BSO — 2023/11/11

 Sorry I missed last week.

Here's WCRB's synopsis of this week's concert:

Saturday, November 11, 2023
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, November 20

Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu leads the BSO in Peter Lieberson’s Drala, inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist term describing life-source, as well as Schumann’s brooding and majestic Symphony No. 4. Leonidas Kavakos returns to Symphony Hall to perform Alban Berg’s final finished piece, the Violin Concerto, written in response to the death of Alma Mahler's daughter.

Hannu Lintu, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Peter LIEBERSON Drala
Alban BERG Violin Concerto
Robert SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

Leonidas Kavakos appears courtesy of Sony Classical, a label of Sony Music Entertainment

In a preview conversation, Hannu Lintu describes the connections among the three pieces on this program, the story behind Berg's Violin Concerto, with its dedication to Manon Gropius and the meaning behind the Bach chorale embedded in its last movement, and why his Finnish musical background draws him to Schumann's Fourth Symphony. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

Meanwhile, the BSO's performance detail page gives us this (along with links to the program notes):

Hannu Lintu, conductor 
Leonidas Kavakos, violin 

LIEBERSON Drala
BERG Violin Concerto
Intermission
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

How do you see the world? Drala, a BSO commission by American composer Peter Lieberson, premiered in 1986 and takes its title from a Tibetan Buddhist term. The word “drala” has many meanings, one of which relates to deepening and expanding one’s perception of the world. Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu leads the BSO and frequent guest Leonidas Kavakos in Alban Berg’s final finished piece; quoting poignantly from Bach, this haunting 1935 Violin Concerto was written in response to the death of a friend’s daughter. In closing, Robert Schumann’s majestic Symphony No. 4, which draws inspiration from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in its use of recurring musical themes to tie together the work’s four movements.

The Globe reviewer didn't like the first piece but seems to have enjoyed the rest.

The Intelligencer's reviewer loved the first piece, but was unhappy with the Schumann.

Based on all that, I'm not expecting to enjoy "Drala." In general, I don't care for Berg, but the violin concerto may be less bad than some of his stuff. So for me, the best part will come after intermission, with the Schumann symphony. See what you think, f you listen.

BSO — 2022/03/12

 Opera night at the BSO, as WCRB tells us:

Saturday, March 12, and Monday, March 21, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Austrian composer’s 1925 opera "Wozzeck," starring soprano Christine Goerke as Marie and baritone Bo Skovhus as the title character.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

Cast to include
Bo Skovhus, baritone (Wozzeck)
Christine Goerke, soprano (Marie)
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano (Margret)
Christopher Ventris, tenor (Drum Major)
Mauro Peter, tenor (Andres)
Franz Hawlata, bass (Doctor)

BERG Wozzeck

See a translation of the Wozzeck libretto.

For a synopsis and notes, visit the BSO.

Click on the player above to hear Christine Goerke talk with CRB's Ron Della Chiesa about singing the role of Marie in Wozzeck, how film music opened up the emotion of the opera for her, and the camaraderie she shares with her colleagues. She begins by describing her debut with the Boston Symphony, singing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and an unexpected encounter backstage.

Interview transcript:

On WCRB's page, "visit the BSO" has a link to the BSO's own program detail. which I definitely recommend having with you if you listen.

The Intelligencer has a mixed review, on balance favorable though. The Globe's review finds no fault.

Alban Berg's music is "difficult" to mmy ears. I heard this opera when the Metropolitan Opera broadcast a performance 60 or more years ago, and I didn't like it. I'm not sure if I'll listen this evening, but I'll probably leave the radio on.

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.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/11/21

WCRB describes this week's retrospective as follows:

Saturday at 8pm, Isabelle Faust is the soloist in Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus sings Bach's Komm, Jesu, komm! and Es ist genug, and the BSO performs the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich, all conducted by Andris Nelsons.

Saturday, November 21, 2020
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast from November 21, 2015
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Isabelle Faust, violin

J.S. BACH Komm, Jesu, komm!, BWV 229
J.S. BACH Es ist genug, from Cantata No. 60
BERG Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

 This concert is no longer available on-demand.

Back then I wrote:

I don't know how to introduce this week's concert, so I'll simply quote the BSO's performance detail page:

Andris Nelsons leads this intriguing program of seemingly disconnected works. Two of the most important works of the 20th century, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Alban Berg's Violin Concertowere composed within two years of one another. Shostakovich's symphony, which follows a trajectory from darkness to triumph, has long been considered his reaction to official condemnation of his music by the Soviet government, but the reality is far subtler than that.Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was composed as a memorial to eighteen-year-old Manon Gropius (daughter of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler); the entire work is suffused with elegy. Its second movement quotes Bach'schorale Es ist genug, which has deep musical connections to Berg's piece. That brief Bach chorale from Cantata No. 60, as well as the short motet Komm, Jesu, komm!, open and set the tone for this program.

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra are recording these performances of Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 for a release in May, 2016!

(Some emphasis added.)

What they don't tell you in the above blurb is that the violin soloist is Isabelle Faust and that the order of performance is Bach, Berg, Shostakovich. This concert is part of my subscription, but I'm really not interested in hearing either the Berg or the Shostakovich. If I'd been more alert, I'd have exchanged my ticket to this one for a ticket to either February 4th's concert of Shakespeare-related music, or to the one on March 29 which is in the series giving an American premiere; but after the attacks in Paris, I was content to be there because of the aspect of confronting tragedy and death which the program had.

