Alexander's Feast

     I'm jumping the gun on the concert season a bit. Our last sailboat race isn't until tomorrow, and my first BSO concert isn't until October 7; but I'm going in to Boston this evening, to a performance of "Alexander's Feast" by Emmanuel Music. The piece is a setting by Handel of an ode for St. Cecelia's day by John Dryden. Here are a couple of videos. One is my favorite aria (for bass). The other gives a chorus and soprano aria (beginning at about 2:30). You can find more videos from the ones I have linked. The wiki article has an outline of the numbers in the work gives links for the text.

     I have a recording from the 1960's on Vanguard's "Bach Guild" label, which I've very much enjoyed. It has Alfred Deller conducting the musical forces. (In that recording, they pronounce the bard's name as tye moe´ thee us, and hearing "tim owe´thee us" takes some getting used to. Also Maurice Bevan pronounced "rear" to rhyme with "hair," which I think is a traditional pronunciation, as in "rarin' to go.")

     Anyway, I think it's a fine work, and I'm looking forward to hearing it from a group whose Bach cantata recordings I've sometimes heard on the radio, but whose concerts I've never attended. I think if you don't already know "Alexander's Feast," you'll like it if you listen to it. I hope the videos have whetted your appetite.

Tanglewood August 27-29, 2010

I'm sorry I missed posting info about last weekend's concerts, but I was in the midst of running sailboat races from Tuesday through Saturday, and just too busy. Anyway, here's what the BSO website says about this weekend.

"Final Weekend at Tanglewood 

David Zinman and The Planets 

Friday, August 27, 8:30PM

The BSO's final weekend at Tanglewood this season gets underway Friday, August 27, at 8:30 p.m in the Shed as David Zinman (TMC Fellow 1958) joins the orchestra for a performance of The Planets, Holst's vivid, ever-exciting musical journey through the solar system. Opening the program is Poulenc's Gloria—which was commissioned in honor of Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the BSO in 1961—with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, and soprano soloist Isabel Bayrakdarian.

Brahms and Dvořák 

Saturday, August 28, 8:30PM

Celebrated American pianist Emanuel Ax, who made his BSO debut at Tanglewood on August 6, 1978, joins the BSO and conductor David Zinman in the Shed at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 28, to perform as soloist in Brahms's mercurial Piano Concerto No. 2. Joining the concerto and concluding the program is one of the most well known symphonic works ever written: the New World Symphony by Dvořák, who was a frequent correspondent and friend of Brahms's.

Bach and Beethoven 

Sunday, August 29, 2:30PM

At 2:30 p.m in the Shed on Sunday, August 29, the Tanglewood season comes to an end as always with Beethoven's immortal Symphony No. 9, this year conducted by the distinguished German maestro Kurt Masur, who has been an influential figure in the classical music world for more than half a century. The BSO is joined by vocal soloists soprano Nicole Cabell, mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, tenor Garrett Sorenson, and bass-baritone John Relyea, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which opens the program with Bach's Jesu, meine Freude."

Same drill as always: you can hear Ron Della Chiesa's "pre-game show" 1/2 hour before each concert time, the intermission features, and the concerts over WCRB's webstream.

Tanglewood August 13-15, 2010

Same drill as in past weeks as far as concert and broadcast/streaming times.

"Caminos Del Inka: A Musical Journey 

Friday, August 13, 8:30PM

At 8:30 p.m. in the Shed, Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads a musical journey through the ancient Inca empire with specially created videography by the renowned Peruvian photographer Fabiana Van Lente. The breathtaking images of Machu Picchu, floating island villages, and the expanses of the Peruvian plains are matched to stirring and evocative music, from the time of the Conquistadores to the sounds of the first new classical voices of 21st-century Latin America. BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe and young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein join the BSO and Maestro Harth-Bedoya for the program, which includes Gabriela Lena Frank's Illapa, for flute and orchestra; Osvaldo Golijov's Mariel, for cello and orchestra; and music by Robles, Compañón, Luzuriaga, Leng, and López.

Film Night at Tanglewood 

Saturday, August 14, 8:30PM

One of the season's most popular traditions, the annual Film Night concert is a celebration of music from the movies. In his 30th summer at Tanglewood, John Williams presents a memorable evening that recreates some of the great musical moments in Hollywood history. This special Boston Pops program will honor the work of director Steven Spielberg. Mr. Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra are joined at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed by host Robert Osborne and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Chorus.

American Masterpieces With Robert Spano And Jean-Yves Thibaudet 

Sunday, August 15, 2:30PM

Robert Spano takes the podium in the Shed for the BSO's 2:30 p.m. matinee performance, which showcases two American masterpieces by George Gershwin: the Piano Concerto, for which eminent French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is soloist, and An American in Paris. The concert also includes Gunther Schuller's Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee and Leonard Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs, for clarinet and jazz ensemble, featuring BSO principal clarinetist Thomas Martin."

