9/05BSO/Classical New England — 2026/09/05

 This evening's encore broadcat is from October 25 last year.Here'sWCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-09-10/yuja-wang-prokofiev-and-the-boston-symphony

Saturday, September 5, 2026
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast, Domingo Hindoyan returns to Symphony Hall to lead the BSO in Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On The Town and Copland’s Third Symphony, widely considered the "greatest American symphony." Acclaimed pianist Yuja Wang joins as the soloist in Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto.

Domingo Hindoyan, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

Leonard BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On The Town
Sergei PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2
Aaron COPLAND Symphony No. 3

This concert was originally broadcast on October 25th, 2025, and is not available on demand.

Conductor Domingo Hindoyan talks with CRB's Brian McCreath about the genesis of this program, his interpretation of Bernstein's and Copland's work, and his positions at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera. 

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Domingo Hindoyan, who's here with the Boston Symphony for the second time. And Mr. Hindoyan

Here's the BSO;s performance detail page with its links and synopsis of the concert: https://www.bso.org/events/oct-23-25-bern-prokofiev-cop?performance=2025-10-25-20:00

Boston Symphony Orchestra Domingo Hindoyan, conductor Yuja Wang, piano BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On The Town  PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2       intermissionCOPLAND Symphony No. 3  

Scintillating pianist Yuja Wang joins returning conductor Domingo Hindoyan and the BSO in Sergei Prokofiev’s technically challenging Piano Concerto No. 2, a piece that combines the composer’s sardonic humor with his gift for soaring melody. Two American works from the 1940s bracket the concerto. Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from his 1944 musical On the Town features music referencing such hits as “New York, New York” and the wistful “Lonely Town.” Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, premiered by the BSO in 1946, includes the uplifting “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

You could do worse than to give it a listen.

Tanglewood — 2026/08/22

 A varied program awaits us tgis evening. Here's WCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2026-04-01/randall-goosbys-tanglewood-debut

Saturday, August 22, 2026
8:00 PM

Thomas Wilkins conducts the first BSO performance of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with soloist and Avery Fisher Career Grant Winner Randall Goosby, in his Tanglewood debut. The program also includes Bernstein’s life-affirming Chichester Psalms with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and boy soprano Edward Njuguna, and Dvořák’s songful Symphony No. 8.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor 
Randall Goosby, Violin 
Edward Njuguna, boy soprano 
Tanglewood Festival Chorus 

Leonard BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms  
Florence PRICE Violin Concerto No. 2
Camille SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, for violin and orchestra
Antonín DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Thomas Wilkins describes the magnetism of Dvořák's music and what Florence Price's works have brought to the conversation in orchestral music, as well the qualities he sees in Randall Goosby's playing and Bernstein's "reverence to the wildness" in his Chichester Psalms. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Thomas Wilkins, the conductor

Here's the link to the BSO page which in turn has links to performer bios and program notes: https://www.bso.org/events/august-22-boston-symphony-orch?performance=2026-08-22-20:00

The Dvořák is probably the most familiar, followed by the Saint-Saëns. The BSO has performed the Bernstein piece a couple of times in recent years, and the Price is a first for them. Florence Price's music seems generally to be interesting and not challenging to listen to. So enjoy.

BSO — 2025/10/25

 Tonight's program doesn't feature any really familiar pieces (to me at least), but the interview with the condustor makes me want to hear the Copland symphony which concludes the concert. Here's WCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-09-10/yuja-wang-prokofiev-and-the-boston-symphony

Saturday, October 25, 2025
8:00 PM

Yuja Wang is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto—a work by turns acerbic and melodic—and Domingo Hindoyan returns to Symphony Hall to lead the BSO in Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On The Town and Copland’s Third Symphony.

Domingo Hindoyan, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

Leonard BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On The Town
Sergei PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2
Aaron COPLAND Symphony No. 3

Learn more about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2025-2026 season on their site.

Conductor Domingo Hindoyan talks with CRB's Brian McCreath about the genesis of this program, his interpretation of Bernstein's and Copland's work, and his positions at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Domingo Hindoyan, who's here with the Boston Symphony

The BSO's performance detail page give us a bit more as well as links to program notes and performer bios: https://www.bso.org/events/oct-23-25-bern-prokofiev-cop?performance=2025-10-25-20%3A00

Boston Symphony Orchestra Domingo Hindoyan, conductor Yuja Wang, Piano BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On The Town  PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2       intermissionCOPLAND Symphony No. 3  

Scintillating pianist Yuja Wang joins returning conductor Domingo Hindoyan and the BSO in Sergei Prokofiev’s technically challenging Piano Concerto No. 2, a piece that combines the composer’s sardonic humor with his gift for soaring melody. Two American works from the 1940s bracket the concerto. Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from his 1944 musical On the Town features music referencing such hits as “New York, New York” and the wistful “Lonely Town.” Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, premiered by the BSO in 1946, includes the uplifting “Fanfare for the Common Man"

I don't find a review in the Globe, but there is a detailed and favorable one https://www.classical-scene.com/2025/10/24/bso-scintillate/ in the Intelligencer.

