BSO — 2022/11/26

 The orchestra is back from Japan. WCRB tells us what they'll play for our entertainment this evening:

Saturday, November 26, 2022
8:00 PM

BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina conducts the suite from Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Inon Barnatan is the soloist in the crown-jewel of Rachmaninoff’s works, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Anna Rakitina, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano

Elena LANGER Figaro Gets a Divorce Suite
Sergei RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Modest MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, pianist Inon Barnatan describes his love for Rachmaninoff's music, how the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is unique among the composer's works for piano, and what he's learned as Music Director of the La Jolla SummerFest. To listen, used the player above, or read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Inon Barnatan, who is back with the BSO for the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of my

As usual, if you go to their page you can find a link to the audio of the interview as well as the full transcript.

The BSO' own performance detail page gives the following blurb as well as links to the program notes that are in the booklets given to the audience:

BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina leads pianist Inon Barnatan in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s last piano-and-orchestra work, featuring both astonishing virtuoso passages and Rachmaninoff’s best-known melody. The orchestral suite from composer Elena Langer’s witty and touching opera Figaro Gets a Divorce is by turns mysterious, songful, and jazzy. Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated brilliantly by Maurice Ravel, is a magical response to marvelous paintings.

As the program note informs us, the "Figaro Gets a Divorce" Suite was performed at Tanglewood in 2021. I think I heard it then, and I seem to remember it was okay, but nothing to write home about. The other two pieces on the program are "warhorses."

The Intelligencer has a mixed review of Friday's performance. I can't find a review in the Globe.

Well, the Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff pieces have stood the test of time (even if they aren't the greatest thing since sliced bread), so you might as well listen to them. Nothing there to drive you screaming from the room.

I hope there will be a rebroadcast at 8:00 p.m. on December 5. There usually is a retransmission when it's a live concert on a Saturday, although they don't actually promise it this time. We'll see.

BSO/Classical New England — 2022/11/19

 This week we are treated to a rebroadcast of the BSO concert of last April 9. Here's what WCRB says about it, plus the beginning of a sixteen minute interview with the conductor  (with audio also linked on the page):

Saturday, November 19, 2022
8:00 PM

The BSO Assistant Conductor conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an encore broadcast featuring a modern work by American composer Ellen Reid and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7, and pianist Alexandre Kantorow makes his BSO debut as the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Anna Rakitina, conductor
Alexandre Kantorow, piano

Piotr TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 2
Ellen REID When the World as You’ve Known It Doesn’t Exist
Jean SIBELIUS Symphony No. 7

This concert was originally broadcast on April 9, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear a preview of the program with Anna Rakitina with the audio player above (transcript below).

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Anna Rakitina

For whatever reason, it seems I didn't write about theis concert at the time, or in the preceding or following weeks, so all I can say is Tchaikovsky is pretty safe, and I like Sibelius' symphonies. Based on that, it should be good, although the reid piece is a question mark for me.

The BSO performance detail page says:

Having made her Symphony Hall debut in the BSO’s streamed concerts of 2020–21, Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina conducts her first live-audience Symphony Hall program featuring the BSO debut of French pianist Alexandre Kantorow. The grand prix winner in the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition performs Tchaikovsky’s rarely heard Piano Concerto No. 2, an attractive work long overshadowed by the composer’s immensely popular Concerto No. 1. Tennessee-born composer Ellen Reid won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera p r i s m. Her 2019 orchestral score When the World as You’ve Known it Doesn’t Exist revels in energy and pure orchestral sound; the instrumental ensemble is enhanced by the earthy sounds of three soprano voices. Sibelius’ one-movement Symphony No. 7, one of his last completed works, was an entirely personal reinvention of the genre that had occupied him for almost forty years and which was closely tied to the landscape and culture of Finland.

There are also links to the program notes on that page.

The Globe has a tepid review. By contrast, the reviewer in the Intelligencer found the concert "fabulous" and felt that the Reid piece deserves a second hearing.

