BSO — 2022/01/29

 As I have long imagined, WCRB records the BSO Thursday concerts as a backup in case something untoward happens to prevent a live broadcast of the same program on Saturday. Today it happened. The frightful weather we're having in the Boston area has occasioned the cancellatioon of this evening' performance, but we will be able to hear the same music, as recorded on Thursday evening. Good going, WCRB!

Here's how they synopsize it on their BSO page:

Saturday, January 29, and Monday, February 7, 2021
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès conducts an evening of modern pieces, including Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and his own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, both with soloist Kirill Gerstein.

Thomas Adès, conductor
Kirill Gerstein, piano

BERG Three Pieces for Orchestra
RAVEL Piano Concerto in D for the left hand
Thomas ADÈS Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
RAVEL La Valse

To hear Thomas Adès describe the connections among the different works on this program, the continually fascinating performances of Kirill Gerstein, and a look ahead to his BSO program at Tanglewood, click on the player above.

Transcript:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Thomas Adès, who's back in Boston here for a really fascinating

As I often do, I've also included the first words of an interview with Maestro Adès. You can read the whole thing or listen to it at the WCRB page.

I wasn't there on Thursday  (not part of my subscription) but there are reviews in both the Globe and the Intelligencer. Both note some problems with balance between sections, but are overall favorable. In the BMInt, Mark DeVoto writes like the musicologist that he is, with lots of specifics. The Globe's reviewer, Jeremy Eichler, writing at the layman's level, was enthusiastic for the selection of pieces and very happy with the performance — almost a rave review. There are some interesting comments on the article, as well.

The BSO itself has this description of the program:

BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès is joined by pianist Kirill Gerstein in reprise performances of Adès’s own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, a BSO-commissioned work written for Gerstein and premiered at Symphony Hall in 2019. Gerstein and Adès have since performed the concerto worldwide to great acclaim, and the BSO’s recording of it was nominated for a Grammy Award. Gerstein also performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which Ravel completed in 1930 for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm due to an injury in World War I. Ravel’s fascination with jazz shows up in the concerto’s syncopated rhythms and energy. Exhibiting stark differences as well as fascinating similarities, both Ravel’s La Valse and Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra—written a few years apart during and after World War I—seem to be modern commentaries, both admiring and critical, of the music and society of a bygone 19th century Europe.

As of this writing, they're still letting us see their program notes here,

So, if "modern music" doesn't send you screaming from the room, this should be worth hearing. In fact, the Ravel pieces are at least semi-tame. So why not give it a listen this evening and/or February 7 at 8:00 EST.

P.S. Don't forget the rebroadcast of last week's concert of music by Brahms, Nabors, and Tchaikovsky on January 31 at 8:00 p.m.

Ricardo Muti at Rome Opera House

 Maestro Muti was conducting a performance of Nabucco in 2011when the following happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPANwyaSlX4

The Italian government had announced massive cuts in the budget for culture, which would have devastated Italian opera houses,  among other things. Alex Ross wrote about it at the time:

https://www.therestisnoise.com/2010/10/the-italian-opera-situation.html

He explains the situation and the aftermath of this event. The video he embedded shows how long the applause was before the shout of "Viva l'Italia" and Maestro Muti's speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_gmtO6JnRs&t=1s

The first one I gave has French and English translations of the chorus as well as a French translation of the speech.

BSO — 2022/01/15

 Here's WCRB's synopsis of this evening's BSO concert:

Saturday, January 15, and Monday, January 24, 2022
8:00 PM

Saturday at 8pm, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Liszt's acrobatic Piano Concerto No. 2, plus Andris Nelsons conducts an American premiere by Augusta Read Thomas and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Augusta READ THOMAS Dance Foldings (American premiere)
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4

The BSO program detail page puts it thus:

Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and a frequent collaborator, the French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, in a passionate and virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 by Franz Liszt — who himself was considered the most brilliant performer of the 19th century Romantic era. These concerts open with the American premiere of Augusta Read Thomas' Dance Foldings, which Thomas describes as “like jazz big band with Stravinsky ballets.” Closing the program is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, one of the composer’s sunniest and most congenial works.

