BSO — 2025/03/08

 This evening we are treated the three unknown (to me, anyway) pieces. WCRB gives us the outline and an interview with the soloist:

Saturday, March 8, 2025
8:00 PM

South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her BSO debut conducting a trio of pieces exploring innovation within tradition. Inon Barnatan is the soloist in Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto, a love letter to his wife and his home country. The program opens with Anatoly Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake and concludes with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano

Anatoly LIADOV The Enchanted Lake
Béla BARTÓK Piano Concerto No. 3
Sergei RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3

In an interview with BSO broadcast host Brian McCreath, Inon Barnatan describes the vitality and variety of Bartók's music, what fascinates him about the Third Piano Concerto, and his approach to his artistic leadership of the La Jolla Music Society's Summerfest. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Inon Barnatan, back with the Boston Symphony to perform

The BSO's program detail page furnishes a bit more of an introduction as well as links to the program notes, which could be interesting reading:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano

LIADOV The Enchanted Lake
BARTÓK Piano Concerto No. 3
-Intermission-
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3

South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her BSO debut with a trio of pieces exploring innovation within tradition. Star pianist Inon Barnatan returns to Symphony Hall to take on one of Bartók’s final works, the Third Piano Concerto, a love letter to his wife and his home country. While living in poverty in New York having fled the onslaught of the Nazis into Hungary, Bartók’s creativity had stalled out, and his body was failing from a long illness. The concerto — not quite finished when he passed — is a more gentle and accessibly poetic work than his previous concertos, a summation of where Bartók’s style left him at the end of his life.

The Boston Globe doesn't seem to have provided a review. The reviewer in the Intelligencer had no complaints.

More I cannot tell you, but I'm looking forward to hearing this unfamiliar music.

BSO — 2024/02/10

 This evening's BSO program has only two works. I'll let WCRB tell you about them:

Saturday, February 10, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 19

Karina Canellakis leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bartók’s chilling and thrilling two-character opera Bluebeard’s Castle, based on the fable of the cruel duke whose new wife discovers his terrible past. Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill returns to Symphony Hall and German bass-baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle makes his BSO debut. Also returning to the BSO stage is cellist Alisa Weilerstein, performing Haydn’s playful Cello Concerto in C.

Karina Canellakis, conductor 
Alisa Weilerstein, cello 
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Nathan Berg, bass-baritone 

Joseph HAYDN Cello Concerto in C
Béla BARTÓK Duke Bluebeard’s Castle 

For a libretto and translation of Duke Bluebeard's Castle, visit Colorado MahlerFest.

To hear a preview of Bluebeard's Castle and Haydn's Cello Concerto with conductor Karina Canellakis, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Karina Canellakis, so good to have you back

The Haydn piece is very pleasant. I hear it on the radio from time to time. As for the Bartók, I was at a BSO performance a nnumber of years ago and my recollection is that I found it dull. I guess it's supposed to be allegorical.

The BSO performance detail page puts it this way:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Karina Canellakis, conductor 
Alisa Weilerstein, cello 
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano 
Nathan Berg, bass-baritone
Jeremiah Kissel, narrator

HAYDN Cello Concerto in C
Intermission
BARTÓK Bluebeard’s Castle*

*Concert performance; sung in Hungarian with English supertitles

Thursday evening's concert is supported by Alex Healy. Friday afternoon's performance by the vocal soloists is supported by a generous gift from the Ethan Ayer Vocal Soloist Fund.
Friday afternoon's performance by Alisa Weilerstein is supported by the May and Dan Pierce Guest Artist Fund.
Saturday evening's concert is supported by Mr. C. Thomas Brown.
Saturday evening's performance by Alisa Weilerstein is supported by Professor Paul L. Joskow and Dr. Barbara Chasen Joskow.

American conductor Karina Canellakis returns to lead a concert performance of Béla Bartók’s chilling and evocative opera Bluebeard's Castle. Based on the fable of the cruel duke whose new wife discovers his terrible past, the opera features some of Bartók’s most riveting orchestral writing. Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill sings the role of Judith, Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg is Bluebeard, and speaker Jeremiah Kissel performs the opera’s Prologue in these performances. To begin these concerts, the innovative American cellist Alisa Weilerstein is soloist in Joseph Haydn’s playful Cello Concerto in C.

