BSO — December Hiatus — 2015/12/12

WCRB continues their BSO programming during December with another "encore broadcast" and stream of a concert from last summer's Tanglewood season. This week, it's the concert of Sunday, August 9. The orchestra's performance detail page, which is still available with its usual links, has this to say about it:

Longtime Tanglewood favorite Joshua Bell joins [Conductor Charles] Dutoit for a performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto, on a program which includes Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and one of the BSO's signature works, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

(Some emphasis added.)

The order of performance is Mussorgsky, Glazunov, Berlioz, with the intermission before the Berlioz.

There is no review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Boston Globe's is archived, and I don't know if it will be accessible to non-subscribers via my link. (It probably won't be, but the Globe website will probably allow an archive search. If so, search for Glazunov in August, 2015.) At any rate, the reviewer liked the Mussorgsky and Berlioz performances, giving particular credit to orchestral soloists in the former. He was also happy that Joshua Bell had chosen the Glazunov concerto but added an incomprehensible remark about how Bell approaches and performs pieces: "Some soloists fold their personalities into the work at hand as if to animate it from within. Bell belongs to a second camp who seem, whether intentionally or not, to inflect every work with their own image."

You can listen to it at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, and again on Monday the 28th. The interval between the two is a week longer than usual because Holiday Pops will occupy both the Saturday and Monday slots next weekend. You may also want to check out WCRB's BSO page for additional scheduling information and links to interviews etc.

Tanglewood — 2015/08/07-09

This weekend brings some music that's less familiar than much of the past weekend's programming, but I think only one piece will be new to me.


Friday, August 7.   The BSO program detail page has this to say about the Friday evening concert:

Audience favorite Charles Dutoit leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911 version), on a program with Sibelius's Violin Concerto, with soloist Leonidas Kavakos.

(Some emphasis added.)
As I write this there are links on the detail page to program notes and audio previews for the Sibelius and the Stravinsky, as well as for performer bios (click on the photos), but nothing so far for the Ravel. If I see anything before I publish this post, I'll revise the above.

Presumably the Sibelius is after the Ravel and before intermission.


Saturday, August 8.  The Saturday concert is a single work — Symphony No. 8 by Mahler — with Andris Nelsons on the podium. The orchestra will not be the BSO but the Tanglewood Music Center orchestra. They will be joined by eight singing soloists and three choruses, all listed on the program detail page (click on photos for further info about each). Here's the description from that page:

 BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons will conduct Mahler's Symphony no. 8 along with the  Tanglewood Festival Chorus, BUTI Chorus, and the American Boychoir. Special guests include Erin Wall, Christine Goerke, Lioba Braun, Jane Henschel, Klaus Florian Vogt, Matthias Goerne, and Ain Anger.
Mezzo-soprano  Lioba Braun, who was scheduled to sing the role of Mulier Samaritana in this performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, under the direction of Andris Nelsons, has canceled her appearance due to a back injury which prevents her from traveling.  Mezzo-soprano Mihoko Fujimura will now sing the role of Mulier Samaritana.

(Emphasis added.)


Sunday, August 9.  The BSO and Maestro Dutoit return to the stage on Sunday, together with Joshua Bell as violin soloist for a program described as follows on the performance detail page:

Longtime Tanglewood favorite Joshua Bell joins Mr. Dutoit for a performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto, on a program which includes Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and one of the BSO's signature works, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

(Some emphasis added.)

The usual links are available, except that there is nothing yet about the Glazunov concerto, which, despite being mentioned first in the blurb, seems to be scheduled to be played after the Mussorgsky. The lack of preview material is unfortunate, since the Glaznov is the least known of the scheduled works.


As usual, the concerts can be heard at 8:30, 8:30, and 2:30 p.m., respectively, over WCRB. (Times are EDT.) The station has a page which gives information about future broadcasts and links to BSO-related material.