So it should be a good show.

BSO — 2025/03/15

 This evening the BSO starts with a staple of the repertoire and finishes with two less familiar pieces, as WCRB tells us:

Saturday, March 15, 2025
8:00 PM

Guest conductor Teddy Abrams leads the BSO and soloist Ray Chen in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the first work the composer completed after his separation from his disastrous marriage. 120 years later, Michael Tilson Thomas lovingly set three of Walt Whitman poems about longing and belonging for baritone and orchestra. Leonard Bernstein’s star-crossed lovers closes the program in an iconic love letter to New York.

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Ray Chen, violin

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
Michael TILSON THOMAS Whitman Songs
Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

In a preview of this program, Teddy Abrams describes his close relationship with Michael Tilson Thomas, the thematic threads that weave through these three pieces of music, and ideas about the role of orchestras in the lives of the cities in which they perform. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Teddy Abrams, who is here in Boston

The orchestra's own performance detail page adds one factoid and gets the verb correct (plural) in the final sentence:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Ray Chen, violin
Dashon Burton, baritone

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
-Intermission-
Michael TILSON THOMAS Whitman Songs
BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Ray Chen plays Tchaikovsky’s beloved Violin Concerto, the first work the composer completed after his separation from his disastrous marriage and a piece he almost dedicated to his student – and likely lover and inspiration, Iosif Kotek. 120 years later, Michael Tilson Thomas lovingly set three of Walt Whitman poems about longing and belonging for baritone and orchestra. Leonard Bernstein’s star-crossed lovers close the program in an iconic love letter to New York and love itself.

Regrettably, this week they refuse to share the program notes.

The review in the Globe is scathing about the violinist and his antics, but generally favorable with regard to the post-intermission music. The Intelligencer, OTOH, found no problem with the violinist's performance, and, apart from balance problems in the first Whitman Song, was happy with how they all did.

Of course, you don't get to see the goings-on; hearing should be worthwhile.

Tanglewood — 2024/07/19

 This evening's Tanglewood concert consists of two symphonies, one with piano and one without. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Friday, July 19, 2024
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name, featuring piano soloist Conrad Tao. The concert closes with Brahms’s dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3, which explores the happiness—and—loneliness of freedom.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

The BSO performance detail page gives a slightly longer introduction to the concert and has links to performer bios and to program notes for the pieces on the program.

Boston Symphony Orchestra 
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor 
Conrad Tao, piano

BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
-Intermission-
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name. The music's shape is meant to closely mirror the poem, which tells the story of four young strangers who meet in a bar during WWII. Young virtuoso Conrad Tao joins as the piano soloist for Bernstein.

Also on the program, Brahms’ dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3 explores the ideas of freedom, happiness, and loneliness.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by R. Martin Chavez.

I'm curious to hear the Bernstein.

I'l give previews of the Saturday and Sunday concerts later (maybe this evening, maybe tomorrow).

BSO — 2022/10/08

This evening's concert is all music that is less than 100 years old — including one piece that is brand new.

Here's WCRB's listing:

Saturday, October 8, 2022
8:00 PM

Violinist Jennifer Koh is the soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3, “The First of May.”

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Jennifer Koh, violin
Linus Schafer-Goulthorpe, boy soprano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Elizabeth OGONEK Starling Variations (world premiere)
Leonard BERNSTEIN Serenade after Plato’s Symposium
BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 3, The First of May

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons describes Shostakovich's Third Symphony and how its unabashed celebration of the Soviet Communism of the 1920's both reflects the composer's outlook at that point in his life and infuses the piece with a startling relevance to today's Russia. To listen, click on the player above, and read the transcript below:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons, who is here in Boston for a really interesting program, 

Further information can be found via the BSO's own performance detail page, including links to program notes for the individual pieces and this general synopsis:

Andris Nelsons leads two works new to the BSO repertoire: the BSO-commissioned Starling Variations by American composer Elizabeth Ogonek and Dmitri Shostakovich’s rarely heard 1930 Symphony No. 3 for chorus and orchestra, an early, jingoistic hymn to the Soviet experiment, continuing Nelsons’ and the BSO’s multi-season survey of the composer’s complete symphonies. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus also joins the BSO for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, sung in Hebrew and featuring Linus Schafer-Goulthorpe, boy soprano, as soloist, and American violinist Jennifer Koh makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut as soloist in Bernstein’s Serenade.

