December WHRB Orgy® Season

 I'm sorry I didn't get to this sooner. The Warhorse Orgyran on December 1 and 2. Then came Brahms 190, which ended yesterday.Fortunately, there is still good material to come. Beginning at noon on Decfember10, we get 100 Yeqars of Maria Callas. The The Emerson Quartet Orgy begins at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, December 11. It continues off and on until Wednesday evening. One intermission is at 1:00 on Tuesday: Gems of French Opera.

The full program guide, with specific timings, is available at https://www.whrb.org/programming/program-guide/

There's also a button on that page for you to listen if you're beyond broadcast range.

Spring Orgy® Period 2021

I just got the WHRB Program Guide for May in the mail. It's also available online. https://www.whrb.org/programming/program-guide 

It's Spring Orgy® time, beginning on May 1 at 5:00 p.m., Cambridge Time, with the Warhorse Orgy. As with all the orgies, it doesn't go around the clock, but gives way to other things overnight, usually at 10:00.  The Warhorse Orgy concludes on May 2,

Subsequent classical music orgies include

The Zemlinsky Orgy  May 3-6

The Josquin Orgy  May 10-12

The Saint-Saens Orgy  May 16-18

The 8x8 [Octet] Orgy  May 21

There are other smaller orgies, such as Jewish composers, sprinkled through the month, as well as orgies in genres other than classical. The complete listings are in the Program Guide, where you'll also note the Met Opera broadcast schedule and, toward the end, the regular weekday schedule for the summer.

Enjoy. 

 

Winter Orgy® Period 2020

I've already missed the Warhorse Orgy this time around, and by the I've written and posted this, the Hilliard Ensemble Orgy will be over. But that's all the classical music orgies that are scheduled until Friday. Then we get the main event, The Beethoven Orgy®, in honor of his 250th birthday. It begins on December 11 at 8:00 a.m., EST, and continues through December 18, concluding each day at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., with occasional interruptions such as the Memorial Church Service on Sunday morning. They promise every piece of music Beethoven wrote, with some special presentations interrupting the chronological flow.

There's also a 1920's Orgy (not just classical) and a Shakespeare Orgy, and on December 24 the David Eliot Orgy, originally presented when he retired. David Eliot joined Harvard Radio as a student and, after his graduation in 1964, became the leader of the station until ALS forced his retirement in 2018. He died from the disease last month.

Here's a link to the program guide. There you'll find listings of the music to be played on each day of the orgies and listings of orgies in other genres — jazz, rock, folk, traditional — which you may also enjoy listening to. That page also gives a button for listening on line and the frequency to listen over the airwaves if you're within range.

Winter Orgy® Period 2018

Once again, an Orgy Period has begun on WHRB without my realizing it. Here's a link to the Program Guide. (I just realized as I wrote it that "a link to the program guide" has the same cadence as "a link to the '45," which is a slogan on Drambuie labels referring to Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion of 1745.)

As you can see, I missed the Warhorse Orgy on Sunday; and the Ballet Orgy is already in progress and will continue tomorrow and Thursday..

Orgies still to come include:
     Comic Opera Overture on Dec. 7,
     Charles Gounod Orgy, Dec. 9 & 10,
     Oliver Knussen Retrospective at 5:00 a.m. on Dec. 11,
     Shakespeare Orgy, Dec. 11 & 12,
     Viennese Society for Private Musical Performances, Dec. 13,
     Asian Composers, Dec. 14,
     Female Contemporary Composers, Dec. 15, and
     Deutsche Grammophon Orgy, Dec. 17-20.

In general the classical music orgies are in the time slot when WHRB normally plays classical music: 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.

There is also this calendar which lists all the orgies, classical and other, without specifying times or works to be performed. Note also that every Saturday afternoon, beginning in December and continuing through the season, WHRB presents the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

Listen on air or on line over WHRB.

Spring Orgy® Period 2018 — Update

The WHRB Program Guide for the Spring Orgy® Period has arrived in the mail. It shows that there are no Orgies scheduled after the end of the Leonard Bernstein Orgy® on May 12. So between then and the Phi Beta Kappa exercises on May 22, they will be giving regular programming. This is different from prior years, when the Orgy Period® extended to the beginning of events surrounding commencement.

Spring Orgy® Period 2018

It's Spring Orgy® Period on WHRB. https://www.whrb.org/archive/2018-spring-orgy-season

The station's website gives this explanation of Orgy Periods:

What is a WHRB Orgy®?

