T Tanglewood — 2022/08/20-21

 Tonight the BSO celebrates John Williams' 90th Birthday and tomorrow we get a new piece and a couple of 19th Century staples of the repertory.

Saturday, Auguat 20, 2022. WCRB gives us the basics:

Saturday, August 20, 2022
8:00 PM

Ken-David Masur and the Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrate the iconic film composer's 90th birthday, joined by a stellar cast of soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Branford Marsalis, and James Taylor, tonight at 8!

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Ken-David Masur, conductor 
Martin Grubinger, percussion
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Branford Marsalis, saxophone
Eric Revis, bass
James Taylor, vocalist
Jessica Zhou, harp

ALL John WILLIAMS program:

Sound the Bells!
Tributes (For Seiji)
Highwood’s Ghost
Pickin’ from Three Pieces for Solo Cello
JUST DOWN WEST STREET...on the left
To Lenny, To Lenny (For New York)
Escapades from Catch Me If You Can
Presenting James Taylor
"Throne Room" & Finale from Star Wars: A New Hope

The BSO performance detail page has nothing about this concert. So just relax and enjoy, with the comments of Ron Della Chiesa to add some information.

Sunday, August 21, 2022. Again we turn to WCRB for the essentials:

Sunday, August 21, 2022
7:00 PM (delayed broadcast of 2:30 PM concert)

Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman is the soloist in Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto, and Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 and Unsuk Chin’s “subito con forza.”

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor 
Itzhak Perlman, violin

Unsuk CHIN subito con forza 
Max BRUCH Violin Concerto in G minor
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

For this one we do have a performance detail page from the BSO. There we find a link to the program notes. There is not much description of "subito, con forza," but maybe you can get some idea. Well it's not long, so you might as well llisten, to be sure you get the whole violin concerto. Notes on that and the Brahms symphony are more extensive.

Again, I'll be at my high school class's 80th birthday celebration this evening, but I'm looking forward to the Sunday broadcast at 7:00. I hope you'll enjoy both.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/08/15

Tonight's encore broadcast via WCRB is of the Tanglewood concert of Sunday, July 7, 2019. It features Anne-Sophie Mutter performing music of John Williams arranged for her, with the Boston Pops playing and himself sharing conducting duties. Here's what I wrote at the time:

Sunday brings a "guest appearance" by the Boston Pops. The performance detail page gives some details about the performance, although the Pops performs so many pieces that they don't list them all.

Join the Boston Pops for the first of three programs this summer, celebrating the art of John Williams. Drawing from her recent recording “Across the Stars,” the great violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs selections from Mr. Williams’ iconic scores, in brilliant new arrangements created especially for her. The program includes music from Star Wars, Dracula and Harry Potter, as well as the haunting melodies of Memoirs of a Geisha.

(Some emphasis added.)

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that David Newman shares podium duties with Maestro Williams.

Note the links both in my blurb and in WCRB's description.

I couldn't find a review in the Globe, but there is one in the Intelligencer that gives some good background information.

It should be interesting. Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2019/08/23-25

This weekend is the end of the BSO's season at Tanglewood. It has become the tradition to close on Sunday with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. They could certainly do worse.


Friday, August 23, 2019.  The program presents more or less familiar music with two musicians who are new to me and, I suppose, most audiences. The BSO performance detail page explains:

BSO Assistant Conductor Yu-An Chang makes his BSO debut on Friday, August 23, leading Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Schubert’s Symphony No. 2, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, featuring Conrad Tao. 

 

Pianist Ingrid Fliter had been scheduled to perform Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Friday, August 23 at the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Replacing Ms. Fliter in the Ravel concerto will be Conrad Tao who will make his Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood debuts. There are no other changes to the program.

(Some emphasis added.) 
Ravel isn't my favorite composer, but not too tough to take, so this concert should be a good one. It should be a comfortable debut for the new conductor.


Saturday, August 24, 2019.  The BSO takes the evening off, but many of its members (other than section principals) are also members of the Boston Pops and will be performing as such. The performance detail page tells us:

Long established as one of Tanglewood’s most anticipated and beloved evenings, John Williams’ Film Night returns on Saturday, August 24, with George and Roberta Berry Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams introducing the festive evening, which features the Boston Pops and conductor David Newman performing a program celebrating the music of Hollywood and more.

(Some emphasis added.)

Film buffs and Williams fans will especially enjoy this one.


