Tanglewood — 2024/07/20-21

 This evening we get Wagner at his most tedious (except for Siegfried's funeral march) and tomorrow we get interesting, beautiful, and popular selections. First, here's WCRB telling us about this evening:

Saturday, July 20, 2024
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and an all-star cast, featuring soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Michael Weinius, in the epic conclusion of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, Act III of Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried)
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen)
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, Catherine Martin (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdamerung, Act III

The BSO performance detail page has this to say:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
John Matsumoto Giampietro, staging coordinator
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried) |
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen) 
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, and Annie Rosen (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdämmerung, Act III

Sung in German with English Supertitles

Please note that there is no intermission in this concert. Duration is about 90 minutes.

Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a masterpiece of art that weaves a fabric of passion, beauty, betrayal, tragedy, and redemption into the tapestry of myth and legend, all set to some of the most stirring, powerful music ever composed.

Join Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and an all-star cast for the peerless conclusion of Wagner’s massive, epic opera Götterdämmerung.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by Rabbis Rachel Hertzman and Rex Perlmeter.

The program note tries to give the whole story of the Ring cycle, which is probably necessary to understand the action of tonight's show. Unfortunately, they don't give the actual text. You'll have to find that for yourself somehow if you want it.

When i say "Wagner at his most tedious," I mean the whole Ring cycle is pretty tedious, but "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung" are especially so in my personal opinion — along with "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal." Opinions may vary. Maybe you'll like it. But one evening I was listening to the whole opera and was nearly jolted out of my chair by the beginning of the funeral march. You'll recognize it if you listen.

Then we come to Sunday evening's broadcast of the afternoon concert of the Tanglewood Center Orchestra (not the BSO). Again WCRB gives the outline:

Sunday, July 21, 2024
7:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’s Three Places in New England. Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a musically complex work that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Charles IVES Three Places in New England
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Richard STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

See also the BSO performance detail page for the links to the program notes (especially the Ives) and this overall description:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Emanuel Ax, piano

IVES Three Places in New England 
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Intermission
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work of intense emotionality and complex musicality that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’ palatial Also sprach Zarathustra, and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’ textured Three Places in New England, which tells three very different stories of historic events and landmarks throughout the region.

The 2024 Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert is supported by generous endowments established in perpetuity by Dr. Raymond and Hannah H. Schneider, and Diane H. Lupean

 Ives is kind of "quirky" and maybe not your proverbial cup of metaphorical tea, but I've become fascinated with much of his stuff, and I definitely want to hear the "Three Places in New England" again. With the Beethoven and Strauss, we're in a more familiar musical style. (I could do without the Strauss, but that's just me. Most concert-goers seem to like it.)

So give it all a try, despite my negativity. I'll be listening.

Tanglewood — 2022/08/26-28

 It's the last weekend of the Tanglewood season, ending with the traditional Beethoven Ninth Symphony on Sunday. I think I heard Laura Carlo say this morning that Ron Della Chiesa  would be retiring as "the voice of the BSO' after these performances, which, if I heard correctly, gives a further incentive to listen.

Friday, August 26, 2022. We look to WCRB for the outline:

Friday, August 26, 2022
8:00 PM

Anna Rakitina leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3, “The First of May,” and violinist Gil Shaham is the soloist in Dvorak’s rustically brilliant Violin Concerto.

Anna Rakitina, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin 
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor 

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Waltz No. 2 from Suite No. 1 for Variety Orchestra
Antonín DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 3, The First of May 
Alexander BORODIN Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor 

Some descriptive verbiage is to be found on the orchestra's own performance detail page:

BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina leads frequent Tanglewood guest soloist Gil Shaham in Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s great Violin Concerto, which sings with pungent Czech traditional rhythms and melodies. Three Russian works complete the program. Part-time composer and full-time scientist Alexander Borodin wrote his tremendously energetic and popular Polovtsian Dances for his opera Prince Igor, which remained unfinished at his early death. Two Dmitri Shostakovich rarities demonstrate his fantastic range. Purely for entertainment, the Suite for Variety Orchestra is a mishmash of pieces from various contexts—the Waltz is from his score from the 1955 film The First Echelon. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3, The First of May is a serious work for chorus and orchestra in praise of the Soviet revolution predating Joseph Stalin’s cynical crackdown on artistic creativity, which would have dangerous consequences for Shostakovich. This is the first performance of this piece by the BSO, part of its multi-season traversal of the composer’s complete symphonies.