Legend has it that the WHRB Orgy® tradition began over sixty-five years ago, in the Spring of 1943. At that time, it is said that one Harvard student, then a staff member of WHRB, returned to the station after a particularly difficult exam and played all of Beethoven's nine symphonies consecutively to celebrate the end of a long, hard term of studying. The idea caught on, and soon the orgy concept was expanded to include live jazz, rock, hip-hop, blues, and even sports Orgies.

The Orgy® tradition lives on even today at WHRB. During the Reading and Exam Periods of Harvard College, WHRB presents marathon-style musical programs devoted to a single composer, performer, genre, or subject. The New York Times calls them 

“idealistic and interesting,” 

adding, 

“the WHRB Orgies represent a triumph of musical research, imagination, and passion.”

It is evolving slightly through the years. At one time, an orgy would go around the clock. The Bach Orgy® of a couple of decades took a couple of weeks, as I recall. More recently, they've gone to doing the classical orgies during daytime hours, and jazz and rock at night and morning, similar to the ordinary daytime routine. I note in the schedule at the above link, that now some classical orgies run in tandem, with Rossini and Bernstein sharing May 8, 9, and 10.

Apparently, the full Program Guide isn't available yet, but you can see the schedule through May 12 at the above link. Right now, the Warhorse Orgy is in progress (until 10:00 p.m.). In coming days, we'll get Grieg, Rossini, and Bernstein. Tomorrow and Thursday afternoons and evenings there's also an Overshadowed Orgy, which may well be about classical music or musicians.

It all makes for enjoyable and informative listening as they explore the output of a particular composer, performer, or category of music. Although the available listings only go through the 12th, the Spring Orgy Period® usually extends until Harvard's Commencement in late May, so stay tuned.

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!

Spring Orgy® Period 2017

This year's Spring Orgy® on WHRB has begun with the Warhorse Orgy, which started at 1:00 and will run to 10:00 this evening, Boston Time.

Subsequent orgies will be:

• Monteverdi — May 2
• Beach (Mrs. H.H.A. Beach) — May 3
• Telemann — May 4-7
• Ravel — May 7-9
• Dinu Lipatti — May 10
• Vienna Philharmonic — May 12-14

In most cases, they run from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. (with some irregularities) on the days noted. There are other orgies, featuring rock and jazz music, during other hours. Most notably, there is an Ella Fitzgerald Orgy from 5:00 to 11:00 a.m. on May 10, 11, and 12. For more specific information as well as for listings of works and performers, go to the station's program guide.

Winter Orgy® Period 2016

WHRB's Winter Orgy® period began on December 1 with the Warhorse Orgy. Now they are into the Dvořák Orgy®, which will run through December 9, generally from midmorning until 10:00 p.m. — with interruptions for things like the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday, church service o Sunday, Harvard sports events, etc. See the program guidehttps://www.whrb.org/programming/program-guide for specifics, including the approximate timing of works to be played.

Other classical music orgies include

     Menhuin Orgy®, Dec. (after the opera) - 12;
     New York School Orgy, Dec. 13;
     Steve Reich Orgy, Dec. 14;
     Marriner Orgy, Dec. 15-19 (with the first two days all Mozart); and
     Reger Orgy, Dec. 20-21.

Again, see the program guide for specifics. After the Reger Orgy, they return to regular programming, with music for Christmastime through the 25th. You can listen on line (go to the station's homepage) or on air in places reached by their signal on 95.3 FM.

Fortunately, this is happening at a time when the Boston Symphony is off, and Holiday Pops takes over Symphony Hall. WCRB will be broadcasting reruns of previous seasons' concerts. So you don't have to give up a live concert broadcast in order to hear an orgy that interests you.

For new readers, the WHRB orgy periods originated in the 1940's. WHRB is a student run station, and during exam periods, rather than carefully selecting the pieces to be played they came up with the idea of just running through all the records they had by one composer, or performer, and then all by another. And they've been doing it ever since, although it has transformed into a major undertaking, tracking down as much of the orgy subject's music as possible, selecting among recordings of the same piece, and scheduling them in order of composition, as much as practicable.

Spring Orgy® Period 2016

For any readers who have not read about earlier Orgy® Periods, WHRB is a largely student-run station at Harvard University, and the orgy periods began as a way for disc jockeys who were also students to avoid spending a lot of time deciding on programming during university exam periods. They would just play everything they had by a particular composer or performer, and then move on to another.

This spring's Orgy Period began yesterday, as usual, with the Warhorse Orgy. Today, until 9:00 p.m., it's the Pierre Boulez as Conductor Orgy, which started at 9:00 a.m. It will continue on May 3 and 4 from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. both days.