I'll miss Friday and Saturday nights because it's my 50th high school reunion this weekend. Fortunately the programs those evenings don't have anything on my "must hear" list. But I hope those who do get a chance to listen in will enjoy it all.

Tanglewood August 6-8, 2010

Here's how they describe this week's program, available as always over WCRB's stream at 995allclassical.org, with pre-game show a half hour before the scheduled concert time.

"Mendelssohn, Mozart and Tchaikovsky 

Friday, August 6, 8:30PM

Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the BSO in Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, one of the composer's three overtures inspired by the ocean, as well as Tchaikovsky's anguished Symphony No. 6, Pathétique. Between those two works on the program is Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14, featuring one of the great Mozart interpreters, Richard Goode. 

Wagner, Sibelius, Copland and Stravinsky 

Saturday, August 7, 8:30PM

For the featured work in an ambitious and highly diverse 8:30 p.m. concert in the Shed, BSO assistant conductor Shi-Yeon Sung is joined by celebrated American virtuoso Hilary Hahn for Sibelius's ever-popular Violin Concerto. Filling the program with contrasting works from various time periods and stylistic schools, Maestro Sung also leads the orchestra in Copland's incidental music Quiet City, the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin, and Stravinsky's scintillating Firebird Suite (1919). 

Beethoven and Dvořák 

Sunday, August 8, 2:30PM

Maestro Dohnányi returns to the Shed for the BSO's 2:30 p.m. matinee performance, which examines one masterpiece on either side of the interval. To begin the concert, the young German violinist Arabella Steinbacher is the soloist for Beethoven's beloved Violin Concerto, the towering composer's only work in the genre.Following the concerto, the orchestra plays Dvořák’s bucolic and invigorating Symphony No. 8."

BTW, I found out a few years ago the the "Calm Sea" referred to in the title of the Mendelssohn piece was not a good thing back in his day, when ships were powered by sail. Calm seas meant little or no wind, which meant little or no progress toward the destination. The worst possible thing was to be becalmed.

Tanglewood July 30-August 1, 2010

Here's how the BSO Tanglewood website describes this weekend's offerings. Ron Della Chiesa has the "pre-game show" beginning 1/2 hour before each scheduled concert time. All is available at www.995allclassical.org.

"All-Russian Program with Charles Dutoit 

Friday, July 30, 8:30PM

At 8:30 p.m. in the Shed, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is joined by longtime BSO guest conductor and 1959 TMC Fellow Charles Dutoit as well as Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein for a program of Russian concert favorites. Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 1—which showcases the skills of Mr. Gerstein, the recent winner of the Gilmore Artist Award—shares the first half of the concert with the overture to Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila. After intermission, Maestro Dutoit and the BSO perform a suite from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

Berg, Strauss, & Mahler Program 

Saturday, July 31, 8:30PM

The BSO welcomes conductor Juanjo Mena at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed for a program of Berg's ambitious Three Pieces for Orchestra, Strauss's autumnal Four Last Songs with soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, the most delicate of his nine completed works in the form. Maestro Mena is Principal Guest Conductor of Norway's Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Guest Conductor at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, succeeding Gianandrea Noseda in September 2011. He makes his BSO debut with this program.

Yo-Yo Ma Returns to Tanglewood 

Sunday, August 1, 2:30PM

Universally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Tanglewood and shares the stage with the BSO at 2:30 p.m. in the Shed for a performance of Elgar's tragic, ultra-Romantic Cello Concerto in a performance led once again by Maestro Dutoit. Also on the program are Sibelius's folk-inspired, nationalistic Karelia Suite and Mussorgsky's dazzling orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, as orchestrated by Ravel."

Enjoy.

Tanglewood July 23-25, 2010

Here's what the BSO says on their Tanglewood page.


"Mozart, Brahms and Strauss!

Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio
Friday, July 23, 8:30PM

Canadian Opera Company Music Director Johannes Debus joins the BSO to conduct a concert performance of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, featuring Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows and a professional cast that includes sopranos Lisette Oropesa and Ashley Emerson, tenors Eric Cutler and Anthony Stevenson, and bass Morris Robinson. Acclaimed Boston actor Will LeBow will narrate. Though Mozart's opera, written in the style of the Singspiel, uses spoken dialogue rather than recitative to develop the plot, it also contains some of the composer's most brilliant and challenging sung numbers, full of coloratura passages and other vocal fireworks.

