BSO/Classical New England — 2026/09/12

 This week's encore broadcast is from last October 24. Here's what WCRB says about it: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-09-09/debussy-and-mahler-with-lorelei-and-the-bso

Saturday, September 12, 2026
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, joined by soprano Nikola Hillebrand, depict a child's view of heaven in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Before that, the Lorelei Ensemble brings Debussy’s impressionist Nocturnesto life.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Nikola Hillebrand, soprano
Lorelei Ensemble 
Beth Willer, artistic director

Claude DEBUSSY Nocturnes
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 4

This concert was originally broadcast on October 4th, 2025, and is not available on demand.

In the second part of a three-part interview, BSO Concertmaster Nathan Cole describes the musical and technical challenges of the violin solo in Mahler's Symphony No. 4. To listen, use the player and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Brian McCreath The second week of the season, as I mentioned, features Mahler's Fourth Symphony, a huge solo in this as well, but challenging in a very, very different way

nHere's how the BSO described it on their performance detail page: https://www.bso.org/events/oct-2-4-debussy-mahler?performance=2025-10-04-20:00

Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons, conductor Nikola Hillebrand, soprano Lorelei Ensemble Beth Willer, Artistic DirectorDEBUSSY Nocturnes  MAHLER Symphony No. 4  

The BSO begins the exploration of Boston in 1900 with two pieces that were composed at the same time Symphony Hall was being built.

Influenced by impressionist painting and finished in 1899, Debussy’s three contrasting Nocturnes — Nuages (“Clouds”), Fêtes (“Holidays”), and Sirènes (“Sirens”) — paint magnificently colorful musical scenes, with Boston’s premier all-women vocal group the Lorelei Ensemble joining the orchestra in the haunting final movement.

Composed in 1900, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 lives on the sunnier side of his repertoire, but nonetheless vacillates between morbid and triumphant, seductive and serene. The final movement features solo soprano in a beguiling setting of the folk poem “Heavenly Life."

Go there for the arrows that link the performer bios and program notes, which are still available.

It could all make for enjoyable listening.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/06/17

 Another "blast from the past." WCRB has the basics on their page:

Saturday, June 17, 2023
8:00 PM 

Yo-Yo Ma returns to the Boston Symphony’s summer home as the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Cristian Măcelaru conducts works by Debussy and Ensecu, as well as Anna Clyne’s “Masquerade.”

Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Anna CLYNE Masquerade 
Edward ELGAR Cello Concerto
Claude DEBUSSY La Mer 
George ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No. 1

This concert was originally broadcast on August 14, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

For more details, check the BSO perforrmance detail page:

The Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Concert

Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru, a 2010 Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, makes his BSO debut. Masquerade, by the U.S.-based English composer Anna Clyne, evokes the unique milieu of mid-18th-century London promenade concerts; this is the BSO’s first performance of Clyne’s music. Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins for Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, one of the English composer’s final works, in part a profoundly lyrical meditation on a world in turmoil after the devastation of World War I. Claude Debussy’s La Mer—a work given its American premiere by the BSO in 1907—is virtually a three-movement symphony miraculously depicting in music the changing states of the sea and sun over the course of a day. Closing the concert is Romanian composer Georges Enescu, one of the 20th-century’s greatest musicians. His familiar Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, based on his country’s folk music, is a delightful and finely wrought staple of Pops orchestras.

It's all fairly familiar except for the first piece. You can read about it in the program notes. The Globe review of the weekend has almost nothing to say about the Clyne piece, but is quite favorable to the concert.

It shoud lbe an enjoyable evening.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/06/10

 More from last summer at Tanglewood:

Saturday, June 10, 2023
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in music by Dutilleux and Debussy, as well as Ravel’s “Mother Goose,” and Leonidas Kavakos is the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Henri DUTILLEUX Métaboles
Felix MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
Claude DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun 
Maurice RAVEL Mother Goose (complete)

This concert was originally broadcast on August 13, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

From the performance detail page:

The Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Memorial Concert

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk returns to Tanglewood and is joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos in Felix Mendelssohn’s buoyant Violin Concerto, one of the most popular works in the genre. Henri Dutilleux’s 1964 Métabolesfeatures the French composer’s intricately imaginative scoring and his innovative, organic approach to form. Claude Debussy’s revolutionary Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, a contemplation of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, is one of the clearest sources of 20th-century musical modernism. Maurice Ravel composed his Mother Goose for a friend’s children to play on piano, but its incisive character sketches and the brilliant orchestral canvas he later created make it a satisfying piece for any listener.

Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2022/08/13-14

 Once again, I failed to postabout the Friday concert at Tanglewood. This time it wasn't because I was doing lots of other things. I just clean forgot. I'm afraid that with my Fridays away, I haven't gotten into a rhythm of producing posts on Friday. Not only did I clean forget to post, I also clean forget to listen.

Saturday, August 13, 2022. Per WCRB:

Saturday, August 13, 2022
8:00 PM

Saturday at 8pm, Dima Slobodeniouk leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in music by Dutilleux and Debussy, as well as Ravel’s “Mother Goose,” and Leonidas Kavakos is the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Henri DUTILLEUX Métaboles
Felix MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
Claude DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun 
Maurice RAVEL Mother Goose (complete)

All standard repertory, except for the Dutilleux, which I'm not familiar with. But some of his stuff has been pretty good, IRC.

Here's what the BSO says about it:

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk returns to Tanglewood and is joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos in Felix Mendelssohn’s buoyant Violin Concerto, one of the most popular works in the genre. Henri Dutilleux’s 1964 Métaboles features the French composer’s intricately imaginative scoring and his innovative, organic approach to form. Claude Debussy’s revolutionary Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, a contemplation of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, is one of the clearest sources of 20th-century musical modernism. Maurice Ravel composed his Mother Goose for a friend’s children to play on piano, but its incisive character sketches and the brilliant orchestral canvas he later created make it a satisfying piece for any listener.

All in all, I think this should be worth listening to.

Sunday, August 14, 2022. Again, WCRB summarizes:

Sunday, August 14, 2022
7:00 PM (delayed broadcast of 2:30 PM concert)

Sunday at 7pm, Yo-Yo Ma returns to the Boston Symphony’s summer home as the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Cristian Măcelaru conducts works by Debussy and Ensecu, as well as Anna Clyne’s “Masquerade.”

Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Anna CLYNE Masquerade 
Edward ELGAR Cello Concerto
Claude DEBUSSY La Mer 
George ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody No. 1

As on Saturday, it's standard repertory except for the first piec, and I can't even give a generality about the composer.

The BSO performance detail page gives the following:

Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru, a 2010 Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, makes his BSO debut. Masquerade, by the U.S.-based English composer Anna Clyne, evokes the unique milieu of mid-18th-century London promenade concerts; this is the BSO’s first performance of Clyne’s music. Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins for Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, one of the English composer’s final works, in part a profoundly lyrical meditation on a world in turmoil after the devastation of World War I. Claude Debussy’s La Mer—a work given its American premiere by the BSO in 1907—is virtually a three-movement symphony miraculously depicting in music the changing states of the sea and sun over the course of a day. Closing the concert is Romanian composer Georges Enescu, one of the 20th-century’s greatest musicians. His familiar Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, based on his country’s folk music, is a delightful and finely wrought staple of Pops orchestras.

For more info, you can check out the program note linked on the BSO page.

BSO — 2022/04/16

This is one I'd certainly want to hear if I weren't going to be in church for our Easter Vigil. Bell plays Beethoven. Who could ask for anything more. You can bet I'll be listening to the repeat on the 25th. WCRB gives us the basics as well as an interview with the conductor on their page:

Saturday, April 16, and Monday, April 25, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the American violinist returns to the Boston Symphony as the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and Alan Gilbert conducts the world premiere of a work by Bernard Rands and Debussy’s "La Mer."

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin

Bernard RANDS Symphonic Fantasy (world premiere; BSO co-commission)
Claude DEBUSSY La Mer
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto

To hear a preview of the concert with conductor Alan Gilbert, use the player above, or read the transcript below.

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Alan Gilbert, who is back here in Boston to lead the BSO in a program, a fascinating program of three very different pieces. But I don't know, maybe not as different as I'm thinking. Alan, thanks for a little bit of your time today.

The BSO goes a bit more in depth about each piece, with a link to the program notes on their program detail page. The program note includes a sort of description by Bernard Rands of his piece. I don't know what to expect after reading all about it, but I'm hoping it will be okay. IMO the Debussy is okay, but lots ogf people think it's great. And the Beethoven is one of the greatest of all time, IMO, and having Joshua Bell solo makes it not-to-be-missed.

The review in the Intelligencer is quite favorable and give reason to hope that the Rands piece will be okay. The Globe reviewer was noncommittal about the Rands and was very happy with the rest.

