Winter Orgy® Period 2017

My apologies for not posting sooner. WHRB (95.3.FM around Boston, on line elsewhere) is nearing the end of the second week of their Winter Orgy® Period. There's about a week left. The classical music segments remaining are as follows:

• Today — No Strings Orgy — until 10:00 p.m.
• Dec. 14 — No Strings Orgy — 1:00 - 10:00 p.m.
• Dec. 15 — Milhaud Orgy — 12:00 - 10:00 p.m.
• Dec. 16 —no official orgy. The Met opera performance of  "Norma" at 1:00 is followed by other classical music until 9:00 p.m.
• Dec. 17 — Milhaud Orgy — 2:00 - 10:00 p.m.
• Dec. 18 — Glenn Gould Orgy — 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
• Dec. 19 — Glenn Gould Orgy — 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

That is the end of the designated Orgies, but there is lots of other interesting programming from then through Christmas. Afterwards, they return to the regular cycle: Jazz 5:00a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Classical 1:00 - 10:00 p.m., and Rock overnight on weekdays, with major Harvard sports games interrupting the schedule. The weekend schedule is a bit different. Notably, on Saturdays they carry the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts and on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. they present a recorded opera.

Their complete program guide is available on line.

Enjoy!

Winter Orgy® Period

At the beginning of the month I checked the WHRB website to see what they'd be doing for their Winter Orgy® Period. But I made what turned out to be the mistake of going to the Classical Music page, where I read the following outdated material: "WHRB's Orgies ®, presented each January and May, are tributes to particular composers and performers. Past Classical Orgies have included the works of Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, pianist Artur Schnabel, and an epic broadcast of the complete works of J.S. Bach. Check our Program Guide for upcoming Orgies."
Actually, they switched the winter orgy to December when the university switched exams to December. Based on that, however, I thought they had switched back.

But no. The program guide arrived in the mail today, and it turns out the orgy period began as usual on December 1. We have already missed the Baroque Masters of the Harpsichord Orgy, The First Nights Orgy, and the Classical Guitar Orgy. As I type this, the Warhorse Orgy is in progress, and will continue until about 6:45 this evening.

Here's what is still to come:

December 8, 12:30 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.  Charles-Valentin Alkan Orgy
     6:00 p.m. — midnight  The Benjamin Britten Orgy®
December 9–12,  6:00 a.m. — midnight  The Benjamin Britten Orgy® continues and concludes
December 13,  6:00 a.m — 10:00 a.m. The Role of the Listener
     10:00 a.m. — 3:00 p.m.  Two Piano Orgy
     3:00 — 10:00 p.m.  Fritz Kreisler Orgy
December 15,  12:30 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.  Process Music or "Bach to Basinski" Orgy
December 16, 10:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.  Process Music Orgy continues and concludes
December 17,  4:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.(?)  Anthony Collins (conductor, d. 1963) Orgy
December 18,  1:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.(?) Morton Gould Orgy
December 19,  noon — 10:00 p.m.(?)  Britten as Performer Orgy

Although they don't call them orgies, there will be a Hindemith Centenary (sic) Commemoration at 6:00 p. m. on Saturday, December 28, and a Colin Davis Tribute on Sunday, January 5, at 1:00. I suppose both will end at about 10:00 p.m.

While I'm at it, I'll also mention that WHRB carries the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts.

BSO — 2011/04/28-30; Met — 04/30

As I write, the Met is broadcasting "Il Trovatore," by Verdi. Give it a listen if you can.

This is the next to last week of BSO concerts for the season. Quoth the website:

The young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski makes his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut under the baton of frequent guest conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos performing Liszt’s exciting Piano Concerto No. 2, an innovative, sparkling, one-movement work. 2011 marks the bicentennial of Liszt’s birth. Two orchestral showpieces bookend the concerto. The German composer Max Reger (1873-1916) was a transitional figure between the Romantic and the modern eras, but had a strong sense of the Germanic musical tradition. His Variations and Fugue employ a theme from one of Mozart’s most beloved piano sonatas, the A major K.331. Ravel’s familiar but exotic Boléro completes the program.

