BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/30

This evening at 8:00, Boston Time, WCRB wont't be giving us a rebroadcast of a concert, but "A Preview of Tanglewood 2018!" Here's how they describe it on their page:

Saturday at 8pm, join WCRB's Brian McCreath for a look at the upcoming 2018 Tanglewood season, celebrating the centennial of Leonard Bernstein, through works by Bernstein himself, Mahler, and many more!

Saturday, June 30, 2018
8:00 PM

BERNSTEIN Dances from On the Town (Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor)
MAHLER Symphony No. 3 in D minor: III. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seijii Ozawa, conductor)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 16 in F: III. Lento assai e cantante tranquillo, and IV. Grave - Allegro - Grave (Emerson String Quartet)
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D: III. Vivacissimo, and IV. Finale (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons, conductor)
BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide (Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor)
John WILLIAMS Stargazers, from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Jessica Zhou, harp; Boston Pops; Keith Lockhart, conductor)
GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F: III. Allegro agitato (Kirill Gerstein, piano; St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; David Robertson, conductor)
BERNSTEIN from Serenade (after Plato's Symposium): I. Phaedrus: Pausanias (Lento-Allegro marcato), and II. Aristophanes (Allegretto) (Itzhak Perlman, violin; Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa, conductor)
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D minor: IV. Allegro non troppo - Allegro - Piu mosso (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons, conductor)

Recordings from the Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, BSO Classics, Myrios Classics, and EMI labels

That page also has links to the complete Tanglewood broadcast schedule and additional information about the season at Tanglewood.

I don't know why they think they need to talk up the Tanglewood season, but it could be interesting to hear what they say about it.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/23

This week WCRB is replaying the concert of November 25, 2017. Andris Nelsons conducts Piano Concerto No. 1 by Beethoven and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. The piano soloist in the Beethoven is Rudolf Buchbinder. My post on that date gives links to the orchestra's performance detail page and reviews of an earlier performance of the program. They should give plenty of background information, if you want it.

I like the Beethoven piano concertos, and Bruckner's symphonies are fairly easy to listen to, even if they tend to be long. So I think you'll like what you hear if you tune your radio or your computer to WCRB this evening at 8:00, EDST.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/16

This week, as we wait for the Tanglewood season to begin, WCRB gives us an encore broadcast from last summer at Tanglewood: the concert of August 12, 2017, consisting of three works, Incantesimi, by Anderson, the Violin Concerto by Brahms with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist, and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, all under the baton of Juanjo Mena. There is a link to the BSO's performance detail page — with its own links to background information — at the post I made at the time. Subsequently, the Boston Musical Intelligencer has given us a review of the concert as part of a review of five concerts over the weekend. Unfortunately, the reviewer was less that thrilled with this concert, but IMO it's worth listening to anyway. The new work by Anderson was okay, as I recall (I was there), and the Brahms is popular and the Beethoven is good music, even if the reviewer wished they had played some of it differently. The Globe doesn't seem to have reviewed it.

You can listen on air or on line at WCRB on Saturday evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/09

This week, as the hiatus between the Symphony Hall and Tanglewood season continues, WCRB's encore broadcast is of the October 21, 2017, concert. I posted about it at the time. Subsequently a fairly lengthy review appeared in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The reviewer describes the performance in some detail. So with that and the other material linked in my post, you should have a good idea of what it's all about. It looks like a good chance to have some context for the music. The program begins at the regular time, 8:00 p.m., EDST.

You might also want to check out some of the links on the WCRB website to other programming and features.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/02

This week's encore broadcast is the concert of October 14, 2017. It includes music by Ligeti, Dvořák, and Schumann. Hilary Hahn solos in the Dvořák violin concerto, and Gustavo Gimeno conducts, I posted at the time, and the usual links are there. Suffice it to say that I liked it and the critics raved. So I recommend tuning in to WCRB at 8:00 this evening, EDST. (There are no Monday repeats of these encore broadcasts.)

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/05/26

This week's "encore broadcast" and stream on WCRB is the concert of October 7, 2017. It's a new piece, Moler, by Arlene Sierra, followed by the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and the Second Symphony of Rachmaninoff. Gil Shaham is the soloist in the concerto, and Music Director Andris Nelsons is on the podium. I posted about it back then, and that post has the links to published reviews and the BSO performance detail page (with its own links to background information) that you've come to expect.

As always, the show begins at 8:00 p.m. Boston Time (EDST). Enjoy!

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/05/19

This week's encore broadcast is the concert of September 30, 2017. It consists of Piano Concerto No. 4 by Beethoven and Symphony No. 11 by Shostakovich. My post at the time had links to the orchestra's program detail page, as well as to reviews in the local publications. Neither of them had any serious complaints. I recommend listening this evening at 8:00 EDST via WCRB on line or on air. They also offer a link to an interview with Paul Lewis, the pianist, and Andris Nelsons, the conductor. They also have links to additional information about their other programming (including a performance of "HMS Pinafore" on Sunday). The BSO performance detail page, accessible via my post, also gives background material as usual.

It appears from WCRB's program schedule that they are not giving the repeat on a later Monday, as they do after the original broadcast.

