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!

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 — 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.

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.