Sunday, August 24, 2019.  Not only is the Beethoven Ninth the season closer, in recent years, it has also been the custom to preceded it with another, much briefer, piece. This year the opener is a choral work by Schoenberg. The performance detail page gives a link to the program notes, which make the connection to the "Ode for Joy" clear. We also have this overall synopsis:

With vocal soloists Nicole Cabell, J’Nai Bridges, Nicholas Phan, and Morris Robinson and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, returning guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero leads the BSO in the orchestra’s traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on Sunday, August 25. The concert opens with Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth) for unaccompanied chorus, also featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden will be conducted by James Burton.

(Some emphasis added.)


Listen to it all over the facilities of WCRB* at 8:00 p.m. EDST on Friday and Saturday and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. It should be a good series of concerts.

* I can't get the WCRB website to open for me to provide the link, but you can find it in any of my earlier posts about BSO concerts.

Tanglewood — 2019/07/05-07

The Boston Symphony begins its Tanglewood Season this weekend. WCRB will broadcast and stream the Friday and Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m. each day and the Sunday concert by tape delay at 7:00 p.m. I don't know about the Tower piece, but the rest looks pretty mainstream. Enjoy!


Friday, July 5, 2019.  Opening night features Mozart and Mahler. Here's the synopsis from the orchestra's own program detail page:

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its Opening Night concert of the season with Tanglewood favorite Emanuel Ax performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, on a program with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

(Emphasis added.)

As regular readers of these blogposts know, the performance detail page has links to further information including program notes, audio previews, performer bios (click the thumbnail photos), and related media. There are also links to additional material on the WCRB homepage, as well as the button to listen "live" over the internet.

The Mahler Symphony was performed in Symphony Hall on November 17, 2018. My post at the time was highly abbreviated, so if you want reviews, you'll need to do your own digging in the Globe and the Musical Intelligencer. The piano concerto was given, with a different soloist and conductor, on January 26 of this year. My blogpost about the concert doesn't have anything to say about the Mozart, but it does have links to reviews.


Saturday, July 6, 2019.  On Saturday there are three pieces which were not performed in Symphony Hall during the past season. Again, the performance detail page gives some links and summarizes:

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program opening with Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1, followed by the BSO’s first Tanglewood performance of André Previn’s Violin Concerto, Anne-Sophie, featuring the dedicatee of the work, Anne-Sophie Mutter, as soloist; this program ends with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, July 7, 2019.  Sunday brings a "guest appearance" by the Boston Pops. The performance detail page gives some details about the performance, although the Pops performs so many pieces that they don't list them all.

Join the Boston Pops for the first of three programs this summer, celebrating the art of John Williams. Drawing from her recent recording “Across the Stars,” the great violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs selections from Mr. Williams’ iconic scores, in brilliant new arrangements created especially for her. The program includes music from Star Wars, Dracula and Harry Potter, as well as the haunting melodies of Memoirs of a Geisha.

(Some emphasis added.)

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that David Newman shares podium duties with Maestro Williams.

Tanglewood — 2018/08/24-26

This weekend is the final one of the BSO's 2018 Tanglewood Season. Listen in on WCRB at 8:00 p.m EDST on Friday and Saturday and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.


Friday, August 24, 2018.  We get to hear the BSO et al. perform what they call "the longest symphony in the standard repertoire." The performance detail page, with its usual links to performer bios and background material, describes the concert thus:

Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler Symphony No. 3 featuring Susan Graham and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Symphony Children's Choir in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, another work central to Bernstein's repertoire, with Susan Graham as mezzo-soprano soloist. A multi-faceted and emotionally wide-ranging work, the Third Symphony is notable for its length (the longest symphony in the standard repertoire), difficulty, and overwhelming cumulative impact. Across its nearly 100-minute duration, the broad musical canvas incorporates a full range of musical and emotional expression, moving through rousing fanfares, tender lyricism, and melancholy to the height of exaltation.

(Some emphasis added.)

Need I say more? Well, it's a lot of music, but — while I don't recall specifics of this symphony — Mahler's style of music at this time in his career generally isn't difficult to listen to, and my more general memory of it is that it is quite engaging. So it should be pretty good.


Saturday, August 25, 2018.  On Saturday, the summer of Bernstein reaches its grand finale. The performance detail page doesn't give a listing of every piece to be played, but from what we are told, including the long list of performers, we get a feel for what it will be.