Subsequent Orgies are

• Harnoncourt Orgy — May 5, 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; May 6, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; May 7, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; and May 8, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
• Chicago Orgy (Chicago Orchestra, that is) — May 9, noon to 10:00 p.m.
• Gesualdo at 450 Orgy — May 10, noon to 10:00 p.m.
• Shakespeare Orgy — May 11,  7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.;  May 12, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; May 13, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; May 14, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
• Boulez as Composer Orgy — May 14, 4:00 to 10:30 p.m.; May 15, 1:30 to 7:00 p.m.

All timings, especially endings, are approximate.

It's striking, to me, anyway, that Gesualdo and Shakespeare were contemporaries. I tend to think of Gesualdo as earlier, for some reason. So we can hear music from the time of Shakespeare, followed in subsequent days by music inspired by Shakespeare.

Between these classical music Orgies are some Orgies of jazz and rock music. There will also be some regularly scheduled programming and, toward the end of the month, the Harvard Commencement and surrounding events. For the complete program guide, go to https://www.whrb.org/programming/program-guide .

You can listen by clicking the "Listen" button at https://www.whrb.org or, if you're within range of their signal, over 95.3 FM.

Spring Orgy® Period 2015 — Update 05/14

WHRB has added a Gunther Schuller Orgy to its Orgy Period. It began at noon on May 14, and is scheduled to end at 10:00 p.m. on the 14th.

As of now, I see no further indication of classical music Orgies. You can go to their program guide for information about what pieces are to be played during the Schuller Orgy and other programming that will take place this month.

Spring Orgy® Period 2015

See the WHRB explanation of their Orgy® Periods, if you're not already familiar with them.

This spring's orgy period began, as usual, with the Warhorse Orgy.

Now we are in the BSO Commissions Orgy, which will continue until 10:00 p.m. on May 5.

The Renaissance Mass Orgy, runs on May 6 from noon until 10:00 p.m.

The Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky Orgy® will run May 7-13. As usual, it will be a roughly chronological survey of all of his music.
     On May 7 & 8 it begins at 6:00 a.m. and presumably runs until 10:00 p.m.
     On May 9 (Saturday) it goes only from 6 to 10 p.m. (Regular programing, including "Hillbilly at Harvard" and the Metropolitan Opera, fills the daytime hours.)
     On May 10 (Sunday) it goes from 12:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
     The hours on May 11, 12, and 13 are 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The chronological survey will end with Symphony No. 6, beginning about 6:45 p.m. After that there will be historic performances of Tchaikovsky until 10:00.


The Program Guide gives no further scheduling information, but they say, "We''ll have more in a few days, so please continue to check back." When I notice more, I'll revise this post to include it, but you can also check the WHRB website yourself and maybe find updates before I do.

Winter Orgy® Period 2014

The Winter Orgy® period has begun on WHRB. They've already had the Warhorse Orgy, and now the Cauldio Abbado orgy is in progress, running until 10:30 p.m. today, then 5:00 a.m. to 6:45 on December 8, and 5:00 to 3:00 on the 9th.

Subsequent classical orgies include

• Gone with the Winds Orgy    Dec. 9   3:00 - 10:00 p.m.  &   Dec. 10   8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
• The Rest Is Noise Orgy     Dec. 10   1:00 p.m.    continuing off and on through Dec. 18
• Ferenc Fricsay Orgy     Dec. 29   1:00 - 10:00 (?) p.m.

For listings of all works to be played, times of the Rest is Noise after the first day, other programming during the Orgy period, and highlights of January and February programming, see the WHRB Program Guide.

You can listen via the station website.

Spring Orgy® Period 2014

WHRB's Spring Orgy® Period has begun, with the Warhorse Orgy on May 1. At this writing (1:15 p.m., May 2) the Evolution of Dance Orgy has just started and will continue until about 10:00 p.m. and conclude tomorrow, May 3, after the Metropolitan Opera from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.

The biggies this year are the C.P.E. Bach 300th Anniversary Orgy, which runs from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. on May 6 and 7 and then from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on May 8. Apparently it is followed immediately at 1:00 on May 8 by the Dmitri Shostakovich Orgy®, which runs till 10:00 that day. On Friday May 9 it goes from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Then on Saturday May 10 it follows the Metropolitan Opera — from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. It picks up again on Sunday, May 11, and continues through Thursday, May 15, from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. on each of those day.

Smaller orgies include the Gothic Voices Orgy on Sunday, May 4, from 12:30 to 10:00 p.m. (Gothic Voices is a group that sings mostly mediæval and renaissance music.) May 5 brings the Cinco de Mayo Orgy of Mexican and Mexico-related music from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

After the big orgies, on Friday May 16, they give the Carlos Kleiber Orgy from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. (Maestro Kleiber died ten years ago.) The final classical music orgy listed in the program is the French Composer Anniversaries Orgy, which will run from3:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 18.