The review in the Boston Globe isn't exactly glowing, but definitely favorable. The Boston Musical Intelligencer analyzes not only the music but also the performances, noting distinctive elements in Maestro Nelsons' approach.

As for me, I didn't catch most of the features that the program notes and interviews had pointed out, except when the winds repeated the "Es ist genug" theme toward the end of the Berg concerto. I'm beginning to think that I listen too hard at these concerts. Maybe I shouldn't bother to try to catch everything that's happening and just let it wash over me. Having some idea what to expect may be a good thing, but maybe I don't need to try to pick it all out as it happens.

You can hear it for yourself via WCRB's broadcast or webstream at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, on November 21.

(Edited for relevance.)

This is one I'd probably skip if it weren't customary for me to listen to these broadcasts. In fact I might even see if WHRB is playing anything good at 8:00. So I won't blame you if you find something else to do this evening — or maybe switch away after the Bach pieces.

BSO — 2015/11/19-21

I don't know how to introduce this week's concert, so I'll simply quote the BSO's performance detail page:

Andris Nelsons leads this intriguing program of seemingly disconnected works. Two of the most important works of the 20th century, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Alban Berg's Violin Concerto were composed within two years of one another. Shostakovich's symphony, which follows a trajectory from darkness to triumph, has long been considered his reaction to official condemnation of his music by the Soviet government, but the reality is far subtler than that.Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was composed as a memorial to eighteen-year-old Manon Gropius (daughter of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler); the entire work is suffused with elegy. Its second movement quotes Bach's chorale Es ist genug, which has deep musical connections to Berg's piece. That brief Bach chorale from Cantata No. 60, as well as the short motet Komm, Jesu, komm!, open and set the tone for this program.

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra are recording these performances of Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 for a release in May, 2016!

Join the conversation online by using #BSOShostakovich for this concert series or #BSO1516 on your social networks to discover the excitement of the season and connect with one another!

(Some emphasis added.)

As always, you can find links to their Media Center, performer bios, program notes, and audio previews. What they don't tell you in the above blurb is that the violin soloist is Isabelle Faust and that the order of performance is Bach, Berg, Shostakovich. This concert is part of my subscription, but I'm really not interested in hearing either the Berg or the Shostakovich. If I'd been more alert, I'd have exchanged my ticket to this one for a ticket to either February 4th's concert of Shakespeare-related music, or to the one on March 29 which is in the series giving an American premiere; but after the attacks in Paris, I was content to be there because of the aspect of confronting tragedy and death which the program had.

The review in the Boston Globe isn't exactly glowing, but definitely favorable. The Boston Musical Intelligencer analyzes not only the music but also the performances, noting distinctive elements in Maestro Nelsons' approach.

As for me, I didn't catch most of the features that the program notes and interviews had pointed out, except when the winds repeated the "Es ist genug" theme toward the end of the Berg concerto. I'm beginning to think that I listen too hard at these concerts. Maybe I shouldn't bother to try to catch everything that's happening and just let it wash over me. Having some idea what to expect may be a good thing, but maybe I don't need to try to pick it all out as it happens.

You can hear it for yourself via WCRB's broadcast or webstream at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, on November 21, with a repeat transmission on Monday, November 30, at the same time of day. Also check out the "on demand" availability of this and other concerts from the past year — see their BSO page for information about that (in the upper right corner) as well as the podcast feature and schedule information I've mentioned every week.

Tanglewood July 30-August 1, 2010

Here's how the BSO Tanglewood website describes this weekend's offerings. Ron Della Chiesa has the "pre-game show" beginning 1/2 hour before each scheduled concert time. All is available at www.995allclassical.org.

"All-Russian Program with Charles Dutoit 

Friday, July 30, 8:30PM

At 8:30 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is joined by longtime BSO guest conductor and 1959 TMC Fellow Charles Dutoit as well as Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein for a program of Russian concert favorites. Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 1—which showcases the skills of Mr. Gerstein, the recent winner of the Gilmore Artist Award—shares the first half of the concert with the overture to Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila. After intermission, Maestro Dutoit and the BSO perform a suite from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

Berg, Strauss, & Mahler Program 

Saturday, July 31, 8:30PM

The BSO welcomes conductor Juanjo Mena at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed for a program of Berg's ambitious Three Pieces for Orchestra, Strauss's autumnal Four Last Songs with soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, the most delicate of his nine completed works in the form. Maestro Mena is Principal Guest Conductor of Norway's Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Guest Conductor at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, succeeding Gianandrea Noseda in September 2011. He makes his BSO debut with this program.

Yo-Yo Ma Returns to Tanglewood 

Sunday, August 1, 2:30PM

Universally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Tanglewood and shares the stage with the BSO at 2:30 p.m. in the Shed for a performance of Elgar's tragic, ultra-Romantic Cello Concerto in a performance led once again by Maestro Dutoit. Also on the program are Sibelius's folk-inspired, nationalistic Karelia Suite and Mussorgsky's dazzling orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, as orchestrated by Ravel."

Enjoy.