Regrettably, the program note for "Chichester Psalms" doesn't provide the texts. In the hall, surtitles gave English translations, but that's useless for people listening at home. Perhaps you can find the texts by doing an online search.

I was at the Thursday performance. The opening piece,"Starling Variations" was introduced by the composer, who didn't add much to the program note. I found most of it fun to listen to knowing that it was inspired by the way swarms of starlings swoop, divide, and recombine. Next up was the "Serenade after Plato's Symposium." Although I had read the "Symposium" in college and had just glanced at the program note, I wasn't fascinated. It wasn't difficult listening, but not very memorable — in other words, it wasn't bad, but mostly uninteresting. After intermission, the "Chichester Psalms" were more engaging, (even though I didn't pick out any of the stuff from "West Side Story"). The music seemed to fit the meaning of the words. The soloist did a good job in Psalm 23. Finally, the Shostakovich struck me as typical Shostakovich bombast with little to recommend it as music after the opening bit for the clarinets. The text the chorus sang (again, the BSO won't give the text except for surtitles, but maybe it's on line somewhere) struck me as sadly misplaced enthusiasm for communism. Even the program note ends with an apologetic tone. But the basses got to do nice work. On the other hand, a post-concert subway rider was gushing about the Shostakovich — thought it was great. My favorites were the Ogonek and the "Chichester," and I thought the Shostakovich was the worst piece on the program.

So far, there is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. Writing in the Boston Globe, A.Z. Madonna was happy with what she heard, finding that the orchestra performed the Shostakovich well, enjoying the "Serenade" more than I did, and liking the way the rest was performed.

I don't share the critic's enthusiasm/ IMO the concert is okay until they get to the Shostakovich, and then not very good even if well played. You can hear it all, or as much as you want, at 8:00 this evening, Boston Time.

Edited to add: The text of Chichester Psalms is in this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester_Psalms

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/09/15

This week WCRB gives us a rebroadcast/stream of the concert of February 18, 2017. The BSO's program description page at the time had this to say:

Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax team up for one of the pianist's favorites, Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The American composer Gunther Schuller wrote his kaleidoscopic Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee in 1959. Each of its movements is based on a different Klee work, inspiring from the composer a wealth of styles ranging from the blues to mysterious modernism. Closing the program is Beethoven's revolutionary Symphony No. 3,Eroica, which radically expanded the boundaries of the symphonic genre.

(Some emphasis added.)

I wrote about it at the time (with links to reviews) and found it all worth listening to, even the Schuller. The link to the gallery of Klee paintings may not be working in my post, so here it is again. So enjoy this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

Tanglewood — 2018/08/24-26

This weekend is the final one of the BSO's 2018 Tanglewood Season. Listen in on WCRB at 8:00 p.m EDST on Friday and Saturday and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.


Friday, August 24, 2018.  We get to hear the BSO et al. perform what they call "the longest symphony in the standard repertoire." The performance detail page, with its usual links to performer bios and background material, describes the concert thus:

Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler Symphony No. 3 featuring Susan Graham and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Symphony Children's Choir in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, another work central to Bernstein's repertoire, with Susan Graham as mezzo-soprano soloist. A multi-faceted and emotionally wide-ranging work, the Third Symphony is notable for its length (the longest symphony in the standard repertoire), difficulty, and overwhelming cumulative impact. Across its nearly 100-minute duration, the broad musical canvas incorporates a full range of musical and emotional expression, moving through rousing fanfares, tender lyricism, and melancholy to the height of exaltation.

(Some emphasis added.)

Need I say more? Well, it's a lot of music, but — while I don't recall specifics of this symphony — Mahler's style of music at this time in his career generally isn't difficult to listen to, and my more general memory of it is that it is quite engaging. So it should be pretty good.


Saturday, August 25, 2018.  On Saturday, the summer of Bernstein reaches its grand finale. The performance detail page doesn't give a listing of every piece to be played, but from what we are told, including the long list of performers, we get a feel for what it will be.

The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Reflecting the season-long theme, The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood will spotlight Bernstein's wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert will feature a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein's heart-selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by Copland-plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion of the program's second half; the finale of Mahler's ResurrectionSymphony brings the program to a dramatic close.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, August 25, 2018.  The season ends with the traditional Beethoven 9th Symphony, preceded by two brief pieces by Bernstein. The performance detail page has its usual links and gives this synopsis.

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Christoph Eschenbach leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Joseph Kaiser, baritone Thomas Hampson, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis added.)

And so we bid farewell to another summer of concerts from Tanglewood, with another massive work, one which is very well known. Although it's not my favorite Beethoven symphony, it's certainly beautiful at times and exciting at times, and it's certainly fitting for the occasion. Enjoy.