Scholar and writer Lucy Caplan will give the Friday Preview on February 9 at 12:15pm. Admission included with ticket.

Thursday's performance will end around 9:30pm, Friday's performance will end around 3:30pm, and Saturday's performance will end around 10pm.

Regretfully, baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle has had to withdraw from his performances this week in the role of Bluebeard in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle due to illness. We are fortunate that bass-baritone Nathan Berg is able to sing the role in his place at very short notice.

See that page for program notes.

The Globe liked the performances but felt that there was no connection between the pieces. The review in the Intelligencer is quite complete and favorable.

So maybe enjoy the Haydn and give the Bartók a try.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/08/26

 Once more, the BSO is on hiatus. They are on tour in Europe now, I believe, and the Symphony Hall subscription season will begin on October 5, with the first Saturday concert on October 7. Meanwhile, as usual, WCRB gives us "encore broadcasts" of earlier BSO concerts. Today it's from October of last year. Here's what WCRB says:

Saturday, August 26, 2023
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast, Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada has his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut conducting a rich program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 with soloist Emanuel Ax.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Peter TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy after Shakespeare
Wolfgang MOZART Piano Concerto No. 18
Béla BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Georges ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No. 1

This concert was originally broadcast on October 15, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

In a preview of the program, Andrés Orozco-Estrada describes the character of each piece, how he prepares to lead an orchestra for the first time, and who his models were as he learned his craft as a young conductor. To listen, use the audio player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who is here with the Boston Symphony for the very first time.

The full transcript of the interview is available at that WCRB page (likked above), as is the audio recording of it. I think you'll find it interesting if you have the time.

I posted about it back then, and the links in my post for the BSO performance detail page and the reviews still work, so you can go there for more backgrtound information on a well received performance.

Enjoy!

Tanglewood — 2023/08/11-13

 Today I remembered, so here's a preview of all three Tanglewood concerts to be broadcast this weekend.

First, here's the synopsis for this evening, courtesy of WCRB:

Friday, August 11th, 2023
8:00 PM

Superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO in John Williams's Violin Concerto No. 2, with works by Strauss and Ravel also on the program.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

John WILLIAMS Violin Concerto No. 2
Richard STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
Maurice RAVEL La Valse

My recollection of the Williams concerto is that it's nothing to write home about; but the Strauss and Ravel are pretty good. I would'nt call them must-hear. but they've stayed in the repertoire for a reason, and if you don't have something important to do, you might as well listen in.

On Saturday, they save the best for first:

Saturday, August 12th, 2023
8:00 PM

Susanna Mälkki leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Seong-Jin Cho is the soloist in Mozart’s brilliant Piano Concerto No. 9.

Susanna Mälkki, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, K. 271
Béla BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

I have no memory of the Mozart, but it has to be good. As for the Bartók, the BSO owns the piece. That is, it was commissioned by them and they gave the world premiere nearly 80 years ago. Since then it has been one of their signature pieces. Still, it's Bartók, quite dissonant and jagged. I've heard it enough that I'm kind of used to it, but it's probably not to all tastes. I'd suggest giving it a try, if you aren't already familiar with it.

Then on Sunday evening at 7:00 we can hear:

Sunday, August 13th, 2023
7:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Julia Adolphe’s Makeshift Castle, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and Strauss songs with orchestra, featuring world-class soprano Renée Fleming.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano

Julia ADOLPHE Makeshift Castle
Richard STRAUSS Songs with orchestra
Igor STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)

Yo-Yo Ma, who was originally scheduled to perform Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, has withdrawn from this performance due to illness.

I hope Yo-Yo Ma will get well soon. On the other hand I'd rather hear the Strauss than Shostakovich.

The BSO page has links to information about all three concerts and others. They give us the program note about "Makeshift Castle," which at least gives some idea of what to expect and listen for. There doesn't seem to be anything similar for the Strauss and Stravinsky. Strauss is usually pretty good with songs, and Petrushka was composed before "Rite of Spring," so it's not terribly jarring, and actually kind of tuneful.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/07/01

WCRB gives us something different this evening: a retrospective on the Ozawa years through recordings and interviews. Here's the program:

Saturday, July 1, 2023
8:00 PM

Seiji Ozawa's 29 years as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the longest tenure for any conductor in that position in BSO history. He also led more BSO recordings of individual works than any other conductor. In this program, four members of the orchestra - Principal Horn Richard Sebring, violinists Tatiana Dimitriades and Bonnie Bewick, and Associate Principal Double Bass Lawrence Wolfe - along with BSO Vice President for Artistic Planning Tony Fogg, tell the stories of the most memorable recordings they made with Ozawa.