The WHRB program guide, available via the page linked above, gives a brief description of each orgy, as well as a list of the specific works to be played — subject to change; and all timings are approximate. The station homepage also offers a link to listen on line.

WHRB usually plays classical music on weekdays from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m., rock overnight and jazz from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.. They also broadcast the Metropolitan Opera live on Saturdays during the season (roughly December-May) and outside the orgy periods broadcast operas from 8:00 to midnight on Sundays. The classical playlist is broad, perhaps broader than WCRB's. So the station is worth checking out.

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.

Double Post: BSO — 2013/05/02-04 & Orgy® Period

It's time for more orgies. WHRB is having their spring Orgy® Period. The program director summarizes it thusly:

Hooray for Orgy® Season! Get ready for three weeks of unique and exciting programming that's unlike the offerings of any other Boston station.

Classical fans will enjoy the music of Corelli, Feldman, Van Cliburn, Dowland, Lutoslawski, and more. Record Hospital followers will enjoy feminist punk, Flipper, Modest Mouse, Neurosis, and others. Fans of TDS can look forward to selections including Eurotronica, rap philosophers, women in hip hop, Blackwatch, Dungeon, and the Native Tongues. From Scorsese and the Blues to Cole Porter's timeless jazz to songs based on sports teams to an evening of Broadway, there's sure to be something for everyone.

Check out the program guide for the list of all 39 orgies® coming this May.

As he notes, more detail is in the Program Guide. Classical Orgies include:
May 6 — Van Cliburn
May 7 — Tokyo String Quartet
May 8 — John Dowland
May 9-10 — Ballet
May 12 — Warhorse Orgy
May 13 — Witold Lotoslawski Centenary
May 14-16 — 75th Birthday Orgy (Bolcom, Tower, Corigliano, and Harbison)
May 18 — Felix Weingartner

See the program Guide for the beginning and ending times of each orgy. Note also the Sunday evening operas listed for the summer on the last page of the guide. Sorry I wasn't alert and missed the Corelli Orgy on May 1.


Meanwhile the Boston Symphony closes out its season with a couple of "warhorses:" the Brahms Violin Concerto, and the Schubert Great C major Symphony. The detail page, with the usual links to audio and notes, describes the program as follows:

Bernard Haitink returns to the podium to lead the BSO's final concerts of its 2012-13 season, featuring the compelling Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider in Brahms's soaring Violin Concerto. Mr. Haitink and the orchestra then end the season in grand fashion with Schubert's Symphony in C, The Great-the composer's ultimate (in both senses of the word: it is his biggest and last word in the genre) symphony-famously praised for its "heavenly length" by Robert Schumann, who observed also that it "transports us into a world we cannot recall ever having been before."

I was there on Thursday and enjoyed it, as did the Globe's reviewer for the most part.
You can hear it streamed over Classical New England this evening live at 8:00 with preliminaries at 7:00, or rebroadcast at 1:00 p.m. on May 12. Tomorrow, May 15, the rebroadcast is last week's Schubert/Mahler program. Check their BSO page for links to interviews. For the remainder of May and June, it seems that the symphony time will be given over to Boston Pops concerts. Then comes the BSO at Tanglewood, with three distinct programs every weekend.

Winter Orgy® Period 2012

The Winter Orgy Period on WHRB has begun. We've already missed the Hans Rosbaud Orgy on December 1, the Warhorse Orgy on December 2, and the Midori Orgy yesterday. As I write this, the Hummel Orgy is underway, and will continue through Friday, December 7. You can listen to the webstream at www.whrb.org and you can access the current program guide for specific times of the orgies at http://www.whrb.org/programs/current.pdf

In general,  it seems that this time they are giving the classical orgies on afternoons and evenings with other types of music overnight and into the morning. There are also interruptions for Harvard hockey and basketball games. That's why you'll want to check out the program guide.

But here's a list of the classical orgies with their starting and ending dates:

• Johan Nepomuk Hummel     December 4-7
• Claude Debussy     December 9-12
• Alfred Cortot     December 13-17
• Rodion Shchedrin     December 16
• Krzysztof Penderecki     December 18-19
• Jean Françaix     December 20
• Moriz Rosenthal     December 20

Enjoy!