As usual, full program notes are linked there.

I'm not a big fan of the Borodin, although it's generally pretty well liked. On the other hand the Shostakovich symphony will probably be an adventure. The Dvořák should be good.

Saturday, August 27, 2022.  Again, we turn first to WCRB:

Saturday, August 27, 2022
8:00 PM

Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the Berkshires to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Copland’s inspirational Symphony No. 3, and pianist Alexander Malofeev is the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s mighty Piano Concerto No. 3.

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor  
Alexander Malofeev, piano

Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Dubinushka 
Sergei RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3
Aaron COPLAND Symphony No. 3

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

Click on the player above to hear a preview of the concert with Michael Tilson Thomas, who connects Rimsky-Korsakov's Dubinushka to great musical figures of the past, describes the special qualities he hears in Alexander Malofeev's playing, and recalls conversations with Aaron Copland that reveal the essence of the composer's music.

Transcript:

Brian McCreath Michael Tilson Thomas, it's so good to talk with you. Thank you for a little bit of your time today. We'll talk about the programs that you're conducting at Tanglewood. And the first piece that you'll conduct on Saturday night is Dubinushka.

Michael Tilson Thomas "Du-BEE-nushka."

BMcC "Du-BEE-nushka." Thank you. Thank you for the correction.

As you see, there's a bonus: an interview with the conductor. If you go to the WCRB page, you can see the video or read the transcript. I haven't read the whole thing, but he mentions that he likes to find unfamiliar things. He did that about fifty years ago withthe BSO when he led a performance of "Vespro della beata vergine," composed in 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi. I had never heard anything like it, and I was blown away. It has since been recorded commercially, and I have a couple of those recordings, but I wish I could hear that live performance again sometime.

Further information is available, including a link to the program notes, on the BSO performance detail page:

Renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, whose rich association with the BSO dates back to his time as a TMC Fellow (1968-69), is joined by the remarkable young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev in his BSO and Tanglewood debut for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Sparkling and lush, it is one of the most beloved and challenging concertos in the repertoire. Aaron Copland’s orchestral music epitomizes a distinctly American sound that persists in the concert hall and in film soundtracks. His Third Symphony, premiered by the BSO and Serge Koussevitzky in 1946, incorporates the bold and familiar Fanfare for the Common Man. The concert opens with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s brief, rousing Dubinushka, based on a tune he heard marching workers sing during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and not performed by the BSO since 1944.

Sunday, August 28, 2022.  Michael Tilson Thomas returns to close out the season: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2022-06-13/beethovens-ninth-at-tanglewood

Sunday, August 28, 2022
7:00 PM (delayed broadcast of 2:30 PM concert)

An incredible cast of soloists joins Michael Tilson Thomas, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor 
Jacquelyn Stucker, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Ben Bliss, tenor
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor 

Charles IVES Psalm 90
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

There's more at the performance detail page:

Bert L. Smokler Memorial Concert

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the BSO in Tanglewood’s traditional season-ending performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s intensely expressive, innovative, but ultimately uplifting Symphony No. 9. Following three questing instrumental movements, the finale is a setting for soloists and chorus of the German playwright and poet Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” The symphony—Beethoven’s last, composed in 1825—was an immense success at its premiere and has since become a symbol of hope for the universal togetherness of humankind.

Ives is unique. His music may take some getting used to, and it would be good if his compositions were played more often so people could get used to it. I recommend reading the program note. I don't think I've ever heard "Psalm 90," and I'm looking forward to it. If you find it too strange, stick around for the Beethoven.

So it's a weekend with the familiar and the adventurous, with the great Ron Della Chiesa as the announcer. Don't forget that the Sunday concert will be delivered an hour earlier than the Friday and Saturday ones.

