BSO/Classical New England — 2022/11/12

 This evening's BSO rebroadcast is summarized as follows by WCRB:

Saturday, November 12, 2022
8:00 PM

The Latvian violinist is the soloist in Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in works by Pärt and Stravinsky, as well as Saariaho’s "Saarikoski Songs," with soprano Anu Komsi.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Baiba Skride, violin
Anu Komsi, soprano

Arvo PÄRT Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1
Kaija SAARIAHO Saarikoski Songs (world premiere of orchestral version; BSO co-commission)
Igor STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)

This concert was originally broadcast on February 26, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear Baiba Skride describe the challenges of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the audio player above (transcript below):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Baiba Skride, who is back here in the United States once again after a nice trip to Tanglewood last summer. Baiba, thank you for a little bit o

The audio of the interview is about eleven minutes long.

The BSO performance detail page for the concert is still available, and includes a link to the program notes for all the pieces in the concert.

I wrote about it back when it was performed in February, and I have no new information. Rereading what I write has slightly jogged my vague memory, and I still think it's not must hear music, but I'll want to hear the opening piece. After that I'll probably leave the radio on, but not pay careful attention.

BSO — 2022/02/26

 This evening's concert has four pieces. Here's the summary from WCRB, where you can hear it this evening and again in a little over a week:

Saturday, February 26, and Monday, March 7, 2022
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8pm, the Latvian violinist is the soloist in Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in works by Pärt and Stravinsky, as well as Saariaho’s "Saarikoski Songs," soprano Anu Komsi.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Baiba Skride, violin
Anu Komsi, soprano

Arvo PÄRT Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1
Kaija SAARIAHO Saarikoski Songs (world premiere of orchestral version; BSO co-commission)
STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)

To hear Baiba Skride describe the challenges of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, click on the player above (transcript below).

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Baiba Skride

You may well want to check out the program notes on the BSO's performance page. Regrettably, it does not give the texts of the poems in the Saariaho piece. They were in the program booklet, and I found them helpful. But the program notes on all four works are worth reading if you listen. There is also this overall description of the program:

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons is joined by his compatriot, violinist Baiba Skride, for Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which was written in the late 1940s but only premiered in 1955, after Stalin’s death helped relax the constraints on artistic expression in the USSR. The concerto contains a version of the composer’s musical “signature,” suggesting that was a work of powerful personal importance. It was composed for and dedicated to David Oistrakh. Opening the program is the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s poignant homage to Shostakovich’s great friend, the English composer Benjamin Britten. 
Finnish soprano Anu Komsi makes her BSO debut in the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s own orchestrations of her song cycle on poems of the great 20th century Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski. Saariaho wrote the original piano and voice versions of these songs for Anu Komsi. The Suite from Stravinsky’s 1909 ballet score The Firebird closes the program. The composer’s astonishingly imaginative orchestration perfectly captured the magical atmosphere of this Russian legend, and the Ballets Russes premiere in Paris swept the composer to worldwide fame.

You'll note that the Saariaho work is getting the world premiere of the orchestral version and the soprano her BSO debut at this week's concerts.

There are tepid reviews in the Globe and in the Intelligencer, the latter being especially critical of the playing of the violin concerto.

I was there on Thursday. The opening piece was calm and inoffensive. The violin concerto was less bombastic than most Shostakovich orchestral works, with two slow movements. I almost dozed off. After intermission, I found the first three of Saariaho's poem settings unattractive, while the final two seemed to fit the mood of the texts and were interesting to hear. Overall, though, I thought the singer handled the difficult "music" very admirably. She deserved the loud applause she got. The "Firebird" suite is Stravinsky at his most lyrical (most of it), and I enjoyed it, even if the critics weren't thrilled.

I can't give the concert a warm recommendation for general audiences. I do recommend the first piece, by Aarvo Pärt, though. If you like modern music, you might want to stick around for the rest.

BSO/Classical New England — 2021/09/25

 Sibelius tonight (and others).WCRB gives the essentials, plus an interview with the conductor, on their BSO page:

In an encore broadcast from 2019, John Storgårds leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Finnish music past and present, including works by Saariaho and Sibelius, Saturday night at 8pm.