On the program:

MAHLER - Symphony No. 3, movements IV and V 
with soprano Jessye Norman, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the American Boychoir

MAHLER - Symphony No. 4, movements III and IV
with soprano Kiri Te Kanawa

RAVEL - Alborada del Gracioso

BARTÓK - Violin Concerto No. 2, movement III
with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter

DUTILLEUX - The Shadows of Time

BERLIOZ - The Damnation of Faust, Part 1
with tenor Stuart Burrows and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Since this is not a (re)broadcast of a live concert, there is no performancse detail page nor review to link. These are not pieces of music that are on my personal favorites list, although Mahler is pretty good and Berlioz usually gives us something worth hearing. I just don't remember anything specific from these pieces. The reminiscences could be very interesting, so on balance, I think this should be a good show.

BSO — 2022/10/15

 As always, WCRB gives us a synopsis along with a link to an interview (this time with the debuting conductor) and a transcript of said interview:

Saturday, October 15, 2022
8:00 PM

Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada leads the Boston Symphony for the first time in a rich program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 with soloist Emanuel Ax.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Peter TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy after Shakespeare
Wolfgang MOZART Piano Concerto No. 18
Béla BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Georges ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No. 1

In a preview of the program, Andrés Orozco-Estrada describes the character of each piece, how he prepares to lead an orchestra for the first time, and who his models were as he learned his craft as a young conductor. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who is here with the Boston Symphony for the very first time. Thank you for some of your time today. Is this the first time you've been to Boston?

Andrés Orozco-Estrada This is it! It's my first time, and I'm very happy being here for the first time.

I've read some of the interview, and it's interesting to learn how the pieces on the program were chosen. The BSO performance detail page gives this blurb:

Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada in his BSO debut is joined by American pianist Emanuel Ax for Wolfgang Mozart’s high-spirited Piano Concerto No. 18. The familiar, yearning Romeo and Juliet Overture is one of several works Pyotr Tchaikovsky based on Shakespeare plays. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s lurid Miraculous Mandarin Suite and the Romanian French composer George Enescu's folk music inspired Romanian Rhapsody both make exciting and colorful demands on the orchestra.

The program notes for the individual pieces are available by clicking on their brief descriptions.

This concert was not part of my sbscription, so I can't tell you how it went, but the reviewer in the Globe was happy. The review in the Intelligencer is effusive (or should I say "effervescent"?).

So, based on all that, I recommend listening in on WCRB radio or online this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO — 2021/10/02

 Live, from Symphony Hall, it's the Boston Symphony Orchestra!

That's right, folks: the BSO 2021-22 subscription season has begun with concerts in front of live audiences. Oprning night was Thursday, and we get to hear the program performed again this evening.

Here's the synopsis from WCRB, who will transmit it via radio and internet:

Saturday, October 2, 2021
8:00 PM

In a return to concerts at Symphony Hall after 19 months, Anne-Sophie Mutter is the soloist in John Williams’s Violin Concerto No. 2, led by the composer, and Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Bartók, live on Saturday night at 8pm.

Andris Nelsons and John Williams, conductors
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

BEETHOVEN Overture, The Consecration of the House
John WILLIAMS Violin Concerto No. 2
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

More is available through various links at the BSO's performance detail page, which describes the proceedings thus:

Led by both Music Director Andris Nelsons and Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams, the BSO presents a special pair of concerts to welcome back live audiences to Symphony Hall after a nearly 20-month absence. Opening the concert, Mr. Nelsons leads Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture, the first work ever performed by the BSO in 1881. Mr. Williams then takes the podium for the first Boston performances of his own Violin Concerto No. 2, written for superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, which she premiered at Tanglewood in 2021. Completing the program is Bartók’s uniquely dramatic Concerto for Orchestra, one of the BSO’s most famous commissions, originally premiered by Serge Koussevitzky in 1944.