The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Reflecting the season-long theme, The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood will spotlight Bernstein's wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert will feature a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein's heart-selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by Copland-plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion of the program's second half; the finale of Mahler's ResurrectionSymphony brings the program to a dramatic close.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, August 25, 2018.  The season ends with the traditional Beethoven 9th Symphony, preceded by two brief pieces by Bernstein. The performance detail page has its usual links and gives this synopsis.

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Christoph Eschenbach leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Joseph Kaiser, baritone Thomas Hampson, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis added.)

And so we bid farewell to another summer of concerts from Tanglewood, with another massive work, one which is very well known. Although it's not my favorite Beethoven symphony, it's certainly beautiful at times and exciting at times, and it's certainly fitting for the occasion. Enjoy.

The Boston Symphony returns to Symphony Hall to open the season there on October 11, with the first Saturday concert on the 13th. Meanwhile WCRB will fill the six intervening Saturday evenings with concerts previously recorded. I don't see a listng for September 1, but the rest can be found here. As usual, I plan to post about each as it approaches.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/17-19

This weekend the season at Tanglewood continues, with all three of the major concerts available over WCRB. (See also the additional programming information on their website.)


Friday, August 17, 2018.  Here's the description from the BSO program detail page:

Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
UnderScore Friday Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Patrons will hear comments about the program directly from onstage BSO musician J. William Hudgins (percussion).

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4-part of Maestro Nelsons' and the orchestra's ongoing project of performing and recording the composer's complete symphonies-a fine, substantial work that had to wait 25 years for its premiere due to censorship by the Soviet regime. One the first half of the program, frequent BSO guest pianist Yefim Bronfman joins Maestro Nelsons and the orchestra for Beethoven's expansive and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 4, which contains moments of grandeur and pomp as well as passages of glorious weightlessness and ephemeral brushes of color.

(Some emphasis added.)

There are also the usual links to program notes, audio previews, and performer bios.

Of course, you can't go wrong with Beethoven. As for the Shostakovich, here's what I wrote after hearing it in Symphony Hall last March:

I wasn't really expecting to like the Shostakovich, but it turned out to be pretty good. Despite its length, I never felt that it was getting to be too much. There is enough variety, especially going from full orchestra to featuring solo instruments, and plentiful musical ideas, to keep it from getting dull. I had never heard either piece [this one or the Bernstein Second Symphony which preceded it on that program], and now I wouldn't mind seeing either on another program.

So it should be an evening of good listening.


Saturday, August 18, 2018.  It's an all Bernstein program. As always, we turn to the BSO program detail page for links and this description:

Andris Nelsons conducts an All-Bernstein Program with the Boston Ballet and featuring violinist Baiba Skride

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the BSO present an all-Bernstein program, which begins with a fully-staged performance of the composer's ballet Fancy Free in a first-ever collaboration with the Boston Ballet. Bernstein's first ballet score and Robbins' first full-scale choreographic effort, Fancy Free catapulted both artists (who were both just 25) to stardom. In what would become his signature style, Robbins combined classical choreography with jazz and popular dance moves. Just months after Fancy Free was premiered at the old Metropolitan Opera House, its scenario had become the basis for Bernstein and Robbins' hit Broadway musical On the Town (performed July 7). Fancy Free is being presented here using Robbins' original choreography. The program continues with the Divertimento for Orchestra, composed for the BSO's centenary celebration in 1980, and concludes with the Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium"), for violin and orchestra, featuring soloist Baiba Skride.

(Some emphasis added.)

My brother's call from Japan will take me away from the Serenade and maybe the end of the Divertimento. I'd rather miss "Fancy Free" — although if we could see the dancing, I'd be more interested in the ballet — but there you have it.


