Tanglewood — 2026/08/22

 A varied program awaits us tgis evening. Here's WCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2026-04-01/randall-goosbys-tanglewood-debut

Saturday, August 22, 2026
8:00 PM

Thomas Wilkins conducts the first BSO performance of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with soloist and Avery Fisher Career Grant Winner Randall Goosby, in his Tanglewood debut. The program also includes Bernstein’s life-affirming Chichester Psalms with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and boy soprano Edward Njuguna, and Dvořák’s songful Symphony No. 8.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor 
Randall Goosby, Violin 
Edward Njuguna, boy soprano 
Tanglewood Festival Chorus 

Leonard BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms  
Florence PRICE Violin Concerto No. 2
Camille SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, for violin and orchestra
Antonín DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

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

In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Thomas Wilkins describes the magnetism of Dvořák's music and what Florence Price's works have brought to the conversation in orchestral music, as well the qualities he sees in Randall Goosby's playing and Bernstein's "reverence to the wildness" in his Chichester Psalms. To listen, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Thomas Wilkins, the conductor

Here's the link to the BSO page which in turn has links to performer bios and program notes: https://www.bso.org/events/august-22-boston-symphony-orch?performance=2026-08-22-20:00

The Dvořák is probably the most familiar, followed by the Saint-Saëns. The BSO has performed the Bernstein piece a couple of times in recent years, and the Price is a first for them. Florence Price's music seems generally to be interesting and not challenging to listen to. So enjoy.

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.