The Boston Symphony returns to Symphony Hall to open the season there on October 11, with the first Saturday concert on the 13th. Meanwhile WCRB will fill the six intervening Saturday evenings with concerts previously recorded. I don't see a listng for September 1, but the rest can be found here. As usual, I plan to post about each as it approaches.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/17-19

This weekend the season at Tanglewood continues, with all three of the major concerts available over WCRB. (See also the additional programming information on their website.)


Friday, August 17, 2018.  Here's the description from the BSO program detail page:

Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
UnderScore Friday Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Patrons will hear comments about the program directly from onstage BSO musician J. William Hudgins (percussion).

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4-part of Maestro Nelsons' and the orchestra's ongoing project of performing and recording the composer's complete symphonies-a fine, substantial work that had to wait 25 years for its premiere due to censorship by the Soviet regime. One the first half of the program, frequent BSO guest pianist Yefim Bronfman joins Maestro Nelsons and the orchestra for Beethoven's expansive and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 4, which contains moments of grandeur and pomp as well as passages of glorious weightlessness and ephemeral brushes of color.

(Some emphasis added.)

There are also the usual links to program notes, audio previews, and performer bios.

Of course, you can't go wrong with Beethoven. As for the Shostakovich, here's what I wrote after hearing it in Symphony Hall last March:

I wasn't really expecting to like the Shostakovich, but it turned out to be pretty good. Despite its length, I never felt that it was getting to be too much. There is enough variety, especially going from full orchestra to featuring solo instruments, and plentiful musical ideas, to keep it from getting dull. I had never heard either piece [this one or the Bernstein Second Symphony which preceded it on that program], and now I wouldn't mind seeing either on another program.

So it should be an evening of good listening.


Saturday, August 18, 2018.  It's an all Bernstein program. As always, we turn to the BSO program detail page for links and this description:

Andris Nelsons conducts an All-Bernstein Program with the Boston Ballet and featuring violinist Baiba Skride

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the BSO present an all-Bernstein program, which begins with a fully-staged performance of the composer's ballet Fancy Free in a first-ever collaboration with the Boston Ballet. Bernstein's first ballet score and Robbins' first full-scale choreographic effort, Fancy Free catapulted both artists (who were both just 25) to stardom. In what would become his signature style, Robbins combined classical choreography with jazz and popular dance moves. Just months after Fancy Free was premiered at the old Metropolitan Opera House, its scenario had become the basis for Bernstein and Robbins' hit Broadway musical On the Town (performed July 7). Fancy Free is being presented here using Robbins' original choreography. The program continues with the Divertimento for Orchestra, composed for the BSO's centenary celebration in 1980, and concludes with the Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium"), for violin and orchestra, featuring soloist Baiba Skride.

(Some emphasis added.)

My brother's call from Japan will take me away from the Serenade and maybe the end of the Divertimento. I'd rather miss "Fancy Free" — although if we could see the dancing, I'd be more interested in the ballet — but there you have it.


Sunday, August 19, 2018.  This concert brings us four works, including a Tanglewood-related world premiere, more by Bernstein, and the BSO's "own" piece by Bartók. Herewith, the performance detail page's synopsis:

Yo-Yo Ma joins Andris Nelsons for Copland, Bernstein, Williams and Bartók
The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Tanglewood alongside Maestro Nelsons and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for the annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert. The program celebrates the completion of sculptures that John Williams commissioned for the Tanglewood grounds of three of the Festival's seminal figures, who are also personal heroes of the composer: Aaron Copland, Serge Koussevitzky, and Leonard Bernstein. The program features Yo-Yo Ma, Andris Nelsons, and the BSO in the world premiere of a new John Williams work for cello and orchestra, specially written for this occasion. Mr. Ma is also featured in Bernstein's Three Meditations from Mass, for cello and orchestra, the composer's reworking of selections from ambitious staged pageant/oratorio composed for the 1971 inauguration of Washington's Kennedy Center. Aptly opening the concert is Copland's An Outdoor Overture, a 1938 work from the beginning of the composer's American populist period and the first work by Copland that Bernstein conducted at Tanglewood. Concluding the program is perhaps Koussevitzky's most famous commission, Bartók's incandescent Concerto for Orchestra, which the BSO premiered in 1944.

(Some emphasis added.)

The new work by Williams is titled "Highwood's Ghost, An Encounter for Harp, Cello, and Orchestra." I always like to hear world premieres, so I'm looking forward to it, and Copland can be very enjoyable. Bernstein should be okay, and I've heard the Bartók so often that it's lost its shock value, and I can sort of enjoy it.

Don't forget: the Sunday concert is heard by "tape" delay at 7:00 p.m. — the Friday and Saturday are presented live at 8:00, EDT.

It should be a pretty good series of concerts. Enjoy.