadcasts or webstreams whenever you want. I offer these posts as a way of giving a little preview and reminder which I hope will encourage you to listen, and at least help you decide whether you want to do so or not.

This week, on December 28, Classical New England is giving us a New England Conservatory performance of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and other Christmas pieces at 7:00 p.m. At 8:00 they will offer a repeat of a concert which took place last summer* at Tanglewood: Symphony No. 3 by  Mahler under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Here's a bit more detail from the station's Holiday Specials page:

Saturday, Dec. 28

7pm: A Centennial Ceremony of Carols: A Benjamin Britten Holiday Celebration

We mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the renowned British composer Benjamin Britten through his Ceremony of Carols and other holiday works, as well as traditional carols arranged by Sir David Willcocks, all performed by the NEC Chamber Chorus, led by Erica Washburn.

8pm: Boston Symphony Orchestra: Sound the Posthorn!

We ring out the old year by revisiting one of the highlights of the 2013 Tanglewood season: Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, with mezzo-soprano Ann-Sophie von Otter, the PALS Children's Chorus and the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

* Here's a link to what I wrote at the time. It, in turn, contains a link to the BSO's performance detail page for the concert.


You can find other programming between now and January 5 listed on the same page as the description of December 28. It also lists all the concerts and programs of the Christmas — and Hanukkah — season which are now available on line for on demand listening. There's a lot, and a good variety. Follow the link.


On New Year's Day, continuing a long-standing tradition, at 11:00 a.m. they will broadcast and stream the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day Concert. Music of Johann Strauss is always a large part of the program. Then at 3:00 p.m., something new this year, I think — a New Year's Day concert by Boston Baroque. Each will be repeated in the evening. Once more, a quote from their page:

Wednesday, Jan. 1

11am: New Year's Day from Vienna

Direct from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, it’s the most popular classical music concert in the world! Laura Carlo hosts this national broadcast, produced by WCRB, as Daniel Barenboim leads the annual celebration concert by the Vienna Philharmonic.

3pm: Boston Baroque's Gala First Day Concert

Champagne, Concertos…and Coffee! Join us for a Boston New Year’s Tradition, now shared with the nation! Martin Pearlman leads Boston Baroque, now in its 40th Anniversary Season as America’s oldest “period-instrument” orchestra in a festive All-Bach New Year’s Day concert, live from Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square.

5pm: encore of New Year's Day from Vienna

10pm: encore of Boston Baroque's Gala First Day Concert

Happy listening!

Since this is probably my last post of the year, I want to wish my readers a New Year that is happy in every possible way, as well as to express Christmas greetings, with the hope that Christmas Day was merry and that the joy of the celebration is continuing through the twelve days (and beyond if your Christmastide extends to the celebration of the Lord's Baptism or even to Candlemas). Joy to you all!

Classical New England — 2013/12/14

This week's offering from Classical New England in their regular Boston Symphony time period, beginning at 7:00 p.m. this evening, is a rebroadcast of a Tanglewood concert in which Leon Fleisher is soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The orchestra also plays the Siegfried Idyll by Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, all under the baton of Kazushi Ono. You can get links to an interview with Leon Fleisher, the schedule for future Saturday evenings this season, and other items at the station's BSO page.

This concert was given on July 12, 2013, and my post about it at the time is here. I'm happy to note that the BSO performance detail page which I linked at the time is still up at this point, and the links on that page are still working — including more program notes than were there when I originally posted.

Classical New England — 2013/12/07

With the Boston Pops taking over from the Boston Symphony for December, there will be no live symphony broadcasts until January 11, 2014. Rather than give us the same "Holiday Pops" concert four weeks in a row (followed by some filler on January 4), Classical New England is filling the slots with various Christmas programs and other things. There are also other special programs during the month. Here's a link to the page that lists them all. You can see for yourself, but here's what they say about this evening:

Saturday, Dec. 7

7pm: A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico

The award-winning choir from London pays a visit to St. Paul's Church in Harvard Square for a concert of radiant sacred music for the Christmas season.

Note that the programming this evening starts at 7:00, like the regular pre-concert programming, not at 8:00 like the BSO concerts themselves.

So far I don't see anything to tell us about January 4, but I'm guessing that, like December 28, it'll be a rerun of some earlier BSO concert. Also, on Monday, December 9 at 8:00 p.m., we get the repeat of the BSO concert of November 30 with Brahms and Beethoven.

And there is the ongoing Winter Orgy®Period on WHRB, which I noted in the preceding post.

Winter Orgy® Period

At the beginning of the month I checked the WHRB website to see what they'd be doing for their Winter Orgy® Period. But I made what turned out to be the mistake of going to the Classical Music page, where I read the following outdated material: "WHRB's Orgies ®, presented each January and May, are tributes to particular composers and performers. Past Classical Orgies have included the works of Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, pianist Artur Schnabel, and an epic broadcast of the complete works of J.S. Bach. Check our Program Guide for upcoming Orgies."
Actually, they switched the winter orgy to December when the university switched exams to December. Based on that, however, I thought they had switched back.

But no. The program guide arrived in the mail today, and it turns out the orgy period began as usual on December 1. We have already missed the Baroque Masters of the Harpsichord Orgy, The First Nights Orgy, and the Classical Guitar Orgy. As I type this, the Warhorse Orgy is in progress, and will continue until about 6:45 this evening.