A Concert in Rockport

Last Sunday, May 13, there was a concert I wanted to attend in Rockport. The Boston Artists Ensemble was presenting, inter alia, a new work which they had commissioned, "Songs Without Words,"* by Scott Wheeler. It's a three movement piece for cello and piano which the composer also calls "Cello Sonata #2." I would have liked to be present for the world premier on April 20, but I was in Colorado for a wedding that weekend. I was glad that there was this chance to hear it performed by the original performers, including the dedicatee.

Getting there was an adventure. I hadn't been to Rockport in over 60 years and had no memory of the town, so several days earlier I got directions to the Rockport Music Shalin Liu Performance Center. Unfortunately, I  neglected to print out the map. I had no trouble getting to downtown Rockport in good time, just as I had planned. But then I had two problems. First, I couldn't find a parking space downtown and had to park several blocks outside the downtown area. Second, I misremembered where the performance center — which is known for its spectacular view of the harbor — was located, and spent nearly a half hour searching for it around the harbor before I realized that there was a second harbor. By the time I got there, at about 3:10, the concert had begun and I was pretty frazzled.

Fortunately, "Songs Without Words" wasn't the first piece on the program, and during what remained of Prokofiev's Cello Sonata, I calmed down. In a program note, the composer writes:

The first movement is entitiled "Among the Trees." It begins "like a hymn" but quickly moves into a sort of recitative. The piano sometimes provides the hymnal accompaniment and sometimes a more sparkling background. The second movement, "Forest at Night," begins with misterioso pizzicato and soon becomes passionate. The third movement, "Barcarolle," is the most expansive part of the sonata,  and perhaps the most songful.

At this first hearing, it didn't seem very melodic, but it was very listenable and interesting. It was definitely more entertaining than what I heard of the Prokofiev. I'm glad I got there in time to hear it.

After intermission, Bach's Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 4 and Kodály's Duo for Violin and Cello, Opus 7, completed the concert.

It would be good to be able to hear "Songs Without Words" several more times, to get to really know it and be able to form a more definite opinion of how good it is. The problem for this and many other compositions is that there is so much music available for a limited number of places on concert programs. There are many works which have entered the standard repertory, and they occupy most of the available space. In my opinion, there are many fine works by "second string" composers (I'm thinking of Weber as I write this) which are rarely performed, while less deserving works by "first stringers" get played regularly. With known works languishing, it is regrettably difficult for a new work to get enough hearings to become established, no matter how good it is.

*I'm well aware that Mendelssohn composed "Songs Without Words." Apparently, the title does not belong to him.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/05/12

As I mentioned last week, it is now the period between the BSO's Symphony Hall season and their summer season at Tanglewood. Over the next several weeks, WCRB will be rebroadcasting concerts from the first weeks of the past Symphony Hall season. The schedule is here.  As you can see there, this week we get to hear again the concert of September 23, 2017. (For some reason, I can't get the second page to open, so I'm not sure about what comes toward the end of the period.)

I posted about it at the time. And here's a link to the orchestra's performance detail page for that concert. Since opening night (with a different program) had been the evening before this concert, there had been no previous performances of this program and therefore no reviews when I wrote my post. Subsequently, the Boston Globe had a favorable review, while the Intelligencer wasn't completely satisfied, but gave extensive descriptions of the music and the way it was performed. Between reviews and program notes, there's plenty of preview material, if you're interested.

The show begins on air and on line over WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Boston Time. I'm not sure if they'll do it again on the 21st.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2018/05/05

It's all Brahms this week: an outstanding concert in several respects, as the reviews below explain. First, however, the usual quote from the BSO's performance detail page (which also has the usual links to background information):

BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads the final series of the 2017-18 season, an all-Brahms program featuring beloved pianist Emanuel Ax in the composer's monumental Piano Concerto No. 2. The turbulent First, the Second Concerto is a magisterial, far-ranging work of symphonic proportions, in four movements rather than a typical concerto's three. Brahms's Symphony No. 2 was composed relatively quickly in 1877, following his extended, years-long effort to complete the long-awaited First. The lilting Second Symphony is generally regarded as the most genial and relaxed of Brahms's four great works in the genre.

(Emphasis added.)

The reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer note that Maestro Haitink is not scheduled to conduct at Symphony Hall next season, and, given his age, it is at least possible that this will prove to be his final concert with the orchestra. That alone is a reason to listen. Beyond that, the concerts this week are the first in which new principal cellist Blaise Déjardin takes his chair at the head of the celli — with a prominent solo in the piano concerto. Both reviews speak highly of the work of all concerned, so this is a concert not to be missed.

WCRB will bring it to you live this evening on air and on line at 8:00 Boston Time (EDST). Even though Brahms is far from my favorite composer, I'm planning to be listenng to this rather than the Red Sox game.

This is the final concert of the subscription season, with Spring Pops taking over Symphony Hall. I haven't looked to see what WCRB will present in the Saturday evening time slot between now and the beginning of the Tanglewood season, but I expect "encore broadcasts." Monday, May 7, will bring the usual encore broadcast of last week's concert of  Brahms and Prokofiev; and today's concert will be rebroadcast on May 14 — both at 8:00 p.m.

Enjoy!