Sunday, August 19, 2018.  This concert brings us four works, including a Tanglewood-related world premiere, more by Bernstein, and the BSO's "own" piece by Bartók. Herewith, the performance detail page's synopsis:

Yo-Yo Ma joins Andris Nelsons for Copland, Bernstein, Williams and Bartók
The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Tanglewood alongside Maestro Nelsons and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for the annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert. The program celebrates the completion of sculptures that John Williams commissioned for the Tanglewood grounds of three of the Festival's seminal figures, who are also personal heroes of the composer: Aaron Copland, Serge Koussevitzky, and Leonard Bernstein. The program features Yo-Yo Ma, Andris Nelsons, and the BSO in the world premiere of a new John Williams work for cello and orchestra, specially written for this occasion. Mr. Ma is also featured in Bernstein's Three Meditations from Mass, for cello and orchestra, the composer's reworking of selections from ambitious staged pageant/oratorio composed for the 1971 inauguration of Washington's Kennedy Center. Aptly opening the concert is Copland's An Outdoor Overture, a 1938 work from the beginning of the composer's American populist period and the first work by Copland that Bernstein conducted at Tanglewood. Concluding the program is perhaps Koussevitzky's most famous commission, Bartók's incandescent Concerto for Orchestra, which the BSO premiered in 1944.

(Some emphasis added.)

The new work by Williams is titled "Highwood's Ghost, An Encounter for Harp, Cello, and Orchestra." I always like to hear world premieres, so I'm looking forward to it, and Copland can be very enjoyable. Bernstein should be okay, and I've heard the Bartók so often that it's lost its shock value, and I can sort of enjoy it.

Don't forget: the Sunday concert is heard by "tape" delay at 7:00 p.m. — the Friday and Saturday are presented live at 8:00, EDT.

It should be a pretty good series of concerts. Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/10-12

This weekend the BSO is deviating from their usual format. Instead of the usual 8:00 p.m. concert on Friday, they are giving a one-hour Young People's concert at 7:00 p.m., in homage to Bernstein's Young People's Concerts when he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. WCRB will not be broadcasting it, but I thought you might like to see the description from the BSO's program description page.

Young People's Concert

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Building on a tradition of educational concerts for young listeners that dated back decades, in 1958 Leonard Bernstein, who had just begun his tenure as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, initiated his own series of "Young People's Concerts" to be broadcast on CBS television. The fourteen-season series-totaling fifty-three episodes in all-became a model for educational programming, making a point of avoiding condescension and pedantry, not shying away from the unfamiliar, and allowing Bernstein's boundless enthusiasm and charisma to carry the day. It was lightning in a bottle-only rarely have similar programs approached the show's popularity since it went off the air in 1972. Bernstein's guests included Aaron Copland, the then-fifteen-year-old Israeli composer Shulamit Ran, singers Marni Nixon and Walter Berry, conductors Seiji Ozawa and James DePreist, and the "New York Rock and Roll Ensemble," among many others. Between 2004 and 2013, these programs were released on DVD.

The first few programs, beginning with the introductory "What Is Music?" telecast in January 1958, had a broad focus-American music, orchestration, the nature of classical music, and the like. As the series progressed, there were segments on more specific subjects-the music of Mahler, Sibelius, Hindemith, and Charles Ives, birthday celebrations of Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Dmitri Shostakovich, the acoustics of concert halls, and an entire show on Beethoven's opera Fidelio-subject matter that few elementary educational curricula would dare broach today. But perhaps Bernstein was onto something there: by trusting and challenging his countless young listeners to go beyond their own expectations of themselves, he planted seeds of curiosity that long continued to bear fruit.

WCRB will give us a rebroadcast from a couple of years ago at the usual time.


Friday, August 10, 2018.  WCRB rebroadcasts and streams the Tanglewood concert of August 27, 2016. The program detail page is no longer available on the BSO website, but here's the synopsis I copied at the time.

Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Stern on Saturday, August 27, to open the final weekend of the BSO's 2016 Tanglewood season, performing Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and John Williams's Heartwood,for cello and orchestra, and Rosewood and Pickin', for solo cello, on a program that also includes Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

(Some emphasis added.)

The order of performance is Bernstein, Haydn, Williams, and Respighi. I suppose the intermission is after the Haydn. It should be worth listening to.


Saturday, August 11, 2018.  It's Boston Pops this evening, playing film music, as described, with extreme brevity on the program detail page:

John Williams' Film Night

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

John Williams' Film Night has long been established as one of the Tanglewood calendar's most consistently captivating evenings. Join Mr. Williams as he presents this year's celebration of the music of Hollywood and beyond, featuring the Boston Pops and BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons.

(Some emphasis added.)
My father used to use the line about concerts at the bandstand in the park: "You can't tell from where you're sitting what the band is going to play." Just listen and enjoy.