So it looks like good listening this evening and on April 25. (And if you don't like the Rands, it's only 20 minutes until the good stuff.) Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/06/12

 This week we get the concert from February 17, 2018. WCRB says:

Saturday, June 12, 2021
8:00 PM

Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and Jacques Lacombe leads the Boston Symphony in the composer's Daphnis and Chloe, in an encore broadcast from 2018.

Jacques Lacombe, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

DEBUSSY (orch. RAVEL) Sarabande et Danse
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the left hand
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé (complete)

See the original program Ravel conducted in 1928 (courtesy of the BSO Archives).

Hear a preview with Jacques Lacombe in the player above.

TRANSCRIPT:

As you can see on the WCRB page, there is an interview with the conductor which is available on audio or a transcript.

At the time I wrote:

It's French Impressionists this week. (Are there Impressionists from any other country?) Here's the synopsis from the BSO's [performance] detail page (where you can also find the usual links to background information):

This all-French program features pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Ravel's serious, single-movement Piano Concerto for the left hand.Closing the program is a work that's long been a staple of the BSO repertoire, Ravel's ballet score Daphnis et Chloé, a tourde-[sic] force of orchestral coloration and dramatic atmosphere the composer felt was one of his best works. Opening the program are Ravel's orchestrations of two contrasting Debussy piano pieces. These concerts mark the 90th anniversary of Ravel's conducting the BSO at Symphony Hall while visiting America in 1928.

(Some emphasis added.)

This concert wasn't part of my subscription, so I have no impressions of my own to offer. The reviews are favorable. The Globe finds no fault. The Boston Musical Intelligencer finds a few bits that were less than perfect, but overall is very satisfied. That review also gives extensive information about the pieces, almost like program notes.

You can hear it all this evening […] over WCRB at 8:00 p.m., Eastern time […].  Impressionists aren't my favorite figurative cup of metaphorical tea, but most people like them, so enjoy.

Need I say more?

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/05/08

 WCRB "fast forwards" from January, 2017, to March. Maybe they're expecting live concerts to resume this fall, so they don't have to go week by week. Anyway, here's the synopsis:

Saturday at 8pm, in a 2017 concert at Symphony Hall, Bernard Haitink leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Haydn's Symphony No. 60, Debussy's transportive "Three Nocturnes," and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

Saturday, May 8, 2021
8:00 PM

Bernard Haitink, conductor
Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

HAYDN Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto
DEBUSSY Three Nocturnes
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

Encore broadcast from March 18, 2017

In a 2016 conversation at Tanglewood, WCRB's Ron Della Chiesa talks with Lawrence Wolfe, Assistant Principal Bass of the BSO and Principal Bass of the Boston Pops, about joining the orchestra as the youngest member at the time, how he chose double bass as his instrument, and the excitement Andris Nelsons brought to the BSO:

Listen 

Listening...

0:00

As you see, there is also an interview you can listen to, or, if you prefer, you can read the transcript.

Here's what I wrote back then (edited):

This week we enjoy a concert of music from before the 20th Century. I'll let the orchestra's performance detail page describe it:

BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads the first BSO performances in thirty years of Joseph Haydn's 1774 Symphony No. 60, The Distracted, which was fashioned in six movements from music Haydn wrote for a play by that name. The women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are a provocative, wordless presence in the "Sirens" movement of Debussy's three-movement orchestral suite Nocturnes. Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, premiered at the end of 1813, has been an audience favorite ever since. Wagner called it "the apotheosis of the dance"; its entrancing second-movement Allegretto, one of the most familiar movements in Beethoven's symphonies, was encored in its first performances.

(Some emphasis added.)

As usual, that page also has links to various informational material.

The reviews are favorable. The Globe's reviewer saw some room for improvement in the Haydn, but was otherwise pleased. The review by the musicologist at the Boston Musical Intelligencer nitpicks over a couple of details in the Debussy and suggests that the finale of the Beethoven was too fast, but in general is approving.

Both reviews note the immediate standing ovation for the Beethoven, but it's normal. Beethoven wrote a real crowd-pleaser with a guaranteed applause-catching finale. It would have been remarkable if the audience members hadn't given that ovation. I was quite happy with the whole thing. The Haydn was fun. Although I generally don't care for the French Impressionists, the "Nocturnes" were serene and the typical dissonances of the style were not annoying. The Beethoven 7th was performed just last spring, and normally that would be enough to set me off on my "don't keep playing the warhorses at the expense of other deserving rarely heard compositions" rant. But for Haitink I'll make an exception. It was definitely worth hearing, especially since fourth chair horn player Jason Snider did the "bullfrog" low notes in the 3rd movement perfectly every time.

