BSO/Classical New England — 2021/05/01

 This week WCRB gives us the first BSO Saturday concert of 2017. Here's how they summarize it:

Saturday at 8pm, in an encore broadcast from 2017, virtuoso musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage at Symphony Hall in works by Vivaldi, Krommer, Jolivet, Rota, and Schumann.

Saturday, May 1, 2021
8:00 PM

Ken-David Masur, conductor
Cynthia Meyers, piccolo
William R. Hudgins and Michael Wayne, clarinets
Thomas Rolfs, trumpet
Toby Oft, trombone
James Sommerville, Michael Winter, Rachel Childers, and Jason Snider, horns 

Vivaldi - Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 433
Krommer - Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets and orchestra, Op. 91
Jolivet - Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings
Rota - Trombone Concerto
Schumann - Concert Piece for four horns and orchestra

This concert is no longer available on demand.

In a conversation at Tanglewood, BSO piccolo player Cynthia Meyers describes her musical path to the BSO to Ron Della Chiesa in an interview recorded at Tanglewood:

As you see, there is an interview with the piccolo player. If you don't want to listen, a transcript follows what I've copied here.

At the time, I wrote about it as follows (edited to remove material no longer relevant):

The orchestra returns to Symphony Hall this week with an unusual program, featuring wind players of the orchestra as soloists in generally unfamiliar works. The BSO performance detail page describes it as follows:

Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948. BSO principal trombone Toby Oft plays the Trombone Concerto of Italian composer Nino Rota-best known for scoring Coppola's The Godfather but a versatile and prolific composer of concert and stage works as well. Finally, Robert Schumann's Konzertstück ("Concert-piece") for four horns provides an exhilarating showcase for principal horn James Sommerville and his virtuoso colleagues Rachel Childers, Jason Snider, and Michael Winter.

(Most emphasis added.)

I was there for the performance on Thursday, and I found it all pleasant enough — except for the Jolivet, which I'd call "not unpleasant." As originally programmed, the Jolivet concerto was to finish the first half, but I guess they decided it would be better not to have the Vivaldi and Krommer adjacent. I thought everybody played very well, except for a couple of wobbles in the horns. The Jolivet trumpet concert was "modern." The others, including the Rota, were normal music. But none of them were particularly memorable. In the Krommer clarinet concerto, I imagined the Hudgin's tone was a bit brighter, and Wayne's a bit mellower. The BMInt reviewer suggests something similar. So it was a great night for the wind players to have some time in the spotlight. I'm glad I was there for it, and I think you be glad to have listened, if you do.

The reviews are favorable. The Globe noted the occasional problems with the horns. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a fairly good synopsis of the music (and likes the Jolivet much more than I did).

The horn soloists in the Intelligencer photo are, l.-r., Snider, Winter, Childers, and Sommerville. Clint Hutchinson, flute player, is in the center, just slightly behind Ms. Childers. In the back, behind Mr. Hutchinson, is assistant tympanist Daniel Bauch. The conductor, Ken-David Masur, is standing on the right, and in the back row behind him are two trumpeters, but I'm never sure which is which.

Anyway, you can listen, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, over WCRB.[…]

So there's an interesting concert available here, competing with the Warhorse Orgy on WHRB and the Red Sox-Rangers game on WEEI. You can hardly go wrong.

BSO — 2017/01/07

The orchestra returns to Symphony Hall this week with an unusual program, featuring wind players of the orchestra as soloists in generally unfamiliar works. The BSO performance detail page describes it as follows:

Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948. BSO principal trombone Toby Oft plays the Trombone Concerto of Italian composer Nino Rota-best known for scoring Coppola's The Godfather but a versatile and prolific composer of concert and stage works as well. Finally, Robert Schumann's Konzertstück ("Concert-piece") for four horns provides an exhilarating showcase for principal horn James Sommerville and his virtuoso colleagues Rachel Childers, Jason Snider, and Michael Winter.

(Most emphasis added.)

I was there for the performance on Thursday, and I found it all pleasant enough — except for the Jolivet, which I'd call "not unpleasant." As originally programmed, the Jolivet concerto was to finish the first half, but I guess they decided it would be better not to have the Vivaldi and Krommer adjacent. I thought everybody played very well, except for a couple of wobbles in the horns. The Jolivet trumpet concert was "modern." The others, including the Rota, were normal music. But none of them were particularly memorable. In the Krommer clarinet concerto, I imagined the Hudgin's tone was a bit brighter, and Wayne's a bit mellower. The BMInt reviewer suggests something similar. So it was a great night for the wind players to have some time in the spotlight. I'm glad I was there for it, and I think you be glad to have listened, if you do.