BSO — 2022/03/05

 This evening we get an unfamiliar piece, a new piece, and a warhorse which is a "signature piece" of the BSO, Here'a the WCRB synopsis:

Saturday, March 5, and Monday, March 14, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the Greek violinist joins the Boston Symphony as the soloist in the American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s "Shards of Silence" Violin Concerto, and Andris Nelsons conducts Ives and Berlioz’s otherworldly "Symphonie fantastique."

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

IVES The Unanswered Question
Unsuk CHIN Violin Concerto No. 2, Scherben der Stille (Shards of Silence) (American premiere; BSO co-commission)
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Hear a preview of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Leonidas Kavakos using the player above (transcript below).

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Leonidas Kavakos, who's back in Boston for an American premiere, a concerto that was written just for you. Leonidas, thank you for spending a little bit of time with me today. I appreciate it.

As usual, you can read or listen to the interview at the WCRB page.

The BSO's program page has links to the program notes as well as the following summary:

Music Director Andris Nelsons is joined by one of his frequent collaborators, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, for the American premiere of celebrated Korean-German composer Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Scherben der Stille(“Shards of Silence”). Co-commissioned for Mr. Kavakos by the BSO, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, and the London Symphony Orchestra, the concerto receives its U.S. premiere in March 2022 at Symphony Hall. Chin won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2004 for her first violin concerto. A staple of the BSO’s repertoire for generations, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique virtually defined the emotional intensity of musical Romanticism while also vastly expanding orchestral virtuosity. Opening the program is the American composer Charles Ives’s mysterious, innovative tone poem The Unanswered Question (1908), which features a striking solo trumpet part.

There is a tepid review in the Intelligencer. I can't find a review in the Globe.

I always like to give new pieces a chance. My brother will call from Tokyo at 8:00 this evening, so I'll miss the live broadcast this evening, but I'll listen to the rebroadcast on March 14. I'm also looking forward to hearing "The Unanswered Question." Ives is definitely idiosyncratic. I'm confident almost everybody will like the Berlioz after intermission.

8:00 p.m., Boston Time, this evening and March 24.

WCRB/Tanglewood — 2020/08/21-23

When there are concerts at Tanglewood, WCRB has broadcast the Friday and Saturday evening concerts live at 8:00 p.m. and delayed broadcasting the Sunday afternoon concert until 7:00 p.m. We get something similar this weekend, with concerts all three evenings.

The Friday and Saturday concerts are being given as part of a mini-series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Those two concerts long antedate my presence on the internet, so I have no omments of my own from the time of performance. For years now, Beethoven's 9th Symphony has concluded the Tanglewood season.


Friday, August 21, 2020.   Haydn's The Creation (libretto) https://www.classicalwcrb.org/sites/wcrb/files/202008/twd_930815_creation.pdf, conducted by Simon Rattle on Aug. 15, 1993.

This should be well worth hearing.


Saturday, August 22, 2020.  Berlioz's Requiem, conducted by Seiji Ozawa on Aug. 5, 1995.

A spectacular piece, not to be missed.

Sunday, August 23, 2020. Here's WCRB's description:

This Sunday at 7, Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and its "Ode to Joy," at Tanglewood.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

7:00 PM

This encore broadcast was originally recorded on Sunday, August 27, 2017.

Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons, conductor/ Katie Van Kooten, soprano/ Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano/ Russell Thomas, tenor/ John Relyea, bass-baritone/ Tanglewood Festival Chorus

THOMPSON Alleluia

    (recorded on July 7, 1994, at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood)

IVES “The Housatonic at Stockbridge” from Three Places in New England 

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

Here's what I wrote at the time:

For several years, the Beethoven 9th was the only piece performed at the Sunday afternoon season finale. Recently, there has been a curtain raiser to precede it, as is the case this year. Again, the performance detail page gives some particulars:

For the second year in a row, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Sunday, August 27. The performance features soprano Katie Van Kooten in her BSO and Tanglewood debuts; mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford; tenor Russell Thomas; and bass-baritone John Relyea, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Maestro Nelsons and the BSO open the program with Charles Ives's tribute to Western Massachusetts, "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" from Three Places in New England.

