BSO — Hiatus Broadcasts/Webstreams 2013/03/09-10,17

The BSO went to New York to perform in Carnegie Hall, so there is no concert in Boston this week. To fill the broadcast (and webcast) schedule, Classical New England has selected one performance from decades ago and one more recent, as well as keeping to their customary time for rebroadcasts.

Here, from their Boston Symphony page, are the descriptions of what they will be broadcasting and streaming this evening and on the next two Sundays.
First, at 7:00 p.m., (and again on March 17) they note the recent passing of Van Cliburn

Special Broadcast: Van Cliburn's BSO Debut

In honor of the passing of pianist Van Cliburn, Classical New England and the Boston Symphony Orchestra bring you the legendary pianist's BSO debut performance, featuring the Piano Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. Charles Munch conducts the BSO at Symphony Hall on Oct. 5, 1958.

Tune in and stream live, Saturday, Mar. 9, at 7pm, and Sunday, Mar. 17, at 1pm.

(please note: this concert will not be available for on-demand streaming)

And then, at 9:00, a rebroadcast/stream of the concert of November 17, 2012

Soprano Dawn Upshaw is the soloist in Sibelius's Luonnotar, conducted by Thomas Adés, who also leads his own In Seven Daysand Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1, both with piano soloist Kirill Gerstein, and Sibelius's Symphony No. 6.

Sunday, March 10, we will get the normal rebroadcast/webstream of last week's concert.

Pianist Lang Lang is the soloist in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts two BSO signature works: Hindemith's Konzertmusik for Strings and Brass, commissioned by the BSO and premiered in 1931, and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1944.

If you go to the CNE/BSO page I've linked, there are further links to interviews with some of the performers and conductors. Happy listening.

BSO — 2013/02/28-03/02

This evening you can listen live or on March 10 to a rebroadcast/stream to a program of Hindemith, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók. The Boston Symphony's program details page gives the following details

With Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the podium, the sensational Chinese pianist Lang Lang makes his BSO debut in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. Two works tied to the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra bookend the program: Hindemith's Konzertmusik for Strings and Brass, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and the BSO on the occasion of the orchestra's 50th anniversary in 1931, and Bartók's ingeniously kaleidoscopic Concerto for Orchestra, a Koussevitzky commission premiered by the BSO in 1944. - See more at: http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/41088/#sthash.X57F6UJp.dpuf

and has links to background info as usual.

The Globe's reviewer found things to criticize in all three pieces, but thought that it wasn't all bad. Judge for yourself. I'm not familiar enough with any of them to say he's wrong, but I will say that the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, a BSO specialty from the world premiere, sounded really good to me.

As usual, Classical New England will broadcast/stream this evening's concert at 8:00 (with preliminaries at 7:00) and repeat on March 10 (at 1:00 I expect). The CNE's BSO page gives links to interviews with conductor and soloist.

BSO — 2013/01/24-26; Requiem Rebroadcast Change

Sorry, I got distracted. This week's concerts were

Conductor Charles Dutoit returns for his third week of concerts during the 2012-13 season, this time for a program featuring virtuoso English pianist Stephen Hough in Liszt's scintillatingly virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 1. The program begins with Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Weber-which translates material from works by Carl Maria von Weber into a virtuoso showpiece for orchestra-and concludes with music from Prokofiev's sweeping and colorful ballet score Romeo and Juliet.

There should be a rebroadcast/stream on February 3 at 1:00 p.m. Boston time, so the BSO detail page and the Classical New England page are still worth looking at for their links.

I was there on Thursday and found it all worth hearing, especially the Hindemith. The Globe's reviewer was unimpressed.


Change of Time for Verdi Requiem Rebroadcast.  Listening to the live concert this evening I learned that Classical New England will give their rebroadcast and webstream of last week's Verdi Requiem, not at the usual time of 1:00 p.m., but at 6:00 p.m. Boston time. I don't know why. But if you want to listen — and I recommend it — note the time.