The reviews are favorable. The Globe noted the occasional problems with the horns. The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a fairly good synopsis of the music (and likes the Jolivet much more than I did).

The horn soloists in the Intelligencer photo are, l.-r., Snider, Winter, Childers, and Sommerville. Clint Hutchinson, flute player, is in the center, just slightly behind Ms. Childers. In the back, behind Mr. Hutchinson, is assistant tympanist Daniel Bauch. The conductor, Ken-David Masur, is standing on the right, and in the back row behind him are two trumpeters, but I'm never sure which is which.

Anyway, you can listen, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, over WCRB. There's another page on their website which has a link to their podcast, with interviews with three of the evening's soloists. It also has a link (fine print upper left, to the remaining broadcast schedule for the season. I'd have expected this concert to be rerun on January 16, but they don't say they will.

Tanglewood — 2013/07/19-21

This weekend we have mid-late 19th Century music on Friday and Saturday evenings and baroque on Sunday afternoon.

July 19  brings us Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms. The BSO performance detail page puts it like this:

Russian maestro Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, makes his Tanglewood debut on Friday, July 19, at 8:30 p.m., leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program of Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms. Eminent French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the orchestra as soloist in Liszt's devilishly difficult Totentanz, a barnstorming fantasia based on the Dies irae that is one of the showiest works in the repertoire. To begin the program is the pomp and grandeur of Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and concluding the evening is Brahms's monumental Symphony No. 1, with which the composer finally took up the imposing symphonic mantel of Beethoven.

      – some emphasis supplied
This we they have given us links to notes and audio material.


July 20  returns to Wagner for the final act of Die Walküre. You can find links to the program notes at the performance detail page. There you can also click on performer photos for bios. They synopsize the concert as follows:

On Saturday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m., German conductor Lothar Koenigs, music director of the Welsh National Opera, makes his BSO conducting debut, leading the orchestra in a concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Die Walküre. Though the act begins with the furor of the famous "Ride of the Valkyries," what fallows is some of the most intimate and emotionally charged music of the composer's massive Ring cycle. The cast of leading Wagnerian singers includes sopranos Katarina Dalayman (Brünnhilde) and Amber Wagner (Sieglinde), and bass-baritone Bryn Terfel (Wotan). The performance, along with the prelude toDie Meistersinger on Friday evening, is part of the BSO's celebration of Wagner's Bicentennial in 2013.

     – some emphasis supplied


July 21  On Sunday afternoon, the orchestra goes for baroque. (The pun is an oldie but goodie, IMO, and I didn't try to resist.) The performance detail page has links to program notes and performer bios, and informs us

Conductor, violinist, and violist Pinchas Zukerman returns to the Shed stage on Sunday, July 21, at 2:30 p.m. for an afternoon of Baroque music, following the success of his all-Bach program with the BSO in 2012. The program will also feature a number of the BSO's players as part of the orchestra's ongoing commitment to feature the individual members of the orchestra. The afternoon's program includes Vivaldi's Concerto in B-flat for violin, cello, and strings, featuring Mr. Zukerman and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth; Vivaldi's Concerto in C minor for violin and strings, Il Sospetto; Bach's Concerto No. 2 in E for violin and strings, and Telemann's Concerto in G for viola and strings. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F, featuring BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe, principal oboe player John Ferrillo, and principal trumpet player Thomas Rolfs, completes the program.

     – some emphasis supplied

I'm happy to see our modern orchestra including baroque music in the repertory. For one thing, it's just enjoyable to listen to. For another, while the historically informed performances may be much more like what the composers expected and audiences heard back then, I see no need for modern ensembles to give up the repertoire entirely.


Classical New England will broadcast and stream all three concerts, as usual, with only a few seconds' delay, and their BSO page gives a brief summary of what is in store for this weekend and the remaining weekends of the Tanglewood season. I forget whether the warm-up material starts an hour or a half hour before concert time. Well, it's not too important either way. If you arrive early, you hear some music. And if you miss half of the preliminaries, that's not the important part, anyway.

Enjoy!