The Globe liked it, especially Mr. Trpčeski's performance, as did the Boston Musical Intelligencer. I wasn't there on Thursday, so I can't add my own impressions, but it sounds as if it's worth listening to on WCRB.

And, as usual there are resources you can use to preview of follow up, both at the BSO website, and at WCRB.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2011/02/19; Met — 02/19

The BSO is off this week, so WCRB will stream some recordings made during concerts in prior years. Here's their description:

Levine Conducts Mozart and Mahler

BSO Music Director James Levine conducts the orchestra in concert performances of Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 14 and 18, recorded in Oct. 2009, and Mahler's Symphony No. 6, recorded in Oct. 2008.

 The show begins, as usual, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Before that, at 1:00 p.m., you can hear Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," live from the Met, streamed by WHRB. James Levine was scheduled to conduct.

BSO — 2011/02/03-08; Met — 02/05

This week's BSO program has Moussorgsky, Beethoven, and Prokofiev. Here's how the website describes it.

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo makes his BSO debut in these concerts and is joined by Romanian pianist Radu Lupu in Beethoven’s stormy Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. Oramo also leads Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony, a three movement work moving from dark to light that Prokofiev wrote just after World War II in the Soviet Union. Beginning the program is Mussorgsky’s thrilling Night on Bald Mountain. [emphasis added]

I was there on Thursday, and, frankly, I was not looking forward to the "Night on Bald Mountain." I guess I consider it one of these pieces that gets played too often on the radio and not really worth spending time on. But, with an assist from the pre-concert lecture, I actually found it interesting and worthwhile. The Beethoven was well-played, I thought. The pre-concert lecture described the Prokofiev symphony as one of his most tragic works, but with that expectation in mind, I actually found it very engaging. I joined the standing ovation at the end. The conductor uses very broad gestures and swings and sways. But as the Globe reviewer notes, he drew top-notch playing from everyone.

As always, you can listen on WCRB. The concert begins at 8:00. And there is information about the music on the BSO website. Click on Media Center.


As I type, the Met is giving  Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, one of my favorites. James Levine is conducting.


Everything is available at the usual times over the usual webstreams.

BSO — 2011/01/207-02/01; Met — 01/29

From the BSO website:

In these concerts led by the great German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, BSO principal players Elizabeth Rowe, flute, and John Ferrillo, oboe, step to the front of the orchestra to perform György Ligeti’s 1972 Double Concerto. Making her BSO subscription series debut, the young German violinist Arabella Steinbacher is soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4. Antonín Dvořák wrote his powerful yet elegant Symphony No. 7 for London’s Royal Philharmonic Society. The success of this 1885 work helped greatly to establish the composer’s international fame. 


The Globe reviewer liked the Ligeti and thought the rest was okay.

I was in the back row of the second balcony, and unfortunately I was listening more to the sound than the music. It seems more balanced than my regular subscription seat, where brass and timpani predominate; but you still can't hear the reeds through the full orchestra playing forte.

It was an enjoyable concert. I had taken the precaution of listening to the BSO "Media Player" (click on the "Launch" button under "Ligeti, Mozart and Dvořák" on the page I've linked) and had a foretaste of the Ligeti sound, and knowing what I was in for definitely made it easier to enjoy. I definitely recommend listening to it if you aren't sure about the Ligeti. You can skip the second part, about the Dvořák.

Anyway, Ligeti has an interesting sound and technique. As the Globe reviewer notes, there are microtones, so the sound is often sort of a wash, rather than crisp. And the music is generally quiet — so much so that it never drowned out the faint ringing I have had in my left ear for the past several years. I thought the violinist in the Mozart was good, and I liked her cadenzas. The Dvořák was an enjoyable performance of something I'm slightly familiar with.


As I write, the Met is doing "Tosca." Puccini is not my favorite opera composer. The tenor's voice seemed tight in "Recondita Armonia," but the soprano did well in "Vissi d'Arte."