I was there on Thursday and found the "Dance Foldings" unexciting but not hard to listen to except for occasional high-pitched screeches from the trumpets. Maybe they won't be so bad filtered through the raio system. It helped that Ms Thomas described her music as influenced by Duke Ellington & Ella Fitzgerald and by Stravinsky's early ballets (apparently meaning Petrouchka and Firebird). You may also want to rwad the program note for the piece (and even the others).

The Globe's review is mainly off topic of the music itself, but it's favorable. The review in the Intelligencer is more to the point and quite favorable.

At 8:00 this evening and/or on the 24th you can see what you think.

BSO — 2022/01/08

The BSO is back live this week. I didn't go to the concert on Thursday, and I'm sorry I missed it. I'm looking forward to hearing the broadcast this evening. WCRB says:

Saturday, January 8, and Monday, January 17, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the American violinist returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, with Andris Nelsons also conducting Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and a world premiere by HK Gruber.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hilary Hahn, violin

HK GRUBER Short Stories from the Vienna Woods (world premiere; BSO co-commission)
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5

Since we're back to live concerts, there's also a performance detail page at the BSO website. It tells us:

Andris Nelsons leads a world premiere originally scheduled for spring 2020, the Viennese composer HK Gruber’s Short Stories from the Vienna Woods, a BSO co-commission with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. This orchestral score is a suite of music from the composer’s opera Tales from the Vienna Wood, based on the socially critical play by the same name by Ödön von Horváth. The title’s reference to the famous Strauss waltz mirrors the wide- ranging popular and classical variety of Gruber’s music.
Though he would later be the embodiment of the Viennese Classical composer, Wolfgang Mozart was still living in Salzburg when he wrote all five of his violin concertos. Beloved American violinist Hilary Hahn plays Mozart’s Concerto No. 5, from 1775, which in addition to its energy and elegance is notable for its unusual finale, which features the surprising “Turkish” episode that gives the concerto its nickname.
The BSO under Serge Koussevitzky gave the American premiere of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in 1945. Written in 1944, the symphony looks beyond the turmoil of World War II to celebrate the nobility of the human spirit.

THere is also a link to the program notes, which give at least some idea of how the Gruber piece will be. Thus far there is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer, but the one in the Globe is enthusiastic. It makes the Gruber seem interesting. That review is what has me looking forward to hearing the concert (until my brother calls).

You can listen this evening at 8:00 Boston Time, and there will be the usual rebroadcast in nine days, on January 17, also at 8:00.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2022/01/01

 Sorry to be posting at the last minute. I almost forgot. It doesn't seem to be an acrual concert this evening, but several recordings from way back when.

Saturday, January 1, 2022
8:00 PM

Saturday at 8pm, ring in the new year with CRB and the Boston Symphony Orchestra with timeless waltzes by Lanner and Strauss and Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll," capped off with Beethoven's eternal Symphony No. 9 — all conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

Jane Marsh, soprano
Josephine Veasey, mezzo-soprano
Placido Domingo, tenor
Sherrill Milnes, baritone

Joseph LANNER "Die Mozartisten" Waltzes
WAGNER Siegfried Idyll
MOZART Flute Quartet in D, K. 285: III. Rondo (Boston Symphony Chamber Players)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, Choral
STRAUSS II, arr. SCHOENBERG Roses from the South (Boston Symphony Chamber Players)

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/12/18

 This evening WCRB is giving us the Juky 25 concert from Tanglewood. Here's what they've posted about it:

Saturday, December 18, 2021
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast from the 2021 Tanglewood season, Yefim Bronfman returns to the Berkshires as the soloist in Beethoven’s impassioned Piano Concerto No. 3, and Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a rhapsodic work by Iman Habibi, tonight at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Iman HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

Hear an interview with Yefim Bronfman and CRB's Brian McCreath in the audio player above.