So by all means listen in the the broadcast or webstream over WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Boston Time this evening […]. This concert's a keeper.[…]

There you have it. Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/12/12

 This week, the encore broadcast is the second of the two programs François-Xavier Roth led to begin January 2016.

Here's what WCRB says about it now:

Saturday at 8pm, the American soprano joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in works by Dutilleux and Canteloube, and François-Xavier Roth leads the BSO in music by Debussy and Stravinsky.

Saturday, December 12, 2020
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast from January 16, 2016

Boston Symphony Orchestra
François-Xavier Roth, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano

DEBUSSY Jeux
DUTILLEUX Le Temps l'Horloge
CANTELOUBE Selections from Songs of the Auvergne
STRAVINSKY Petrouchka

Here, edited, is what I said nearly five years ago:

In a desperate — but not really necessary, IMO — attempt to attract new audiences, the BSO will be giving a different program on Friday from that on Thursday and Saturday — an amalgam of last week and this week's regular programs. They'll be giving last week's Mozart and this week's Stravinsky at 8:00 p.m. They call it a "Casual Friday," which is laughable, because every concert is casual as far as acceptable dress is concerned: shirts and shoes are required for "gentlemen" but t shirts will do, and hats are permitted indoors. What is different from normal breaches of etiquette is that the use of electronic devices will be permitted, nay, encouraged, during the show. As they put it on their [performance detail] page for Friday:

This evening's concert is the first of three in our "Casual Fridays" Series. There are two more concerts this season- one in February and one in March. Tickets range between $25 to $45, include a complimentary pre-concert reception and patrons are invited to wear their favorite casual attire. This series also includes the use of tablets in a designated area in the rear of the orchestra floor where you can view customized content, designed to enhance the concert experience, to include an in-depth look at the conductors and soloists, and informative notes on the program. Then, immediately after the performance, head to Higginson Hall in Symphony Hall's adjacent Cohen Wing, where, besides enjoying live music, snacks, and a cash bar, you are invited to mingle and share what you've just experienced at the BSO concert.

For the more stodgy among the audience, the program on Thursday and Saturday, includes music by Debussy, songs by Dutilleux and Canteloube sung by Renée Fleming, and Petrushka by Stravinsky in the 1911 version — all with François-Xavier Roth on the podium. The [performance] detail page for this concert provides […]the following (out of order) description of what they'll perform:

François-Xavier Roth returns for a second week of concerts at Symphony Hall with a French-leaning program. These BSO performances of Henri Dutilleux's song cycle Le Temps l'Horloge ("Time and the Clock") mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. An important figure in BSO history, Dutilleux wrote these songs for Renée Fleming as a BSO co-commission for the orchestra's 125th anniversary. Fleming gave their American premiere with the BSO in 2007. She also sings selections from Canteloube's ravishing, folk-song-based Songs of the Auvergne. Opening and closing the program are ballet scores composed for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes-Debussy's luminously orchestrated Jeux ("Games"), an abstract ballet about a game of tennis, and Stravinsky's Petrushka, which follows the travails of a hapless living puppet at a Shrovetide Fair in Russia.

(Emphasis added.)

The reviewer in the Boston Musical Intelligencer, being a musicologist, observed a lot in all four pieces that escaped my notice, and found it all quite satisfying. The Globe review was less detailed on musical fine points, but generally laudatory.

I was there on Thursday. I thought Ms. Fleming sang beautifully, but the songs themselves were nothing to write home about. The Canteloube, after the intermission, at least had the benefit of music that fit the text, so if you listen, it would be a good idea to read the program notes and the texts. I didn't notice any real connection between the words of the Dutilleux songs and the successions of notes to which they were sung. Petrushka is not so brutal as Rite of Spring, and it has a couple of nice tunes that keep coming back, so it's listenable. As for the Debussy ballet which opens the program, although I didn't catch all the stuff the BMInt reviewer did, it wasn't too bad, especially for Debussy.

As always, you can hear it […] at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (EST) over WCRB's broadcast and streaming facilities. […]

In summary, I found the program listenable enough. As I said to someone who hadn't been there, "I'm glad I heard the pieces, but I don't need to hear any of them again." You might like some or all of it better. So, while I wouldn't call it a "must hear," I think it's worth a listen. […].