BSO — 2011/01/20-25; Met — 01/22 (Revised)

The BSO website says this about the program that will be played on Saturday this week.

 The illustrious American conductor Lorin Maazel brings a program anchored by Alexander Scriabin’s lushly exotic Poem of Ecstasy, which features kaleidoscopic orchestral effects including a major role for the Symphony Hall organ. Equally exotic but on a smaller scale is a 1917 Stravinsky work, The Song of the Nightingale. This symphonic poem of music from his opera The Nightingale is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale with a Chinese theme. Tchaikovsky’s light, familiar Suite No. 3 for orchestra begins these concerts.

There's a lot more available if you click Launch Media Center on the page where I found the description. One minor tidbit is that when Maestro Maazel made his debut with the BSO fifty years ago, the Stravinsky and Scriabin pieces were on one of the two programs he gave. As always, you can hear the concert by listening to WCRB over the web at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, January 22. And as always there is an introductory show beginning an hour earlier.

I haven't found a review of the Thursday performance in print or on line.* I liked the Tchaikovsky best. It was all easy to take, and the last part was a big theme and variations, with the final variation being a polonaise. I really like the polonaise rhythm, and as any who know "Eugene Onegin" can attest, Tchaikovsky knows how to write a polonaise for orchestra. I very nearly gave a standing ovation. After intermission was okay. The Stravinsky was interesting, but I was ready for it to be over a few minutes before Stravinsky was. And the Scriabin was big and loud. Both pieces had some nifty solo playing.

*The Boston Globe finally got around to publishing a review in today's (Saturday) paper. Faint praise, except for the soloists, whom he names. — Note added January 22.


On Saturday afternoon, the Met is giving Verdi's "Rigoletto" at 1:00. WHRB will stream it. When I became interested in opera, the first complete opera recording I had was a Christmas present of "Rigoletto" with Leonard Warren in the title role and Toscanini conducting. If I'm not mistaken Erna Berger was Gilda, and the other principals were Nan Merriman and Italo Tajo. Anyway, I had been quite unfamiliar with that opera, but it proved quite satisfying. I've come to prefer some other Verdi operas, such as "Trovatore," "Don Carlo," and "Forza del Destiono," for example. But "Rigoletto" has fine music well matched to the tragic story.

BSO — 2011/01/13-18; Met — 01/15

The BSO website gives us the following information about the concert which I'll be attending tonight and which you can listen to over WCRB on Saturday.

Program:

DEBUSSY

Two Preludes—

Feuilles mortes (from Book 2) and 

Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (from Book 1) 

performed in their original piano versions 

and in orchestrations by Colin Matthews 

DELIUS

Paris: A Nocturne (The Song of a Great City)

MOZART

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K.467

STRAUSS

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

Guest Artists:

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Lars Vogt, piano

About the Music 

The English conductor Sir Mark Elder returns to the BSO podium for an eclectic program centering on Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 to be played by the outstanding German pianist Lars Vogt. These concerts begin with a selection of the contemporary English composer Colin Matthews’s orchestrations of Claude Debussy’s piano Preludes. The English composer Frederick Delius was known for his picturesque, illustrative scores; his 1901 Paris, A Nocturne is subtitled “Song of a Great City.” Strauss’s rollicking tone poem Till Eulenspiegel employs pioneering orchestral effects in telling the wild story of a mischievous rogue.

Additional information is available through the BSO website.

Debussy and Delius aren't my favorite composers by a long shot, but Delius is usually listenable. The Mozart should make it worth going out on a winter's evening, but I may not stick around for the Strauss, which I consider undeserving of the frequency with whic it is performed. Okay, we've heard it enough; let's move on. In fact, most of Richard Strauss's music belongs in that category, IMO.

My recent opera experience reminds me that I should probably note the availability of the live Saturday afternoon (Eastern Time) broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera performances. This week it's "La Traviata." If you don't have a broadcast station available for it, you can listen to the webstream via WHRB (see side panel for a link).