Here's what is still to come:

December 8, 12:30 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.  Charles-Valentin Alkan Orgy
     6:00 p.m. — midnight  The Benjamin Britten Orgy®
December 9–12,  6:00 a.m. — midnight  The Benjamin Britten Orgy® continues and concludes
December 13,  6:00 a.m — 10:00 a.m. The Role of the Listener
     10:00 a.m. — 3:00 p.m.  Two Piano Orgy
     3:00 — 10:00 p.m.  Fritz Kreisler Orgy
December 15,  12:30 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.  Process Music or "Bach to Basinski" Orgy
December 16, 10:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.  Process Music Orgy continues and concludes
December 17,  4:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.(?)  Anthony Collins (conductor, d. 1963) Orgy
December 18,  1:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.(?) Morton Gould Orgy
December 19,  noon — 10:00 p.m.(?)  Britten as Performer Orgy

Although they don't call them orgies, there will be a Hindemith Centenary (sic) Commemoration at 6:00 p. m. on Saturday, December 28, and a Colin Davis Tribute on Sunday, January 5, at 1:00. I suppose both will end at about 10:00 p.m.

While I'm at it, I'll also mention that WHRB carries the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts.

BSO — 2013/11/26-30

An unusual bit of scheduling in Thanksgiving week saw the first performance of the program on Tuesday and the last will be this evening, Saturday. Ordinarily, if there is a Tuesday concert, it is the last one of a program that began the previous Thursday. But this time there was no Thursday concert on Thanksgiving, just the unusual Tuesday first performance, the regular Friday matinee, and the Saturday evening to conclude. After this, the Boston Pops (with most of the Symphony musicians) takes over for a month of "Holiday Pops." The symphony concerts will resume on January 9, 2014. I'm not sure what they'll be giving us over Classical New England for the five Saturdays — probably Holiday Pops for one — but I'll try to keep an eye on it and let you know.

Anyway, the Boston Symphonic farewell to 2013, has Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leading a second week, this time with Peter Serkin as soloist in Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, followed after intermission by the Beethoven Symphony No. 7. Here's what the BSO publications folks blurb on the performance detail page:

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos is joined by esteemed American pianist Peter Serkin for one of the biggest and most challenging piano concertos in the repertoire, Brahms's Concerto No. 2. Composed nearly twenty-five years after the First Concerto, the Second is unusual in being a four-movement work instead of the typical three, adding what Brahms called "a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo." Beethoven wrote his Symphony No. 7 in 1812. Beginning in calm and ending in infectious exuberance, the Seventh was called by Richard Wagner "the apotheosis of the dance."

See that page also for the usual links to further information.

Since there was no Thursday concert, and I was otherwise occupied on Tuesday and Friday, I'll be hearing it for the first time over the radio this evening, so I can't give you my own "review." The Globe reviewer found it worth hearing.

Classical New England will broadcast over WCRB and the sister stations and stream over the internet at 8:00 p.m. Boston time (with introductory things at 7:00) and a repeat of the concert only at 8:00 p.m. on December 9. Their BSO page doesn't seem to have any background about this week's concert, but it reminds me that last week's will be rebroadcast on December 2, beginning at 8:00 p.m., as well as being available on demand over the web.

BSO — 2013/11/21-23

This week the Boston Symphony is giving the world premiere performances of the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra by Marc Neikrug, a work which he wrote for several bassoonists he knows on a joint commission from the BSO and three other institutions. In turn, the BSO share of the commission was supported by a grant from another agency — interesting how that works. Anyway, that opens the second half of the concert. Before the intermission we get Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and the concert concludes with Suites 1 and 2 from"The Three-cornered Hat" by Manuel de Falla, a work that is part f the Spanish heritage of Conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. You can go to the orchestra's program detail page for the usual links to performer bios, program notes, and audio previews — including an interview with Maestro Frühbeck about the Beehoven and the Falla and an interview with bassoonist Richard Svoboda about the Neikrug. Here's their blurb about the concert.

Spanish conductor and frequent BSO guest Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads the second BSO-commissioned work and first world premiere of 2013-14: American composer Marc Neikrug's Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, composed for the BSO and the orchestra's principal bassoonist, Richard Svoboda. Well-known as a pianist, Neikrug is also artistic director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, an innovative symphonic depiction of a day in the country, begins this program, and Manuel de Falla's suites from the scintillating, Spanish-flavored ballet The Three-cornered Hat, a Frühbeck specialty, concludes it.

I was there for the actual premiere, and while I thought the bassoon concerto was musical as well as interesting, I won't mind if they don't play it again. In other words, it was okay. Each of the three movements showed a different aspect of the bassoon, and it was certainly not hard to listen to, just not very engaging. Maybe I'll like it better if I listen to the interview and then hear the rebroadcast on December 2. The reviewers in the Boston Globe and the Boston Musical Intelligencer both gave positive reviews, but their descriptions seemed to be paraphrases of the description in the program notes — which I take to mean that they didn't pick up on much in the actual performance. By all means, give it a listen, and see what you think.

As for the rest of the program, the Beethoven was well-played: a fine performance of a great work which is pleasant rather than inherently exciting. I had developed a bit of a cough, and left after the Neikrug so as not to subject my neighbors to further distraction, but the reviewers liked the Falla.

As always you can hear the broadcast or webstream beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time over Classical New England, with the usual "pre-game show" an hour earlier and the usual rebroadcast on the second Monday (December 2, in this case). Also, as usual, their BSO page has a link to an interview, in this case with the bassoonist, and other information about the BSO season.