Since the performance detail pages from "way back then" are, regrettably, no longer on line, you'll have to do an online search for "Songs of the Auvergne," if you want to follow along with the lyrics.

At this moment, I think I may listen to the Beethoven Orgy on WHRB, 95.3 FM, instead of this. As I said, I don't need to hear any of those pieces again.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/09/12

Tonight's encore performance is of a concert originally given earlier this year, on January 11. Here's what I wrote at the time (edited to remove material no longer relevant):

This evening the BSO gives us a Francophile's delight (unless your taste in French music runs more to Marc-Antoine Charpentier or Hector Berlioz): a French conductor, a French organist, and three French composers. Details and links are to be found, appropriately, on the orchestra's performance detail page, where we read:

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who first conducted the BSO in spring 2017, returns with an all-French program featuring the debut of the outstanding French organist Thierry Escaich in two works showcasing the Symphony Hall organ. Francis Poulenc described his ambitious 1938 Organ Concerto as being close in intent to his religious music. The concerto was given its American premiere by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops with organist E. Power Biggs in 1941 in Symphony Hall. Closing the program is Camille Saint-Saëns’ popular, exuberant Symphony No. 3, which features the organ as a solo and orchestral instrument. Altinoglu also leads his own orchestral suite of music from Claude Debussy’s uniquely gorgeous and probing operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Thursday concert was part of my subscription, but it was a cold night at the end of a cold snap, and Debussy and Poulenc aren't my favorite composers, and I've heard  the Saint-Saëns several times,so I decided to stay home. The rave reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer tell me that I made a big mistake and that we should all be listening when WCRB broadcasts and streams it … this evening at 8:00 EST. … Check out their website for links to more about the concert, as well as other programming.

It certainly seems worth listening to.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/06/06

WCRB gives us an encore of the concert which followed the one they encored last week. I posted about it back then (October 26) and here's what I said:

The centerpiece of this week's concert is likely to be challenging, maybe even unpleasant. [Actually, as I recall, it turned out to be okay.] I refer to the piano concerto by Dieter Ammann. Normally, I go to concerts where a piece is to be given its world, American, or BSO premiere. But I was otherwise engaged on Thursday and Friday, so I'll be hearing it for the first time over the radio this evening. We have to rely on the program note (linked on the performance detail page) and the reviews to get an idea of what we are in for. Here's the synopsis of the concert from the performance detail page:

Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki returns for a program of sensually colorful French music as well as the American premiere of Swiss composer Dieter Ammann’s new work for piano and orchestra, written for the German-born Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger. Boasting both jazz and modernist credentials, Ammann writes music of great spontaneity and verve. Debussy’s three-movement La Mer—which was given its American premiere by the BSO in 1907—is among the greatest of all French orchestral works, a musical depiction of the changing states of the sea over the course of a day. The program also includes two shorter works: Fauré’s stately, gorgeous, and familiar Pavane, as well as the third movement of Olivier Messiaen’s early orchestral work L’Ascension (1932), which already demonstrates the composer’s unique voice as well as his Debussy-influenced musical heritage.

(Some emphasis added.)

Here are the reviews. The Globe is generally favorable, while the Intelligencer gives a lengthy description of "The Piano Concerto" and is less than thrilled with the conducting of the French pieces.

If the new piece proves intolerable, you can always come back after intermission. I'm not familiar with the Messiaen work, but from the descriptions, I'm guessing that it won't be quite so "advanced" as some of his later compositions.

As always, WCRB will transmit it all live this evening at 8:00 p.m.

My recollection is that the piano concerto proved to be kind of jazzy and not to tough to take. So I'm looking forward to the chance to hear it again.

I hope the links still work. And here's a link to WCRB's page about the concert, with a further link to an interview with the conductor.