I was there on Thursday, and I found the Beethoven very enjoyable. It's a fine piece, and they played it well. The Williams violin concerto was unenjoyable. As the Boston Globe reviewer says, it's too long. Worse than that, I didn't detect any musicality in it. In a way, I suppose, it showcased Ms. Mutter's talent, but it seemed incoherent. Where were the themes? Where was the development? At least the sounds weren't unpleasant to hear. For an encore, they played an arrangement of something by Williams from "The Long Goodbye," which had a tune and was nice to hear.

The Bartók concerto is something I've heard a number of times. It's one of the BSO's signature pieces. Thanks to the program notes, (which I recommend reading, especially the actual description of the piece toward the end) I was able to follow it better than on previous occasions, and I found it interesting to listen to as the elements referred to in the program notes unfolded. Even though it's "modern music," it was pretty good — certainly way better than the Williams piece.

The reviewer in the Boston Musical Intelligencer really liked the Williams violin concerto — both the work and the performance — although even he at one point used the word "bewildering" to describe it. He seemed to think the other pieces were not performed vigorously enough, but didn't detect any actual mistakes.

The Globe reviewer didn't want to be crowded in with all those people, even though they were all vaccinated and masked. She spent a lot of time complaining about it. Apart from not liking the Williams, she was unenthusiastic about the performances given the other two pieces, although she had no specific criticisms. She just wished she weren't there.

But you don't have to be there to enjoy the return of the BSO to Symphony Hall. Just go to WCRB at 8:00 this evening, Boston Time (EDT) and enjoy (at least the first and last pieces flawlessly, if unspectacularly, performed). The BSO is back!

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/11/28

 Once more this week, WCRB rebroadcasts the concert performed five years ago today, described as follows on their webpage:

Saturday at 8pm, Yefim Bronfman is the soloist in Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Andris Nelsons leads teh Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Symphony No. 30, "Alleluia," by Haydn, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams."

Saturday, November 28, 2020
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast from November 28, 2015

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

HAYDN Symphony No. 30, "Alleluja"
BARTÓK Piano Concerto No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams"

Back in 2015, I wrote about it as follows (edited to remove content no longer valid):

That's right, instead of running from Thursday through Saturday (or the occasional following Tuesday) this week's program is being given, as shown by the dates in the title, [2015/11/24-28 on the original post] from Tuesday through Saturday, because there is no concert on Thanksgiving Day. (Unlike certain retail giants, the BSO gives its people the day off.)

It's a concert I would have liked to attend in person and one I'm looking forward to hearing. I'll listen to the Haydn and Bartók live, and the Tchaikovsky during the rebroadcast December 7.The Bartók may be a bit challenging, but the rest should be pleasant. The BSO's performance detail page gives this description (reversing the order of the first two pieces):

Andris Nelsons and Yefim Bronfman collaborate with the BSO in Bartók's dazzling Piano Concerto No. 2, a formidably difficult work the composer wrote for himself to perform. Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 30, Alleluja, dating from 1765, takes its nickname from the Gregorian chant melody in its first movement. Another relative rarity is Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams. Begun in 1866 but not premiered until 1883, the symphony is the earliest major work by the composer, and is saturated with elements of Russian folk music style.

(Emphasis added.)

The Globe's review is favorable, as is that in the Boston Musical Intelligencer; although the latter is less than completely satisfied with the sound in the Haydn.

You can listen live on air or via the web on WCRB this evening (Nov. 28) at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

Since the BSO's performance detail page is no longer accessible, you can't get the sorts of material that is usually linked on it.

Unfortunately, I'll have to miss the Tchaikovsky, since it will be broadcast during my brother's phone call from Japan, It's a pleasant piece, and you'll probably like it.

So, this is one I definitely recommend for the Haydn and Tchaikovsky. I don't remember the Bartók concerto, so I express no opinion about it.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/11/14

This week WCRB follows their new pattern of giving us the concert that was performed exactly five years ago. This means that today we can hear

Saturday at 8pm, Christoph von Dohnányi leads the BSO in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with soloist Martin Helmchen, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and the world premiere of Jean-Frédéric Neuburger's BSO-commissioned Aube ("Dawn").