(Some emphasis added.)

Remember, WCRB broadcasts and streams the Saturday concert at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, and the Sunday concert by tape delay at 7:00 p.m. Check out their website for the other material they have.

Enjoy the concerts!

Tanglewood — 2019/08/09-11

I got distracted and missed posting about Friday until just when the concert was about to begin. I hope you heard it. It seemed to me that in a couple of spots, Kavakos was interpolating some of his own material, especially at the transition from the second to the third movements of the Beethoven, but at a couple of other points in the concerto as well. So far no reviews have appeared in the usual places to confirm or contradict my impression.


Saturday, August 10, 2019.  Tonight it's late romantic music, with a conductor I've never heard of making his BSO debut and a respected but not quite famous pianist. The program detail page gives us "Just the facts:"

The 2019 Tanglewood season will also see the BSO and Tanglewood debut of Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, who leads the orchestra on Saturday, August 10, in Carreño’s Margaritena, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Nikolai Lugansky, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.

(Some emphasis added.)

I'm not sure what the "also" refers to, but this has the appearance of a cut and paste job by an overworked staff which hasn't had the customary time to prepare the page. But the links can give you information about the conductor — click on the thumbnail photo — and the "Margariteña," which is not about the drink — check the full program notes link. IT sounds as if the piece should be quite listenable. I'm looking forward to hearing it. Fortunately, the Brahms should come during my brother's phone call from Japan.

Sunday, August 11, 2019. This time, the program detail page doesn't even have a "just the facts" synopsis. Still, the links give you what you need to know. Thomas Adès conducts Three Places in New England, by Charles Ives, followed by Beethoven's Piano Concerto № 4, with one Inon Barnatan as soloist. (See the performer bio.) After intermission, Adès and the orchestra will play Symphony № 6, "Pastoral," also by Beethoven himself.

I no longer find Ives as cacophonous as I used to, so I'm actually looking forward to hearing "Three Pieces in New England," perhaps with program notes at hand to help me follow the music. Of course, the Beethoven pieces are not to be missed.


Remember, WCRB broadcasts and streams the Saturday concert at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, and the Sunday concert by tape delay at 7:00 p.m. Check out their website for the other material they have.

Enjoy the concerts!

Tanglewood — 2017/08/25-27

It's the final weekend of this year's Boston Symphony season at Tanglewood. As has become traditional, the final piece on Sunday will be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Friday evening's concert will be the score to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" performed by the Boston Pops to accompany a showing of the movie. For whatever reason, it will not be broadcast. Perhaps it doesn't work without the visuals. Instead, WCRB will give us a reprise of a concert from last summer.



Friday, August 25, 2017.  WCRB tells us they will rebroadcast

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
DVORÁK Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5 

Recorded July 22, 2016.
This encore broadcast is not available on-demand. 

(Emphasis added.)

At the time the performance took place, the BSO performance detail page told us

English conductor  Sir Andrew Davis-currently music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra-returns to the Shed stage for the first time since 2008. To open the program, he leads the  Boston Symphony Orchestra  in Vaughan Williams's haunting  Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, inspired by a melody by the great English Renaissance composer. Renowned Georgian violinist  Lisa Batiashvili joins the orchestra for Dvořák's Violin Concerto, and Maestro Davis and the BSO close the program with Sibelius's soaring Symphony No. 5, written in 1915 on commission from the Finnish government in celebration of the composer's 50th birthday and subsequently revised in 1916 and 1919.

It should be worth listening to.


Saturday, August 26, 2017,  brings vocal soloists to the stage along with the Boston Symphony. To wit:

On Saturday, August 26, soprano Kristine Opolais, bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for an evening of opera and song.Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel replaces baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Saturday, August 26, opera gala program at Tanglewood.

(Some emphasis added.)