Spring Orgy® Period 2012

WHRB has begun their Orgy Period today with the Psychedelic Unknowns and are now into the Blue Note 1500 Series Orgy, which will continue through Friday interspersed with the Psychedelic Unknowns tonight and the Smiths and Morrissey overnight Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Classical music orgies will begin on Saturday evening at 5:00 with the Max Bruch Orgy. Then on Sunday from 3:00 p.m. until midnight they will present the Warhorse Orgy. Further Orgies will include

• Siegmund Romberg — begins Monday, May 7, at 7:00 p.m.
• Sergei Prokofiev — begins Tuesday, May 8, at 5:00 a.m. and runs, with overnight intermissions, through Friday, May 11
• Musikpolitik — Sunday, May 13, 1:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
• Igor Markevitch Centenary — begins Monday, May 14, at 1:00 p.m.
• Albert Roussel and Florent Schmitt — begins Tuesday, May 15, at 10:00 a.m., resumes May 16 at 1:00 p.m.
• Wilhelm Stenhammar — begins Thursday,  May 17, at noon
• Ton Koopman — begins Friday, May 18, at noon

In general, orgies end at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., and in the case of the ProkofievOrgy, it resumes at 5:00 on the successive days. Further information about performers and works to be performed and approximate timings is available in the Program Guide at the WHRB website. The same site also gives you a Listen Online button so you can listen to the orgies via webstream.

For any readers who have not read about earlier Orgy® Periods, WHRB is a largely student-run station at Harvard University, and the orgy periods began as a way for disc jockeys who were also students to avoid spending a lot of time deciding on programming during university exam periods. They would just play everything they had by a particular composer or performer, and then move on to another.

BSO — 2012/01/05-07 — (Back to Normal) Info and Reviews

This week the Boston Symphony resumes its weekly concerts in Symphony Hall, and Classical New England resumes broadcasts and webstreams. The BSO website isn't offering the brief synopsis we've been used to, but the page on the website devoted to the concert has links to the program notes for each piece. A page on the Classical New England website includes a link to an interview with the conductor, Marcelo Lehninger, an assistant conductor of the BSO, who had two weeks' notice that he would be conducting in place of Andris Nelsons.

The concert consists of Haydn's Symphony No. 88, a 15-minute trumpet concerto titled "From the Wreckage" by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (getting its American premiere at these concerts), and "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. The trumpet soloist is Håkan Hardenberger, for whom the work was commissioned, and who gave the world premiere in 2005.

The Boston Globe reviewer wasn't ecstatic but he seems to have liked the new piece, as well as the performance of the Haydn. Reading between the lines, he seems to have thought that the Strauss didn't go perfectly. I enjoyed the Haydn and found the Turnage interesting. Shortly before the end of the first section, the phrase "easy listening" came to mind. Later bits were less so, but it wasn't unpleasant. The Strauss is what it is — overwhelming beginning, then it meanders along, and I was ready for it to be over five or ten minutes before they stopped playing. I thought the conductor did a great job, given his unfamiliarity with both the Turnage and the Strauss.

So give it a listen, at least the first half, tonight at 8:00 with pre-concert features beginning at 7:00 and/or Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (just the concert).

P.S.  WHRB is giving a Bruno Walter Orgy this month. The first part will be on Sunday, January 15, from 3:00 to about 10:30 p.m., and the second part will be the following Sunday, January 22, from 2:30 to about 10:30 p.m.

Winter Orgy® Period 2011 — Already in Progress

My apologies! I wasn't paying attention to WHRB, and the Orgy® Period began a couple of weeks ago. The first classical music orgy was the Percy Grainger Orgy, on December 3. Many of the orgies this year have focused on performers, rather than composers, but at this point, they are in the midst of the Franz Liszt Orgy, which will end Friday evening at 10:00.

Saturday evening there will be an Ivor Novello Orgy from 6:00 to 10:00.

The Carl Maria von Weber Orgy will be Sunday, December 18, from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. That is the last of the classical music orgies so titled, but on Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to midnight they will observe the Gian Carlo Menotti Centenary (with "Amahl and the Night Visitors"* reserved until December 24 at 4:30 p.m.); and Wednesday, December 20, they will observe the Nino Rota Centenary from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

All of this is available on the web at the link above.

* I believe I saw the world premiere of this one hour opera, which was a television performance in 1951. I know I saw it on TV back in the early 1950's.


Meanwhile the Boston Symphony went on tour to California for four concerts, and the Boston Pops are giving their holiday concerts for the rest of the month. You may want to check out what WCRB streams in the regular concert times. Last Saturday, they repeated a concert from earlier in the season. Also, this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. they will give a live broadcast/webstream of the Handel and Haydn's "A Bach Christmas" concert,  which will include music of other baroque composers as well. I think I'll listen to that — tearing myself away from the Weber Orgy. BSO concerts will again be streamed live beginning on January 7.