BSO/Classical New England — 2026/02/21

 It seems from their website that the BSO ia taking the week off. WCRB steps up to the plate with an encore broadcast. They've chosen a concert from April of last year, which they describe as follows: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2024-11-04/elgars-violin-concerto-with-frank-peter-zimmermann

Saturday, February 21, 2026
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast, Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919 explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
Edward ELGAR Violin Concerto

This concert was originally broadcast on April 5, 2025, and is no longer available on demand.

In a preview of this program, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk describes the emotional power of Hailstork's Lachrymosa: 1919, the extreme shift in energy among the different works on the program and the audience's role in facilitating that energy, and the qualities Frank Peter Zimmermann brings to Elgar's Violin Concerto. To listen, use the player above and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath This program. Three pieces that are so different from each other. Adolphus Hailstork's "Lachrymosa: 1919." Not a piece that I had known before, but what a gorgeous, beautiful, moving piece of music.

I posted about it at the time. The links to the BSO performance detail page and the Intelligencer review still work but the program notes aren't linked anymore. It's interesting to see a couple of negative comments about Zimmermann's playing in response to the review. I don't know the piece, so I can't judge how the violinist did.

Overall I guess I'd say this could be interesting, but not quite to the level of "must listening." Enjoy your evening.

BSO — 2025/04/05

 I'm not familiar with any of the pieces on this evening's Boston Symphony concert, so let's see what WCRB says:

Saturday, April 5, 2025
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
Edward ELGAR Violin Concerto

In a preview of this program, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk describes the emotional power of Hailstork's Lachrymosa: 1919, the extreme shift in energy among the different works on the program and the audience's role in facilitating that energy, and the qualities Frank Peter Zimmermann brings to Elgar's Violin Concerto. To listen, use the player above and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath This program. Three pieces that are so different from each other. Adolphus Hailstork's "Lachrymosa: 1919." Not a piece that I had known before, but what a gorgeous, beautiful, moving piece of music.

The interview might also be good preparation.

The BSO's performance detail page has the same description of the concert, but it also has links to the program notes for esch piece, which can be useful if you want to know what to expect (or to follow along aas things are being performed).

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
-Intermission-
ELGAR Violin Concerto

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’sLachrymosa: 1919 explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

The Globe doesn't seem to have a review, but there is a favorable one in the Intelligencer.

It seems that this will be a concert worth listening to.

BSO — 2019/03/23

This week the BSO gives a concert of music by Black and Puerto Rican composers. Here's the description from their performance detail page:

Thomas Wilkins, the BSO's Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, makes his subscription series debut with this concert, which features music of three African-American composers along with the Puerto Rico-born Robert Sierra. Sierra wrote his Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra for eminent jazz saxophonist James Carter, including opportunities for improvisation within his dynamic and soulful score. Also in the jazz spectrum is Duke Ellington's lush, impressionistic tone poem A Tone Parallel to Harlem. Florence Price graduated from Boston's New England Conservatory in 1906 as a pianist and organist; she also studied composition there. She wrote her Third Symphony in 1940 on a commission from the WPA; Thomas Wilkins has arranged sections of the four-movement work into a tone poem he calls "Symphonic Reflections." The brash, optimistic concert-opener An American Port of Call was written in 1985 for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra by Adolphus Hailstork, inspired by his bustling home city of Norfolk, VA, where he is a professor at Old Dominion University.

(Some emphasis added.)

This is the only performance of the program, so there are no reviews, but the Boston Globe has an informative interview with the conductor.

None of this is music I'm familiar with, and I'd like to hear it. I'll be listening to WCRB on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and again on Monday, April 1, for he rebroadcast, also at 8:00. The March 25 rebroadcast is last Saturday's all-Strauss concert. Don't forget to check out the website for information about other programming.