But wait, there's more from the performance detail page. Here's the complete list of pieces:

PUCCINI Tosca, Act IIWAGNER "Entrance of the Guests" from Tannhäuser, Act IIWAGNER "Wie duftet doch der Flieder" (Hans Sachs' "Flieder monologue")from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act IIDVOŘÁK "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka, Act IDVOŘÁK Polonaise from Rusalka, Act IIGERSHWIN From Porgy and Bess:Introduction and Jasbo Brown Blues, from Act I"Summertime," from Act I"I got plenty o' nuttin'," from Act II"Bess, you is my woman now," from Act II

The program notes, available by a link from the performance detail page, tell who will perform in which pieces.

I'll have to miss this one because my high school class, most of whom were born in 1942, is having a 75th birthday party that evening. Opera may not exactly be your cup of tea; and I must admit, the selections (other than the Entry of the Guests, which is magnificent) are not what I would have chosen. So I can understand if you decide to give it a pass. On the other hand, if you don't know the music, why not give it a try. I'd listen if I were at home.


Sunday, August 27, 2017.  For several years, the Beethoven 9th was the only piece performed at the Sunday afternoon season finale. Recently, there has been a curtain raiser to precede it, as is the case this year. Again, the performance detail page gives some particulars:

For the second year in a row, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Sunday, August 27. The performance features soprano Katie Van Kooten in her BSO and Tanglewood debuts; mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford; tenor Russell Thomas; and bass-baritone John Relyea, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Maestro Nelsons and the BSO open the program with Charles Ives's tribute to Western Massachusetts, "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" from Three Places in New England.

(Some emphasis added.)


As usual, you can hear it all via WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7:00 on Sunday, EDT. Enjoy.

Between now and the opening of the Symphony Hall season on September 22, they will rebroadcast concerts from last April. In addition, they will broadcast and stream Opening Night on Friday, September 22, beginning at 5:30. You can see the specifics at their Upcoming BSO page.

Tanglewood — 2016/07/15-17

I'm sorry to be late with this. Safari basically froze on me earlier on Friday and only unfroze just before 8:00, when it was far too late to write and post this item in time for the concert. So I listened, wile watching the Red Sox game. ("We" won!) Still, I'll include the Friday concert in this post since WCRB's on demand feature will make this concert available to listen to soon, they say.

Friday, July 15.  This an all Mozart concert with Pinchas Zukerman as conductor and violin soloist. The orchestra's program detail page gives the following description:

Violinist Pinchas Zukerman, a frequent BSO guest over the years and a renowned Mozart performer, joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra once again Friday, July 15, at 8 p.m., as both conductor and soloist for a program devoted entirely to that composer's music. From the podium, Mr. Zukerman will lead the orchestra in the Haydnesque Symphony No. 25 and one of Mozart's great, final three symphonies, No. 39 in E-flat. At the heart of the program, he takes up his violin to lead the BSO as soloist in the Violin Concerto-or the second, third, and fourth movements-from the composer's Serenade in D, K.250, Haffner.

The page also has links to audio previews and program notes, with performer bio available by clicking the thumbnail picture.

You can't go wrong with Mozart. I thought there were a couple of spots in the first half where some players got out of sync, but it was very good apart from that. But the big surprise for me was that there is a violin concerto embedded in the Haffner Serenade. I'd never heard that before. Although the program doesn't say so, they performed not only the three "violin concerto" movements but also the opening movement of the serenade, which the "concerto" immediately follows.


Saturday, July 16.  Here's the description from the BSO's program detail page:

On Saturday, July 16, at 8 p.m., BSO assistant conductor Ken-David Masur returns to Tanglewood, along with celebrated American soprano Renée Fleming, for a performance of Strauss's powerfully emotional and autumnally beautiful Four Last Songs, the last major piece the composer wrote before his death a year later in 1949. Also on the program are Tchaikovsky's beloved Symphony No. 6, Pathetiqué-which was also its composer's final work before death-and Ives's atmospheric and ruminative The Unanswered Question, perhaps his most popular work. Ms. Fleming made her BSO debut at Tanglewood 25 years ago, on July 13, 1991, performing Mozart's Idomeneo  with the BSO and Seiji Ozawa.

**Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, who was scheduled to conduct the BSO concert this Saturday, July 16 and a portion of the TMCO concert on Monday, July 18, has, with great regret, been forced to withdraw from these performances due to complications following recent cataract surgery. BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur will replace Maestro von Dohnányi for both concerts. The programs remain the same.

Maestro von Dohnányi looks forward to returning to Tanglewood to lead the BSO in the orchestra's traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Sunday, August 28.

(Some emphasis added.)

The program detail page has the usual links to background information. It's the second Saturday in a row that the scheduled conductor has had to withdraw because of health problems. A generation of well-known and revered conductors is passing away. Still, the orchestra should be in good hands with Mr. Masur.

Ives is an unusual composer, unconstrained by the normal rules of form and harmony of his youth, so his music can be jarring. I hope the brief piece of his which opens the program will not chase anybody away. If you're unfamiliar with Ives, be sure to read the program note for the piece before listening if possible. The title of WCRB's podcast, "The Answered Question," is, of course, a take-off on Ives' title, "The Unanswered Question."

The Strauss songs are lush, and the Tchaikovsky symphony probably deserves its status as a "warhorse" of the orchestral repertoire. While I think orchestras would do well to give it a rest and program other, less-performed, deserving works, I'm sure it will be fun to listen to.


Sunday, July 17.  On Sunday, the program is mostly well-known and popular pieces, with the Ravel probably the least well known. The BSO program detail page informs us:

Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno makes both his BSO and Tanglewood debuts on Sunday, July 17, at 2:30 p.m., leading the orchestra in Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, Classical-a work that was inspired by and intended as a tribute to Haydn, and which is one of the earliest pieces in the so-called neoclassical style that became popular in the first half of the 20th century-and the suite from Stravinsky's breakthrough early ballet, The Firebird. Brilliant Chinese pianist Yuja Wang joins Mr. Gimeno and the BSO for two heavily jazz-influenced works: Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, at turns breathless and beautiful, and Gershwin's infectious and well-known Rhapsody in Blue.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Friday and Saturday concerts can be heard via WCRB radio or web at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, and the Sunday program will be aired and streamed at 7:00, p.m. (not live at 2:30). That home page, in addition to the link to listen over the web, gives information about other special programming which may be of interest. Their BSO page, in addition to brief descriptions of the Saturday and Sunday concerts, gives similar information about the remaining Tanglewood concert broadcasts and various other interesting items and links. Regrettably, the decision to delay the broadcast means that I'll have to miss this one, as I'll be away from my radio and computer at that time. I hope you'll be able to catch these standards.

BSO — 2013/10/10-12

This week's concerts are an interesting mixture of the traditional and the modern. One can read something of an "ocean" theme into the three works preceding the intermission. I'm not sure how useful that is, though. Anyway, here's how the BSO itself describes the program:

English composer-conductor-pianist Thomas Adès returns to the BSO podium with more music of his own. He composed his symphonic poem Polaris in 2010; subtitled "Voyage for Orchestra," it calls for a spatial arrangement of the brass around the auditorium. The program begins with another "voyage" piece, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, which describes the composer's reaction to the Scottish seascape he visited on a tour of the British Isles. Charles Ives's Orchestral Set No. 2 is a series of smaller tone poems on subjects from New England and New York, featuring his inimitable use of quotation and collage of popular tunes. The Thursday and Saturday concerts also include César Franck's powerful Symphony in D minor-his most enduring orchestral work. (Emphasis supplied.)

The performance detail page, from which I copied the above, also has the usual links to performer info, program notes and audio previews. They don't mention there that the third section of the Ives piece also has an ocean connection: it is about the reaction of commuters in a train station to news of the sinking of the Lusitania.