The link to the interview is here: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2021-06-11/bronfman-harnessing-the-power-of-beethoven

Here's what I said about it in advance:

Sunday, July 25, 2021.  There will be two "warhorses" of the repertoire on Sunday after we sit through a new piece. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Sunday, July 25, 2021
7:00 PM

Yefim Bronfman returns to the Berkshires as the soloist in Beethoven’s impassioned Piano Concerto No. 3, and Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a rhapsodic work by Iman Habibi, Sunday at 7pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Iman HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

(Some emphasis added.)

You can't go wrong with Beethoven piano concertos and Schumann symphonies. The program note for "Jeder Baum spricht" — which you can find via the link on the performance detail page — doesn't give me great hope. When a contemporary composer is inspired by one of the classical masters, it's never as good as the original. Sometimes it turns out to be something I'd like to hear one more time or even become familiar with, but more often once is enough or too much (which is also true of new pieces in general). The thing is, you never know until you've listened to it that first time. So I'll have WCRB on at [8:00].

As I noted last week, the BSO has decided to make their performance detail pages fram last summer at Tanglewood inaccessible, so I'm afraid you won't be able to see the program note for "Jeder Baum spricht" or anything else on the program. The brief review in the Musical Intelligencer tells us a bit about "Jeder Baum spricht" and has good words for the performance of the Beetoven and the Schumann. I haven't found a review of the conert in the Globe, but here is an interview with the composer. I heard the piece when it was broadcast last July, but I have no clear memory of it. I don't think I was very favorably impressed. But it's short, and the reast of the show should be good. So I'll give it a listen until my brother calls from Japan.

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/12/11

 This evening we can hear a rebroadcast of the Tanglewood concert of Sunday, August 8, 2021, which saw the conductor's debut with the BSO and a new piece (not a world premiere, though). IT also included two pieces by Tchaikovsky, with Yo-Yo Ma soloing in one. WCRB gives specifics:

Saturday, December 11, 2021
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast from the 2021 Tanglewood season, the American conductor makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in a program featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, plus a work by Missy Mazzoli, Saturday at 8pm.

Karina Canellakis, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Missy MAZZOLI Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

I posted about it at the time. In my post, I referenced the BSO's program note on their performance detail page. Try as I might, I can't get to the note via the link in my post. It seems the BSO as decided to make material from last summer's Tanglewood season inaccessible to the public.

At the time, I thought the Mazzoli piece was okay — decent background music for the dinner hour. The Boston Musical Intelligencer has a favorable review of the concert, as does the Boston Globe.

So this should be an enjoyable evening.

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/12/04

 The BSO is off for December, and Holiday Pops has taken over Symphony Hall. WCRB will treat us to a performance of Holiday Pops on Sunday, December 19. On Saturdays we will, as usual, have rebroadcasts of earlier concerts. This week it will be the August 14, 2021 concert from Tanglewood, with a piece from August 2 added. WCRB tells us:

Saturday, December 4, 2021
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast from the 2021 Tanglewood season, the BSO Assistant Conductor leads Elgar’s "Enigma" Variations, Elena Langer’s "Figaro Gets a Divorce," and Ravel’s jazz-infused Piano Concerto in G, with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Saturday night at 8pm.

Recorded on Aug. 14, 2021, at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood

Anna Rakitina, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Elena LANGER Suite from Figaro Gets a Divorce
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
William Grant STILL Darker America (Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Adam Hickox, conductor; Aug. 2, 2021)
ELGAR Enigma Variations

Learn more about this concert and listen to interviews at the Tanglewood Learning Institute online.

I wrote about the August 14 concert back then. WCRB wasn't broadcasting the Friday concerts last summer because the BSO wasn't doing the playing. So I have nothing specific about the Still piece they're interpolating. My general impression, though, is that Still is pretty good, so it'll probably be worth hearing.

The August 14 concert was favorably reviewed in the Intelligencer and in the Globe.

So it seems we're in for a good evening of pre-recorded music from the BSO. Enjoy.