Sunday, August 12, 2018.  At 7:00 p.m., we get to hear the afternoon concert. As a curtain raiser, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts a piece he composed, Then we hear Rachmaninoff and Mahler. More detail comes from the BSO's page:

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Tilson Thomas, Rachmaninoff and Mahler

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

San Francisco Symphony Music Director and former BSO Assistant Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas returns to Tanglewood, where he won the Koussevitzky Music Prize as a student of Bernstein's in 1969. To open the program, he leads the BSO in his own Agnegram, a 1998 work that is alternately jazzy, elegant, humorous, and direct. Brilliant young Russian pianist Igor Levit then takes center stage for Rachmaninoff's virtuosic and glittering Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Closing the concert is Mahler's at times brooding, at times vigorously energetic Symphony No. 1. Bernstein's championing of Mahler's symphonies was a big factor in making his music a staple of the orchestral repertoire.

(Some emphasis added.)


So there you have it — three concerts for your enjoyment on air and on line over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/06/30

This evening at 8:00, Boston Time, WCRB wont't be giving us a rebroadcast of a concert, but "A Preview of Tanglewood 2018!" Here's how they describe it on their page:

Saturday at 8pm, join WCRB's Brian McCreath for a look at the upcoming 2018 Tanglewood season, celebrating the centennial of Leonard Bernstein, through works by Bernstein himself, Mahler, and many more!

Saturday, June 30, 2018
8:00 PM

BERNSTEIN Dances from On the Town (Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor)
MAHLER Symphony No. 3 in D minor: III. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seijii Ozawa, conductor)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 16 in F: III. Lento assai e cantante tranquillo, and IV. Grave - Allegro - Grave (Emerson String Quartet)
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D: III. Vivacissimo, and IV. Finale (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons, conductor)
BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide (Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor)
John WILLIAMS Stargazers, from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Jessica Zhou, harp; Boston Pops; Keith Lockhart, conductor)
GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F: III. Allegro agitato (Kirill Gerstein, piano; St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; David Robertson, conductor)
BERNSTEIN from Serenade (after Plato's Symposium): I. Phaedrus: Pausanias (Lento-Allegro marcato), and II. Aristophanes (Allegretto) (Itzhak Perlman, violin; Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa, conductor)
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D minor: IV. Allegro non troppo - Allegro - Piu mosso (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons, conductor)

Recordings from the Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, BSO Classics, Myrios Classics, and EMI labels

That page also has links to the complete Tanglewood broadcast schedule and additional information about the season at Tanglewood.

I don't know why they think they need to talk up the Tanglewood season, but it could be interesting to hear what they say about it.

BSO/Classical New England — 2018/04/14

This week the BSO is on tour to Carnegie Hall, so WCRB is giving us a "encore broadcast" and webstream of the concert given last July 16 at Tanglewood. Andris Nelsons conducts the world premiere of Markings for violin, strings, and harp by John Williams, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist, and, after intermission, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. I posted about it at the time, but there wasn't any further information, except the links on the performance detail page.

I can't find any reviews in the Globe or the Intelligencer, and frankly, I don't have any specific recollection of the new Williams piece, but of course, the other two are standards of the repertoire, so it should be worthwhile listening, beginning this evening at 8:00 p.m. Boston Time.

Enjoy!

Tanglewood — 2017/07/14-16

This looks like a great weekend at Tanglewood, with music from the 18th through the 21st centuries.

Friday, July 14, 2017.  Here's how the BSO performance detail page describes this evening's concert:

Andris Nelsons opens the weekend on Friday, July 14 at Tanglewood with performances of two pieces written as an homage to French Baroque composer François Couperin, composed nearly 90 years apart: Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and BSO Artist Partner Thomas Adès's Three Studies from Couperin. Also on the program is Haydn's Symphony No. 83, La Poule ("The Hen"), last performed by the BSO in 1990, and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K.467, featuring Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov.

(Some emphasis added.)

The BSO page also has the usual links to audio previews, program notes and performer bios.

The Adès piece was performed in Symphony Hall in the concerts of April 23-28, 2015. In my review at the time I wrote,

Thomas Adès's orchestration of harpsichord music of Couperin was very successful, in my opinion. One interesting feature was the use of alto and bass flutes. Both are longer than regular flutes, so much so that the tubes are bent back on themselves; and they have a greater diameter than ordinary flutes. They are held like regular flutes, with the player blowing over the mouthpiece on the top section, and the keys [are] on the lower section.