I was at the concert on Thursday evening, and I really enjoyed it, especially the Ives and Adès. The Ives was so good (especially the brass section blaring "In the Sweet Bye and Bye") that I shouted "Bravo" as the applause was just starting. I like to think it encouraged more vigorous and sustained applause, leading to a second return to the stage for Maestro Adès — we'll see if he gets called back more than once this evening. In any event, I'm amazed that this particular piece has never been performed by the BSO before this week. I hope they'll do it again while I'm still able to get to Symphony Hall and enjoy it. The Globe reviewer also liked the concert.

It has occurred to me that my ability to enjoy the music of Ives (and other 20th and 21st century composers) owes a lot to reading program notes in advance to get an idea of what a composition is all about, how it works. So I definitely recommend following the links on the performance detail page when there's an unfamiliar piece.

You can hear it for yourself over the radio or the web on Classical New England. Their page devoted to the BSO includes, among others potentially interesting things, a link to an interview with the composer/conductor, in which he talks about all the pieces on the program. I haven't heard it yet, but I hope I'll have a chance to before tonight's broadcast.

Tanglewood August 21 – 23, 2009: End of Symphony Season — Not to Be Missed!

from the Boston Symphony website

"Kurt Masur Conducts Beethoven and Mendelssohn

Kurt Masur opens the BSO's final Tanglewood weekend August 21 leading two classical masterworks, Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and Haydn's Symphony No. 88. The program's centerpiece is a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, featuring the BSO debut of one of Mr. Masur's favorite collaborators, the young French pianist David Fray. Mr. Fray has received numerous prizes and awards, and was BBC Music Magazine's "Newcomer of the Year" in 2008.

August 22, 2009 8:30 PM Kurt Masur dedicates a concert to showcasing the music of one of his most admired composers, Felix Mendelssohn. This BSO program features Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, Italian, one of the composer's most beloved works, evoking the warm climes of the Mediterranean, as well as The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture, begun during a visit to the Hebrides archipelago off the coast of Scotland. The evening's centerpiece is Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, featuring one of the BSO's most popular guest artists, the American violinist Gil Shaham.

Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

On August 23, Michael Tilson Thomas leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra's final program of the 2009 festival season, the annual grand finale performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The masterwork features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, soprano Erin Wall and mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen in their BSO debuts, tenor Stuart Skelton in his Tanglewood debut, and bass-baritone Raymond Aceto. The program begins with Ives' Decoration Day, the composer's stirring ode to Memorial Day."

The Friday and Saturday concerts are at 8:30 p.m. and are streamed on WAMC. The Sunday concert is at 2:30. It is also streamed on WAMC; and WGBH streams it with a "pre-game show" beginning at 2:00. All times are Eastern.

More info is available at the website on the Tanglewood pages.

Going Again

I'm going to hear the Ives symphony again this evening. The Boston Symphony gives some of its concerts on Tuesday evenings following the week when they first present them. Out of about 28 programs this season, 11 are being given on the following Tuesday, and one such is last week's Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, and Ives program. I enjoyed the Ives so much that I wanted to hear it again. Unlike the Rachmaninoff, it isn't played much on the radio. I'm also looking forward to the Sibelius. So I got a ticket for the same seat I had last Thursday when I heard it the first time. It's my regular subscription seat.

Comment on BSO — 2009/03/05

You gotta listen to this! The first part was really good. But after the intermission, the Ives symphony was spectacular. He has two different rhythms going in different parts of the orchestra at times, so that they need a second conductor. He takes familiar (to him at least) tunes and weaves them into this symphonic structure. The second movement is wild. The third and fourth are sublime. When it was over, the conductor held up his hand for a long time to prolong the silence into which the music had brought us. When he lowered his hand and one or two people had begun to clap, I shouted "bravo!" over the general quiet. Enthusiastic applause ensued, and eventually a standing ovation.

I urge everybody to get the program notes from www.bso.org and listen to either or both of the streamed broadcasts. And then if you're within striking distance of Symphony Hall, try to get a ticket for the final performance on next Tuesday, March 10.

I'll edit this to add the Boston Globe's review in the morning.

The Sibelius was pleasant, and the Rachmaninoff familiar and well done. But if you can only take time for the Ives, it will begin shortly after 2:45 on Friday, and 9:15 on Saturday.