After reading the linked material, I'd suggest that the concert may not be the greatest ever, but still worth hearing. When will you have another chance to hear Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto?

BSO/Classical New England — 2022/11/12

 This evening's BSO rebroadcast is summarized as follows by WCRB:

Saturday, November 12, 2022
8:00 PM

The Latvian violinist is the soloist in Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in works by Pärt and Stravinsky, as well as Saariaho’s "Saarikoski Songs," with soprano Anu Komsi.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Baiba Skride, violin
Anu Komsi, soprano

Arvo PÄRT Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1
Kaija SAARIAHO Saarikoski Songs (world premiere of orchestral version; BSO co-commission)
Igor STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)

This concert was originally broadcast on February 26, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear Baiba Skride describe the challenges of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the audio player above (transcript below):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Baiba Skride, who is back here in the United States once again after a nice trip to Tanglewood last summer. Baiba, thank you for a little bit o

The audio of the interview is about eleven minutes long.

The BSO performance detail page for the concert is still available, and includes a link to the program notes for all the pieces in the concert.

I wrote about it back when it was performed in February, and I have no new information. Rereading what I write has slightly jogged my vague memory, and I still think it's not must hear music, but I'll want to hear the opening piece. After that I'll probably leave the radio on, but not pay careful attention.

BSO/Classical New England — 2022/11/05

 The orchestra has gone to Japan for a concert tour, so WCRB is providing us with a rebroadcast from last spring, as noted here:

Saturday, November 5, 2022
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast of the final concert in the 2021-2022 Boston Symphony Orchestra season, BSO Principal Cellist Blaise Déjardin is center-stage in Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto No. 1, and Andris Nelsons conducts Richard Strauss's panoramic "An Alpine Symphony" and a selection from the composer's "Intermezzo."

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Blaise Déjardin, cello

Richard STRAUSS "Dreaming by the Fireside" from Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo
Camille SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No. 1
STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony

This concert was originally broadcast on Saturday, April 30. It is no longer available on demand.

To hear Blaise Déjardin preview the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Saint-Saëns, talk about his new book, Audition Day, and how golf and learning magic helped his cello playing, use the audio player above, and read the transcript below:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Blaise Déjardin, the Principal Cellist of the Boston Symphony. But Blaise,

At the time, I wrote as follows:

 We come now to the final concert of the BSO's 2021-22 season.[…]

If you go to WCRB's page you can read or listen to the interview.

The BSO's own performance detail page tells us more about the music:

The BSO’s own principal cello Blaise Déjardin makes his solo concerto debut with the orchestra in these concerts performing the astonishingly gifted French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ 1873 Cello Concerto No. 1. In one movement, this compact concerto moves from exhilarating energy to great charm and finally to impassioned, virtuosic lyricism.
The orchestral interludes from his 1924 opera Intermezzo are self-contained miniature tone poems of great dramatic effectiveness. The gorgeous “Dreaming by the Fireside” depicts a woman’s yearning for her husband, who is a musician on tour—part of the autobiographical plot of the opera. Strauss’s absolute mastery of the orchestra is put to very different use in the tone poem An Alpine Symphony, which musically illustrates nature in all its glory via the climb and descent of a mountain in the Alps.

There are also brief blurbs about each piece and a number of links, including one for the program notes which appear in the booklet given to audience members.

The Globe reviewer liked the first Strauss piece and the Saint-Saëns cello concerto, but found the Alpine Symphony too long and mostly unengaging, but found no fault with how it was performed. So far, there is no review in the Intelligencer.

I wasn't there on Thursday, so I can't say how they did. What I can say is I'm not surprised by the review in the Globe. I'd expect the first half to be pleasant. I've heard the Alpine Symphony a few times and I'd say it has its moments, and it's never hard to listen to.

Overall, I think it's worth tuning in or connecting.

I've subsequently found a mixed review in the Intelligencer: liked the first half, not thrilled with the "Alpensymphonie."I still recommend it overall, although I won't blame anyone who treats the second half as background music.