You can see links to other reviews if you go back to my post.


Saturday, July 15, 2017,  brings only one work, but what a work. Again, the BSO tells us about it on the performance detail page:

On Saturday, July 15, Maestro Nelsons leads the BSO in one of the great highlights of the 2017 Tanglewood season: the festival's first-ever complete concert performance of Wagner's epic Das Rheingold, the first of the four dramas from Wagner's masterpiece Der Ring des Nibelungen. The performance features a cast of all-star vocal soloists among the most respected for these roles, including bass-baritone Thomas J. Mayer as Wotan (in his BSO and Tanglewood debuts); mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as Fricka; tenor Kim Begley as Loge (BSO and Tanglewood debuts); and baritone Jochen Schmeckenbecher (BSO and Tanglewood debuts) as Alberich, along with other prestigious singers known for their expertise performing Wagner's music. The performance of Das Rheingold-sung in German with English subtitles-will run without an intermission. 

Due to ill health, and on the advice of her doctor, Dame Sarah Connolly regretfully has had to withdraw from the BSO's performance of Das Rheingold.  The role of Fricka will now be sung by Stephanie Blythe, who has graciously agreed to join the cast at short notice.

(Some emphasis added.)

See the performance detail for the rest of the cast as well as the usual links. The program notes give a synopsis of the action, but not the full libretto. For that you're on your own. I'd suggest searching something like "Rheingold libretto." I'd suggest going for one with German and English side by side if you can find it. The opera concludes with "The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla," which used to be frequently performed as a stand-alone piece. It's top-notch Wagner, IMO.


Sunday, July 16, 2017.  We're back to orchestral music, with a world premiere and a couple of "warhorses." The BSO tells us

Closing out the weekend on Sunday, July 16, Andris Nelsons and the BSO are joined by violinist Anne Sophie Mutter for the world premiere of Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams' Markings, for solo violin, strings, and harp. Ms. Mutter also joins the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, one of the most popular concertos for the instrument. Berlioz's dazzling Symphonie fantastique completes the program.

(Some emphasis added.)

The above quote is from the orchestra's performance detail page, which also has the usual links to background information. I have no idea how the Williams piece will be, but the remaining works are enduringly popular.


You can hear it all over WCRB on the air or on line. Friday and Saturday' shows begin at 8:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, Sunday's at 7:00. I'm looking forward to it.

CORRECTION — WCRB July 8, 2017

In my post about this weekend's concert broadcasts over WCRB, I made the mistake of assuming that all three of the major concerts would be broadcast and streamed. This morning I realized that this evening's Pops concert will not be broadcast. Instead they are giving us an "encore broadcast"  of the final Saturday concert of the 2016 Tanglewood season.

http://classicalwcrb.org/post/yo-yo-ma-plays-haydn-and-williams

Here's what I posted back then:

On Saturday we return to regular order. The performance detail page gives these details:

Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Stern on Saturday, August 27, to open the final weekend of the BSO's 2016 Tanglewood season, performing Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and John Williams's Heartwood,for cello and orchestra, and Rosewood and Pickin', for solo cello, on a program that also includes Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

(Some emphasis added.)

The usual background information is available on that page. It looks like a pretty full evening of music.

I'm sorry for the confusion. It looks like a concert worth listening to.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/26-28

This is the final weekend of the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood season. As has become customary, the Sunday concert will feature the Beethoven Ninth Symphony. I'll say more about it when we get to the description of the Sunday concert

Friday, August 26.  In the past couple of years, the BSO management has begun occasionally presenting movies with a live orchestra providing the music of the soundtrack. On Friday, the Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart, will accompany "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with John Williams' score. But it seems that WCRB won't be broadcasting or streaming it. I don't see what will fill the 8: p.m. time slot, so I guess we can only tune in, prepared to be surprised.


Saturday, August 27.  On Saturday we return to regular order. The performance detail page gives these details:

Tanglewood favorite Yo-Yo Ma joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Stern on Saturday, August 27, to open the final weekend of the BSO's 2016 Tanglewood season, performing Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and John Williams's Heartwood,for cello and orchestra, and Rosewood and Pickin', for solo cello, on a program that also includes Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

(Some emphasis added.)

The usual background information is available on that page. It looks like a pretty full evening of music.