John Storgårds, conductor
Martin Helmchen, piano

Kaija SAARIAHO Ciel d'hiver
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 6
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 7

Encore broadcast from January 26, 2019

Hear an interview with conductor John Storgårds and CRB's Alan McLellan about this program in the audio player above.

TRANSCRIPT:

Alan McLellan [00:00:00] I wanted to ask you about yourself. You've had a career as a violinist as well as a conductor. How did you get from violin to conducting?

John Storgårds [00:00:08] It was stepwise thing because I was, already as a student, I 

Here's what I wrote about it (minimally edited):

This week the BSO gives us three works by Finnish composers and one by Mozart. The orchestra's program detail page has the usual links to background information, including all the program notes. It also provides this synopsis of the concert:

Making his BSO subscription series debut, conductor John Storgårdsleads pianist Martin Helmchen in Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The Finnish Storgårds also brings three Finnish works to Symphony Hall, beginning with Kaija Saariaho's gorgeous study of orchestral color Ciel d'hiver ("Winter Sky"), an arrangement of a movement from her earlier, symphony-like Orion. Jean Sibelius's final two symphonies, nos. 6 and 7, are two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature. Though very different from one another, both demonstrate the composer's distinctively rich orchestration and organic, fluid transformations of material.

(Some emphasis added.)

Whether the Sibelius symphonies are "two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature" and "very different from one another" are matters of opinion, and mine differs from that of the writer of those words. To me, these symphonies were not nearly as engaging or interesting as his earlier symphonies. There was nothing very unpleasant in them, so they are certainly easier to listen to than a lot of 20th century music, but at one point I was reminded of what a critic said of a symphony of Bruckner: it's like a walk in the forest — you see nice things, but nothing happens. In other words, I found them dull. Perhaps I will feel differently if I can listen to them again during the rebroadcast on February 4. The Saariaho piece could have seemed dull too, but for whatever reason, it didn't. I thought it lived up to its name.

The reviewers don't agree with me about the Sibelius being dull, although the Globe doesn't seem to think they are very different from one another. Other than thinking that the Mozart concerto, while well performed, didn't belong with the other three works, the reviewer was very happy. The Intelligencer gives extensive analyses of the Finnish pieces (expressing more positively my Bruckner comparison). Overall, the review is positive, with some specific reservations.

By the way, there were women freelancers playing second flute, third horn in the Saariaho, and second, third, and side horns in the Sibelius. There was also a freelance tympanist for the Saariaho and the Sibelius 7th. In the 6th, percussionist Kyle Brightwell did the honors on the kettledrums, and gave an interesting contrast to the stranger. Throughout the symphony, young Mr. Brightwell could be seen almost constantly checking the tuning of his instruments by putting his ear close to the surface of a drum and tapping it with a finger. Usually, it was okay, but occasionally, he adjusted the tuning with a mechanism at the top of the instrument. The interloper, OTOH, apparently didn't have perfect or absolute pitch, so he relied on a little electronic device to check the pitches of the drums, and he felt no need to keep checking. He checked them before the symphony began, and only once during the piece.

Anyway, I think the concert, even if it isn't quite at the "must hear" level, is worth listening to when WCRB provides it on air and over the internet at 8:00 p.m. EST [this evening].

There you have it — not the greatest concert ever, but worth hearing. Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2019/12/28

Next week, the BSO resumes their season at Symphony Hall. This week's "encore broadcast," while the Holiday Pops conclude, is the concert performed on January 26, 2019 — about 11 months ago. I think it's worth tuning in for the repeat. I wrote about it at the time, and you can go there for links to reviews as well as for my thoughts about it. Just to expand a bit: I thought "Ciel d'hiver" actually did  evoke a winter sky.

In case you don't feel like tracking down my post from last January, here's the synopsis from the performance detail page.

Making his BSO subscription series debut, conductor John Storgårds leads pianist Martin Helmchen in Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The Finnish Storgårds also brings three Finnish works to Symphony Hall, beginning with Kaija Saariaho's gorgeous study of orchestral color Ciel d'hiver ("Winter Sky"), an arrangement of a movement from her earlier, symphony-like Orion. Jean Sibelius's final two symphonies, nos. 6 and 7, are two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature. Though very different from one another, both demonstrate the composer's distinctively rich orchestration and organic, fluid transformations of material.