BSO — 2021/11/27

 It's all Brahms this evening. First we get what may be my favorite piece by Brahms. You may be thinking, after all I've said about Brahms, that that's not saying much, but I really like it. It's his Serenade No. 2, which I first heard in a concert conducted by James Levine 10 or more years ago and loved at first hearing. Then after intermission they'll play the First Symphony. Here's what we find on WCRB's page:

Saturday, November 27, 2021
8:00 PM

The Boston Symphony's Music Director leads the orchestra through the rustic serenity of the German composer's Serenade No. 2, as well as his roiling and triumphant First Symphony.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

BRAHMS Serenade No. 2
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

To hear Andris Nelsons preview the concert and describe his experiences of Thanksgiving in America, click on the player above.

Transcript: 

Brian McCreath Let's talk about Brahms and the program for Thanksgiving weekend, here in the U.S., and tell me

As always the link to the audio of the interview and the full transcript are available on the page I've linked and quoted.

The BSO's own program page says

Andris Nelsons leads an all-Brahms program pairing early and mid-career orchestral works. Concerned with living up to Beethoven’s precedent in the genre, Brahms labored on his First Symphony for twenty years before finally allowing it to see the light of day in 1876. With references to Beethoven, Brahms clearly places himself in the great German symphonic tradition. The warm and idyllic Serenade No. 2, written in 1859, is a five-movement work that omits violins, creating strong contrasts between strings and woodwinds. This lovely piece was dedicated to Brahms’s lifelong friend Clara Schumann.

The usual links are also available there.

I didn't hear this concert in the earlier performances, so we have only the reviews to tell us how well they did. The reviwer in the Intelligencer considers the Serenade itself insufficiently weighty, although he has no complaint about how it was performed. As for the Symphony, he found fault with Maestro Nelsons' handling of the first movement, but all was well thereafter. The Globe review is happy with everything.

It seems we are in for an wnjoyable concert at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time this evening with a rebroadcast at the same time on December 6. Enjoy.

BSO — 2021/11/20

 This week brings the American premiere performances of a piece for trumpet and orchestra. I'm looking forward to hearing it. The Mahler symphony which concludes the concert is pleasant enough, but I'll be on the phone with my brother in Tokyo while they're playing it, so I'll have to wait until the rebroadcast on the 29th to hear it.

Here's the synopsis from the WCRB page:

Saturday, November 20, 2021
8:00 PM

The Swedish trumpeter is the soloist in Jörg Widmann's Towards Paradise, a BSO co-commission, and Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler’s vision of nature, life, and transformation, the First Symphony, Saturday evening at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet

Jörg WIDMANN Towards Paradise (Labyrinth VI), for trumpet and orchestra (American premiere; BSO co-commission)
MAHLER Symphony No. 1

To hear Håkan Hardenberger describe the genesis and challenges of Jörg Widmann's Toward's Paradise, click on the player above (transcript below).

Andris Nelsons describes the connections between Mahler and Widmann (transcript below):

Andris Nelsons on Widmann and Mahler

Transcript of interview with Håkan Hardenberger:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall in Boston and very pleased that Håkan Hardenberger is back here with us

For its part, the BSO offers the following description:

Adventurous Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger has collaborated frequently with Andris Nelsons and the BSO in a range of exciting works. This season he plays the American premiere of a BSO co-commissioned work by Jörg Widmann—the second BSO commission from the prominent German composer. Widmann, himself a noted clarinetist, creates imaginatively dramatic works with deep roots in music history.
The first of Mahler’s nine symphonies employs folk-music references and a conventional four-movement form that have their foundations in Haydn’s time. Its expanded scope and instrumentation are evidence of the genre’s 19th-century transformation as well as Mahler’s own stretching of the form.

The performance page I just quoted also has the usual links, including to the program notes, which you may want to check out. The notes on "Towards Paradise" make it sound more "adventurous" than the interview on the WCRB page.

The Thursday performance was part of my subscription, but I didn't go because I had a meeting to attend, so I can't give you any impressions of my own. I'll be hearing it for the first time this evening. But the reviews are in. The Globe's is tepid, while the Intelligencer is quite pleased. Having read the description of the Widmann piece in the Imtelligencer, I'll be pleasantly surprised if I like it. But I'll give it a chance.

You can give both parts a chance at 8:00 this evening and/or Monday, November 29 over the facilities of WCRB on air or on line.