Sunday, August 28.  The Sunday concert, as noted above, brings the Beethoven Choral Symphony to close the season.  The performance detail page informs us:

Music Director Andris Nelsons will lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Sunday, August 28, at 2:30 p.m. Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, who was scheduled to lead the Ninth Symphony, has been forced to withdraw from the concert due to recent health challenges, and advice from his doctors to avoid any long distance flights for the next four months.  

and

Bass Günther Groissböck, who was scheduled to perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Andris Nelsons and the BSO on Sunday, August 28, had a bicycling accident and is unable to travel overseas at this time. Bass Wilhelm Schwinghammer, in his Tanglewood and BSO debuts, will replace Mr. Groissböck for the August 28 performance.

(Some emphasis added)

For some reason, they don't bother to tell us in the blurb that the orchestra will begin the concert with a work by Aaron Copland, "Quiet City," but the program note is included in the usual place.


The Saturday concert can be heard via WCRB radio or web at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, and the Sunday program will be aired and streamed at 7:00, p.m. (not live at 2:30). Their home page, in addition to the link for listening over the web, gives information about other special programming which may be of interest. Their BSO page, in addition to listing the works to be played, gives similar information about the broadcasts which will occupy the three following Saturdays until Opening Night of the regular Symphony Hall season on September 24. The station has chosen three concerts from last season, including two from last winter's "Shakespeare Festival" commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. After those listings, they give the schedule of broadcasts/streams for the upcoming season.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2016/05/21

This week's broadcast and stream over WCRB will be a pops concert, rather than one by the Boston Symphony. It's a Movie Night program conducted by John Williams and Keith Lockhart. Here's what the WCRB BSO page says about it:

Laureate Conductor John Williams and Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart team up to lead a program of cinematic magic, with music from unforgettable films across the decades!

That page also has a link to an interview with John Williams to preview the concert.

It seems that this was a program presented on May 12 & 13, 2016. Here's a bit more information about the content from the Symphony's program detail page:

Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams shares the podium with Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart for this signature concert. The brilliant composer and conductor behind films including Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Harry Potter series, brings you a night of some of the most memorable movie music of all time. This is a concert not to be missed!

You can hear it at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21.

The next two weeks will also have Pops; then the BSO encore broadcasts will resume until Tanglewood season begins.

BSO — 2016/03/17-19

This week's BSO concert provides some interesting music. The orchestra's performance detail page — where you can also find the usual links to their podcast, performer bios, audio previews, and program notes — gives this description:

French conductor Stéphane Denève, a frequent BSO guest in recent seasons, leads this diverse program including John Williams's Violin Concerto, a soaring and heartfelt work that has been championed by Gil Shaham-and which he recorded with John Williams and the BSO. Opening the program is music by another American composer, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon, whose colorful, atmospheric tone poem Blue Cathedral is her most frequently performed orchestral work. Closing the program and featuring the grand Symphony Hall organ is the sonorous, ultimately uplifting Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns.

(Most emphasis added.)

The Globe review finds nothing to dislike. So far, the Boston Musical Intelligencer hasn't published a review. If they do, I'll note it.

I was there on Thursday evening and found it all okay. The first piece, "Blue Cathedral," is pretty well described in the program notes, and it was nice to be able to follow it as it unfolded. I noticed that the four horn players had the glasses with water in them, which they were to play by dipping a finger in the water and rubbing the rim. (You can try this at home.) They didn't actually play them until toward the end, as it got quiet, but even the quiet music drowned them out for a while. Eventually they were faintly audible for five or ten seconds. Other musicians then started playing the chinese bells. The whole effect was charming. The Williams violin concerto didn't remind me of his movie music. Gil Shaham seemed to do a very nice job with it, but the piece itself isn't something I feel I need to hear again (although I'll give it another hearing during the broadcast — it isn't unpleasant). In the Saint-Saëns I had never actually noticed the organ before it enters loudly in the final movement. But this time I heard it quietly accompanying some of the softer parts earlier in the piece. Listen carefully, and you may hear it too. The sound is just a bit different from the woodwinds.

The place to listen is WCRB via radio or web at 8:00 p.m. EST (Boston Time) on Saturday, March 19, with a rerun on Monday, March 28 (same time of day, same station). Their BSO page has a link to their podcast, "The Answered Question," with interviews with the conductor and the violinist. There is also the schedule for the rest of the season as links to previews of the upcoming Pops and Tanglewood seasons.