BSO — 2020/01/11

This evening the BSO gives us a Francophile's delight (unless your taste in French music runs more to Marc-Antoine Charpentier or Hector Berlioz): a French conductor, a French organist, and three French composers. Details and links are to be found, appropriately, on the orchestra's performance detail page, where we read:

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who first conducted the BSO in spring 2017, returns with an all-French program featuring the debut of the outstanding French organist Thierry Escaich in two works showcasing the Symphony Hall organ. Francis Poulenc described his ambitious 1938 Organ Concerto as being close in intent to his religious music. The concerto was given its American premiere by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops with organist E. Power Biggs in 1941 in Symphony Hall. Closing the program is Camille Saint-Saëns’ popular, exuberant Symphony No. 3, which features the organ as a solo and orchestral instrument. Altinoglu also leads his own orchestral suite of music from Claude Debussy’s uniquely gorgeous and probing operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Thursday concert was part of my subscription, but it was a cold night at the end of a cold snap, and Debussy and Poulenc aren't my favorite composers, and I've heard  the Saint-Saëns several times,so I decided to stay home. The rave reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer tell me that I made a big mistake and that we should all be listening when WCRB broadcasts and streams it live this evening at 8:00 EST. This week they are promising the usual encore broadcast/webstream, on January 20. Check out their website for links to more about the concert, as well as other programming.

BSO — 2019/10/26

The centerpiece of this week's concert is likely to be challenging, maybe even unpleasant. I refer to the piano concerto by Dieter Ammann. Normally, I go to concerts where a piece is to be given its world, American, or BSO premiere. But I was otherwise engaged on Thursday and Friday, so I'll be hearing it for the first time over the radio this evening. We have to rely on the program note (linked on the performance detail page) and the reviews to get an idea of what we are in for. Here's the synopsis of the concert from the performance detail page:

Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki returns for a program of sensually colorful French music as well as the American premiere of Swiss composer Dieter Ammann’s new work for piano and orchestra, written for the German-born Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger. Boasting both jazz and modernist credentials, Ammann writes music of great spontaneity and verve. Debussy’s three-movement La Mer—which was given its American premiere by the BSO in 1907—is among the greatest of all French orchestral works, a musical depiction of the changing states of the sea over the course of a day. The program also includes two shorter works: Fauré’s stately, gorgeous, and familiar Pavane, as well as the third movement of Olivier Messiaen’s early orchestral work L’Ascension (1932), which already demonstrates the composer’s unique voice as well as his Debussy-influenced musical heritage.

(Some emphasis added.)

Here are the reviews. The Globe is generally favorable, while the Intelligencer gives a lengthy description of "The Piano Concerto" and is less than thrilled with the conducting of the French pieces.

If the new piece proves intolerable, you can always come back after intermission. I'm not familiar with the Messiaen work, but from the descriptions, I'm guessing that it won't be quite so "advanced" as some of his later compositions.

As always, WCRB will transmit it all live this evening at 8:00 p.m. and retransmit it at the same time on Monday, November 4.

BSO — 2019/02/23

I'll let the program detail page tell about this evening's concert.

Andris Nelsons and the BSO continue their recent tradition of performing opera in concert with Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica ("Sister Angelica"), one of the three short operas composed in the 1910s and known collectively as Il trittico ("Triptych"). The story centers on the title character, who is living in a convent to repent a past sin, having a son out of wedlock. Acclaimed soprano Kristine Opolais sings the role of Sister Angelica in this concert performance. Opening the program is a work almost contemporary with Puccini's, Lili Boulanger's short tone poem D'un Soir triste("A somber evening"), one of few purely orchestral works completed by this young genius before her untimely death in 1918 at age 24. Also on the program is Debussy's immensely colorful Nocturnes, an 1899 masterpiece of musical Impressionism.

(Some emphasis added.)
See also the links to background information.

This concert wasn't part of my subscription (and it wasn't "must hear" for me, so I didn't pick up a ticket or exchange for it) so we'll have to depend on the reviews to hear how it went. The Globe reviewer was pleased in general with the opera, with a couple of cautions. She also found the pieces in the first half of the concert okay but nothing to rave about. The Musical Intelligencer's reviewer gives more detail about the works and the performance, but seems to have much the same take as the Globe: decent performances, but not "for the ages."

I'm planning to listen to the broadcast over WCRB at 8:00. Even if they aren't things I feel I must hear, I'd like to hear these pieces, given the opportunity. I don't think I've ever heard "D'un Soir triste" or "Suor Angelica," and if I've heard "Nocturnes," I'm certainly not familiar with it. So this concert can "expand my horizons." And maybe Kristine Opolais will dial back the intensity in the early going of the opera. See what you think.

Also, note the other programming mentioned on the WCRB website; and remember you have another chance to listen to last week's Schumann and Bruckner at 8:00 p.m. on February 25 and this evening's concert in the encore broadcast of March 4.