(Some emphasis added.)

As always, you can hear it all on air or over the web on WCRB at 8:00 p.m. EST. They also have links to features about this concert and other broadcasts they offer.

BSO — 2019/01/26

This week the BSO gives us three works by Finnish composers and one by Mozart. The orchestra's program detail page has the usual links to background information, including all the program notes. It also provides this synopsis of the concert:

Making his BSO subscription series debut, conductor John Storgårds leads pianist Martin Helmchen in Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The Finnish Storgårds also brings three Finnish works to Symphony Hall, beginning with Kaija Saariaho's gorgeous study of orchestral color Ciel d'hiver ("Winter Sky"), an arrangement of a movement from her earlier, symphony-like Orion. Jean Sibelius's final two symphonies, nos. 6 and 7, are two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature. Though very different from one another, both demonstrate the composer's distinctively rich orchestration and organic, fluid transformations of material.

(Some emphasis added.)

Whether the Sibelius symphonies are "two of the greatest works in the symphonic literature" and "very different from one another" are matters of opinion, and mine differs from that of the writer of those words. To me, these symphonies were not nearly as engaging or interesting as his earlier symphonies. There was nothing very unpleasant in them, so they are certainly easier to listen to than a lot of 20th century music, but at one point I was reminded of what a critic said of a symphony of Bruckner: it's like a walk in the forest — you see nice things, but nothing happens. In other words, I found them dull. Perhaps I will feel differently if I can listen to them again during the rebroadcast on February 4. The Saariaho piece could have seemed dull too, but for whatever reason, it didn't. I thought it lived up to its name.

The reviewers don't agree with me about the Sibelius being dull, although the Globe doesn't seem to think they are very different from one another. Other than thinking that the Mozart concerto, while well performed, didn't belong with the other three works, the reviewer was very happy. The Intelligencer gives extensive analyses of the Finnish pieces (expressing more positively my Bruckner comparison). Overall, the review is positive, with some specific reservations.

By the way, there were women freelancers playing second flute, third horn in the Saariaho, and second, third, and side horns in the Sibelius. There was also a freelance tympanist for the Saariaho and the Sibelius 7th. In the 6th, percussionist Kyle Brightwell did the honors on the kettledrums, and gave an interesting contrast to the stranger. Throughout the symphony, young Mr. Brightwell could be seen almost constantly checking the tuning of his instruments by putting his ear close to the surface of a drum and tapping it with a finger. Usually, it was okay, but occasionally, he adjusted the tuning with a mechanism at the top of the instrument. The interloper, OTOH, apparently didn't have perfect or absolute pitch, so he relied on a little electronic device to check the pitches of the drums, and he felt no need to keep checking. He checked them before the symphony began, and only once during the piece.

Anyway, I think the concert, even if it isn't quite at the "must hear" level, is worth listening to when WCRB provides it on air and over the internet at 8:00 p.m. EST, live this evening, and recorded on February 4.

BSO — 2012/11/01-06

From the BSO program detail page, where you can also find links to audio material and the program notes (especially important for the Saariaho piece, I think):

Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena, chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, leads the American premiere of influential Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Circle Map, for orchestra and electronics, a BSO co-commission. Violinist Gil Shaham, a frequent guest with the orchestra, joins the BSO for Benjamin Britten's rarely performed Violin Concerto, and the program concludes with Dvořák's darkly majestic Symphony No. 7, which bespeaks both his love for his native Bohemia and the influence of his mentor, Johannes Brahms.

I haven't heard it yet because I had to be at Mass for All Saints Day on the evening of Nov. 1. The Globe's reviewer liked the concert, with some reservations about Gil Shaham's approach to the Britten. OTOH, the online Boston Musical Intelligencer has a review which raves about the Britten, likes the Dvořák a lot, and finds the Saariaho piece wanting. See what you think.


Classical New England is where you can hear the concert live on November 3 at 8 p.m. (with "pre-game show" at 7) Boston Time, or rebroadcast/streamed on Nov. 11 at 1 p.m., as well as on demand. Broadcast/webstream schedules and links to background material are available on their BSO page.