Edited to add Boston Globe review:

Gilbert leads BSO in Ives's epic Fourth Symphony
By Jeremy Eichler
Globe Staff / March 6, 2009
Next fall the young conductor Alan Gilbert will be taking up the reins of the New York Philharmonic as its 25th music director and there are high hopes that he will bring that magnificent yet artistically staid orchestra a sense of freshness and new life. Focused yet unflashy on the podium, he is unquestionably a thoughtful musician with engaging ideas about the music of today and how it connects to the great masterpieces of the past. It should be fascinating to see if and how he can turn around the huge orchestral ship.

In the meantime, a bit of Gilbert's flair for programming with rich contrasts was on display last night in Symphony Hall, where he led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in three early-20th century works that were all written within 30 years of each other yet seemed to hail from completely different universes. The evening opened with an alluring performance of Sibelius's tone poem "Night Ride and Sunrise," yet the strongest contrast came with the final two works: Rachmaninoff's ubiquitous Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Ives's epic and rarely heard Fourth Symphony.

Rachmaninoff was ultimately a late-Romantic composer marooned in the 20th century. "I understand nothing of the music of today," he commented in 1933, the year before he wrote his Paganini Rhapsody. In some of its structural details you can feel Rachmaninoff working hard to sound innovative but his piece inevitably became best known for its moments of soaring lyricism and old-fashioned keyboard brilliance. The British pianist Stephen Hough last night gave it a supremely poised and thoughtful reading that did not shy away from the work's external glitter but also seemed determined to spotlight its textural subtleties and moments of quiet poetry. He did so extremely well.

Rachmaninoff once wrote that "a composer's music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books which have influenced him, the pictures he loves. It should be the product of the sum total of a composer's experiences." Ironically, few pieces answer this call more fully than Ives's visionary Fourth Symphony, in which the composer seems to have united all of the disparate musical and biographical threads that run through his other works. It was written mostly between 1909 and 1911 and yet it is still a piece that sounds bracingly modern today.

It calls for chorus and massive orchestral forces which Gilbert managed artfully last night, with the aid of an assistant conductor (Andrew Grams) who helped the musicians navigate the multiple tempos. The work is a giant palimpsest with musical layers piled high on top of each other, at times building to a kind of glorious sonic anarchy. Gilbert chose a spacious pacing and found clarity and structure within the chaos. He drew a beautifully rich tone from the strings in the third movement fugue, and traced the broadest of arcs in the spiritually searching finale. At the very end, the music created just the desired effect: it seemed to evaporate into a clear night sky.

BSO — 2009/03/05-07

Last week's BSO program booklet had an announcement of this week's program. It includes Sibelius' tone poem "Night Ride and Sunrise," Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," and Charles Ives' "Symphony No. 4." The conductor will be Alan Gilbert, who is to become music director of the New York Philharmonic next season.

This concert is not included in my subscriptions, but I want to hear the Sibelius and Ives pieces. Amazingly, the Sibelius piece has not been performed by the BSO since 1918. I heard it not long ago, possibly during the recent WHRB Sibelius Orgy ®. It's good enough to warrant playing more than once every 90 years. And Ives is "interesting" — combining folk and hymn tunes with dissonant material. This symphony has a chorus taking part. The note says it was completed in 1916 and got its premiere performance in 1965.

So I went on line Monday and got a ticket for Thursday evening. My regular seat for one of my Thursday series was available, so I took it. It's on an aisle in the back row of the left balcony, so I can get out quickly when the applause is over, and get to the espresso stand before the line is too long.

As usual, I expect WGBH to broadcast the Friday matinee. The concert begins at 1:30 and their program begins at 1:00. They usually have pretty good introductory material and intermission features. The announcer is knowledgeable, and the producer conducts good interviews. WCRB will broadcast the Saturday evening performance, beginning at 8:00. They don't have the extras that you get on WGBH, but you get the music. (All times are Eastern.)

Additional info, including downloadable program notes from the program booklet, is available at the BSO website, www.bso.org if you're interested.