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020
8:00 PM

Originally broadcast on Saturday, November 14, 2015

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Martin Helmchen, piano

NEUBURGER Aube ("Dawn") (world premiere; BSO commission)
BARTOK Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"

Five years ago I wrote:

Another week, another premiere by the Boston Symphony. This time, it's not merely the American premiere, but the world premiere that they'll give. The work in question is titled Aube, and it's by young Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Then we step back in time for Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. After the intermission, the orchestra and guest conductor Christoph von Dohnányi are joined by pianist Martin Helmchen for the masterful Piano Concerto № 5, "Emperor," by Beethoven. The orchestra's performance detail pageadds a bit more to my description with the following:

Frequent BSO guest conductor Christoph von Dohnányi leads the world premiere of Aube ("Dawn"), a BSO-commissioned work by the celebrated 28-year-old French composer Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Neuburger's compositional voice is rooted in the brilliant colors and energy of his French predecessors from Ravel to Boulez. An iconic 20th-century masterpiece, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta epitomizes the composer's genius for mood and form. To close the program, German pianist Martin Helmchen plays Beethoven's majestic and high-spirited Emperor Concerto.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer presents a gushing review. The reviewer's analysis of the pieces in the concert could be read alongside the program notes and audio previews. His interpretation of their cosmic significance is unexpected, but not unprecedented in music reviews. The Globe has a very favorable review, devoted mostly to the new piece — which the reviewer liked — but with praise for the performance of the remaining works as well.

My take on what I heard Thursday evening is at once less analytic and less expansive. "Aube" was not unpleasant to listen to, although there were no clear, sustained "tunes" that I recall. It was clearly an organized succession of sounds (unlike some of the truly unpleasant stuff I've occasionally sat through), so it fits the definition of music. I didn't really "get it" on that first hearing. The question of whether there's anything there to get can only be answered with further hearings, so I'm looking forward to hearing it again on Saturday. The composer was warmly applauded (and applauded the orchestra), but didn't seem to want to remain on stage and bask  in it. About the Bartók I'll say I was pleasantly surprised at how listenable it was. The program note spoke at length about how the first movement takes a theme and moves it around the "circle of fifths," starting with A and ending with E flat, and then goes back to A with the theme inverted. Listening to it, I couldn't have told you that either of those things was happening, which tells you something about how untrained my ear is, and perhaps how skillfully Bartók works it.

Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto is one of my favorite pieces. When I went to college, my freshman roommate had a recording of the "Emperor," Van Cliburn I think, that he'd put on his record player every Sunday morning. The machine had a defect: when it finished playing a side, it would return the needle to a point one inch in from the edge, over and over. The result was that Sunday after Sunday I'd hear multiple repeats of the last 3/4 of the first movement. Once in a while he'd play the second side. It was wonderful to hear that great music so much. One time, when I was at the monastery, I put on a record of the "Emperor," and for some reason I found myself actually moved to tears a some point in the slow second movement. That hasn't happened again. My dad always loved the transition from the second to the third movement. When we had the record on during dinner, he'd silence us to listen to the quiet end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd and then the forte statement of the triumphant main theme — a masterful moment to be sure.

I liked the performance on Thursday. There wasn't anything truly outstanding that I noticed. One thing I liked was that the pianist varied his dynamics very well. Soft passages, in particular, were really soft. Of course the loud parts were really loud as well. Overall, it was great music, beautifully presented.

You can listen on line or on air via WCRB at 8:00 p.m. EST (Boston Time, as I call it) today, November 14. The station's BSO page gives a link to interview material with conductor and pianist.

(Edited for relevance.)

The first half should at least be interesting and tolerable, and the "Emperor" Concerto is not to be missed.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/05/30

This week's "encore broadcast" and webstream on WCRB is the concert of October 19, 2019.
Here's what I posted about it at the time:

This week it's "the four B's," extending Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms with some Bartók. The performance detail page describes it like this:

The eminent Hungarian-born pianist András Schiff made his BSO debut in 1983 and last appeared with the orchestra in 2008. In his first appearances with the BSO as a conductor, he leads Bach’s F minor concerto and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 from the keyboard. After intermission, he takes the podium to conduct Brahms’s Haydn Variations and Bartók’s pungent folk-influenced Dance Suite. The Haydn Variations are based on the “Chorale St. Antoni,” a well-known melody once attributed to Haydn. Composed in 1873, this was Brahms’ biggest foray into purely orchestral music prior to completing his first symphony three years later. Based on a variety of traditional dance melodies, Bartók’s Dance Suite was immensely successful at the time of its 1923 premiere.

(Some emphasis added.)