All-Brahms Program
Saturday, July 24, 8:30PM

Guest conductor Herbert Blomstedt takes to the Tanglewood podium at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed, leading an all-Brahms program that features the composer's Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto No. 1, with soloist Gilles Vonsattel. The Piano Concerto No. 1, completed in 1858, was originally composed in 1854 as a sonata for two pianos and nearly became his first symphony before going through a number of revisions and finally arriving at its present state. Conversely, Brahms rapidly wrote his Symphony No. 2 in a single summer in 1877.
Regrettably, Peter Serkin is ill and has been forced to withdraw from this Saturday's performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1. We are delighted that the young Swiss-American pianist, Gilles Vonsattel, will be replacing him.



All-Strauss Program
Sunday, July 25, 2:30PM

Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf will lead the BSO in a showcase of waltzes and polkas in the great Viennese tradition by Johann Strauss II in a matinee program anchored by a performance of Don Quixote by Richard Strauss featuring cellist Lynn Harrell and BSO principal violist Steven Ansell as soloists. The music of Johann Strauss II was ubiquitous in Vienna for the majority of the 19th century and has never lost its popularity with the concertgoing masses. Richard Strauss, no relation, was an entirely different kind of composer, and his tone poem Don Quixote provides some heft among the Waltz King's effervescent dances."

Enjoy the stream on WCRB!

Tanglewood July 16-18, 2010

Here's a cut and paste from the BSO's website. The concerts will be broadcast and streamed over WCRB as usual, with "pregame shows" 1/2 hour before concert time. As was the case last Friday, Maestro Tilson Thomas is replacing James Levine in this Friday and Saturday's performances.

Stravinsky & Mozart 

Friday, July 16, 8:30PM

San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, reprise one of the highlights of last fall’s Symphony Hall subscription series, the pairing of Mozart's beloved Requiem with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, written to celebrate the BSO's 50th anniversary, Friday, July 16, at 8:30 p.m.

Mahler Symphony No. 3 

Saturday, July 17, 8:30PM

Maestro Tilson Thomas leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in its first Shed performance of the season, joined by the Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the American Boychoir, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, music director, and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill. In addition to the massive forces required, Mahler's Symphony No. 3 stretches to approximately 100 minutes, making it the longest piece in the standard orchestral repertoire. 

Boston Pops Orchestra with Special Guest Arlo Guthrie and Alec Baldwin 

Sunday, July 18, 2:30PM

Currently in its 125th anniversary season, the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, welcome renowned folk musician Arlo Guthrie and Emmy Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin joins the orchestra and chorus to narrate "The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers", by composer Peter Boyer and Tony Award-winning lyricist Lynn Ahrens. This new multi-media work, commissioned for the Pops, combines quotes from speeches by the Kennedy brothers with original text and video, accompanied by a dramatic orchestral score. Arlo Guthrie will join the Pops for a set that includes favorites like "This Land Is Your Land," "Coming into L.A.," and "City of New Orleans." 

Tanglewood July 9-11, 2010 — Amazing Video

The weekend starts this evening with Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (who was an assistant conductor of the BSO way back when). James Levine would have conducted if he hadn't been recuperation from back surgery. The performance will also include Layla Claire, soprano, Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.


Saturday evening brings an all-Beethoven program with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the King Stephen Overture, Piano Concerto No. 3, with Gerhard Oppitz, piano, and Symphony No. 5.


On Sunday afternoon Maestro Frühbeck returns to lead the orchestra in Mozart's Serenade No. 6 in D, K.239, "Serenata notturna," and Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist, and Ein Heldenleben, by Richard Strauss.


BTW, a note on the BSO Tanglewood schedule page indicates that WAMC will broadcast/stream the Sunday concert. Dunno about the others.


Finally, check out this video. The note seems to be wrong about the singer's age. Elsewhere, I find he was born in 1992 and this performance was in 1995. Also the source says his voice changed a few months later. Apparently this is an aria that the No. 1 treble of the choir often sings at these family concerts. But, corrections to background info aside, I think he does a sensational job.

Tanglewood 2010 Season — July 9 - August 29

The Boston Symphony Tanglewood concerts this summer will all be broadcast on WCRB. Broadcasts will begin at 8:00 p.m. on the Friday and Saturday evenings and at 2:00 Sunday afternoons with a "pregame show." The concerts themselves begin one half hour later. The broadcasts are also to be streamed. (Click "Listen Live" near the upper right of the page.) Times are US Eastern Time.

I'll try to remember to let you know each week what is coming up, but of course you can always just tune in and find out. I'm not sure about WAMC, which also transmitted the concerts last summer. If I find out, I'll let you know.

Orgy Period — May 2010

Sorry for the late notice, but Orgy Period® is underway until the end of May at WHRB. There is a pretty good amount of rock in this one; but as I type this they are in the midst of the Gustav Mahler Orgy, playing his Fifth Symphony.

Go to www.whrb.org to download a pdf schedule and to listen to the webstream.