The page has the usual links to program notes and related media. WCRB has a page with a link to an interview with Maestro Schiff.

I was still away on Thursday, so I didn't hear the performance, but the reviewer in the Globe was deeply impressed with Maestro Schiff's performance. The review in the Intelligencer is equally favorable, if less extensive.

So, by all means give a listen over WCRB this evening at 8:00, Boston Time. 

At this point, I have nothing to add, so I'll just repeat the suggestion to listen in.

BSO — 2019/10/19

Sorry I missed last week, but I was away.

This week it's "the four B's," extending Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms with some Bartók. The performance detail page describes it like this:

The eminent Hungarian-born pianist András Schiff made his BSO debut in 1983 and last appeared with the orchestra in 2008. In his first appearances with the BSO as a conductor, he leads Bach’s F minor concerto and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 from the keyboard. After intermission, he takes the podium to conduct Brahms’s Haydn Variations and Bartók’s pungent folk-influenced Dance Suite. The Haydn Variations are based on the “Chorale St. Antoni,” a well-known melody once attributed to Haydn. Composed in 1873, this was Brahms’ biggest foray into purely orchestral music prior to completing his first symphony three years later. Based on a variety of traditional dance melodies, Bartók’s Dance Suite was immensely successful at the time of its 1923 premiere.

(Some emphasis added.)

The page has the usual links to program notes and related media. WCRB has a page with a link to an interview with Maestro Schiff.

I was still away on Thursday, so I didn't hear the performance, but the reviewer in the Globe was deeply impressed with Maestro Schiff's performance. The review in the Intelligencer is equally favorable, if less extensive.

So, by all means give a listen over WCRB this evening at 8:00, Boston Time. You can also hear the rebroadcast at 8 p.m. on Monday, October 28.

BSO/Classical New England — 2019/05/11

In the first of the "encore broadcasts" which will fill the 8:00 p.m. time slots between now and the BSO opening of the Tanglewood Season, this evening WCRB will retransmit the concert which opened the Symphony Hall season last October. I heard it on October 11 and posted about it at the time, with links to reviews and the BSO's performance detail page.

As you can see, neither the reviewers nor I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the Red Sox played this afternoon, so I'll listen until my kid brother calls from Tokyo.

Here's the link to WCRB, where you can hear it, and also learn about lots of other programs they offer.

Let your conscience be your guide, and enjoy as much as you can.

BSO — 2018/10/13

This week the Boston Symphony opens its/open their for my British readers 2018-2019 Symphony Hall season, so we will be able to hear a live concert from Symphony Hall. The orchestra's program detail page has links to their Media Center, audio previews of the concert, program notes from the program booklet, and a bio of the conductor (available by clicking on the thumbnail picture. It also gives this description of the concert (annoyingly listing the works out of the order in which they will be performed):

Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra-a work commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1944-anchors this season-opening program highlighting the virtuosity of the orchestra's string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections. Acclaimed Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, making his BSO debut, conducts that work, as well as Stravinsky's piquant Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.

(Emphasis added.)

The synopsis is inaccurate in one detail. The strings played the Tchaikovsky without a conductor on Thursday, and the program booklet indicates that it was planned to be without conductor on Friday and Saturday, as well.

I have seen three reviews of the Thursday performance: one in the Boston Classical Review, one in the Boston Globe, and one in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Classical Review liked the playing of the Stravinsky and Bartók, but the Tchaikovsky not so much. For the Globe, it was all good. The reviewer in the Intelligencer found the Tchaikovsky transformed into a "stone sculpture," was unhappy with how they did the Stravinsky, and was scathing about the performance of the Bartók. If you're familiar with the music, you can decide whose take agrees with yours.

I was there on Thursday and thought the Stravinsky (new to me) was unpleasant, the Tchaikovsky unremarkable, and the Bartók tolerable apart from the brass screams. I'm not enough of a musician to judge the reviewers' takes on how the music was performed. As far as I could tell, they were doing it competently.  But to my tastes, none of it was "must listening," and I'll probably pass up the chance to hear it again so I can listen to the Red Sox game. OTOH, if you're not a Sox fan, you'll probably enjoy the Tchaikovsky and some of the gentler parts of the Bartók.

As always, the show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EDST) and can be heard on air or on line via WCRB. You might want to check out other pages on their website and see what else they offer.