BSO — 2013/11/14-19

The music in tis week's BSO concerts is all from the standard orchestral repertoire: Mozart, Prokofiev, and Schumann. The conductor, and soloist in the Mozart, is more unusual: violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Here's how the BSO describes it on their program detail page, where, as usual, you will find links to audio previews and program notes, as well as a performer bio (available by clicking on the thumbnail photo:

Greek-born violin virtuoso and conductor Leonidas Kavakos returns in that dual role for Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4, composed in 1775 and considered a signpost of the precocious composer's high maturity. Kavakos then leads Serge Prokofiev's delightful, Mozart- and Haydn-inspired Classical Symphony, one of the last pieces he finished in Russia before leaving his homeland for more than a decade. Closing the program is Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 2, composed in 1845 after a bout of deep depression, but ultimately, even miraculously, optimistic and affirmative in character.

I was there on Thursday and found it a very satisfying concert. One of the best things, IMO, was that Kavakos' cadenzas in the Mozart were appropriate to the style of the rest of the music. Some performers like to show off their technical by doing all sorts of flashy stuff that really has nothing in common with the piece they're playing. But Kavakos kept it Mozartean. Throughout the concert, he also kept good control of the dynamics: fast wasn't loud; he never "blasted us out of our seats." For once, even the horns played softly — often they drown out the other instruments, but not this time. Somebody found the playing in the Schumann "rough-hewn." Perhaps that's the word for it. Somehow they sounded a bit different from what I'm used to, but I wouldn't know what to call it exactly. The Prokofiev and Schumann seemed vibrant, the Schumann almost earthy. All in all, I found it refreshing. I hope that comes through on the radio and the web. Apart from some quibbles about Kavakos' interpretation of the Schumann, the Globe's reviewer was very pleased also.

If you're in range of the signal, you can hear it on the radio, otherwise over the web, both from Classical New England. There are links to an interview with Kavakos and to a video in which he talks about his violin on their page devoted to the BSO. The concert program begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, with related material — mostly other music by the night's performers or composers — beginning at 7:00. There will be a rebroadcast (without the preliminary hour) on November 25 and ere long it should be available on demand over the web.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2013/11/7-9: Belated But Still Potentially Useful

It's embarrassing to be so late with this. It just completely slipped my mind yesterday. But there will still be opportunities to hear last night's concert via the rebroadcast on the 18th as well as the on-demand system (which I haven't said much about).

This week's concerts were the Britten War Requiem, described as follows on the performance detail page, with the usual links:

To mark the centenary of the composer's birth, Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit leads one of the greatest 20th-century works for chorus and orchestra, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Written in 1961-62, this moving work was commissioned for the consecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during a bombing raid in World War II. Britten's piece takes a firm pacifist stance, setting World War I-era poetry by Wilfred Owen-sung by the two male soloists-interleaved with his setting of the traditional Latin Mass for the dead. Following the composer's intention, the present performances bring together three soloists-one Russian, one English, and one German-from countries representing three major factions in the agonies of World War II. The Boston Symphony Orchestra gave the American premiere of this great work at Tanglewood in 1963 under Erich Leinsdorf.

As people have said, it's a work to be experienced, not enjoyed — not that the music is bad, just that the piece is very serious. The Globe gave a favorable review. I thought that it was well performed, although I thought more highly of the soprano, and somewhat less so of the baritone, whom I considered good enough but unspectacular.

In one of Owen's poems which Britten included, the poet asks if there will be a resurrection and says the replies from Age and Earth reply in the negative. In a wonderful juxtaposition, today at Mass, we had readings that proclaim that the answer in Owen's poem is wrong: there is a resurrection. 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 and Luke 20:27-38. If you'd care for more on the topic, I like this homily. An additional comment on the piece (beyond those linked on the BSO and CNE pages, and my own in this paragraph) is this preview from the Globe.

Although the live broadcast on Classical New England is past — and I hope you might have checked it out without my telling you what was coming — there remain the rebroadcast on November 18 and the opportunity to listen "on demand," as I noted at the top. The on demand feature is also worth having in mind for all the other concerts through the season.

BSO — 2013/10/31-11/5

Two very familiar pieces are presented this week — Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin and Elgar's "Enigma" Variations — along with the BSO's first performances of Concerto Grosso No.1 for Three Cellos and Orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki. Wait, wait! Don't run away! This is the later, mellower, Penderecki. It's really not hard to take. The performance detail page mentions the connection between composition and conductor:

In his first of two BSO programs this season, frequent guest conductor Charles Dutoit marks the 80th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki with performances of the great Polish composer's Concerto Grosso No. 1 for three cellos and orchestra. Dutoit, the work's dedicatee, led the premiere with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2001; for these BSO concerts he is joined by three of today's brightest cello soloists. Opening the program is Ravel's familiar Tombeau de Couperin, a colorful, multi-faceted work that originated as a piano suite. Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations is another work that explores a wide variety of moods and ideas, each of its movements sketching a portrait of one of Elgar's close friends.

There you also find the usual links to text, audio, and performer info. I found the program notes on the Elgar particularly interesting. Of course the notes on the Penderecki give a useful preview.

I was there for the Thursday performance, and was quite pleased overall. The Globe reviewer liked it, too. I'm not sure that I agree with his interpretation of everything — the extra-musical meanings — but I agree that it was well played. My favorite of the evening was the Elgar.

You can listen at 8:00 this evening (pre-game at 7:00) or to the rebroadcast on Nov. 11 over Classical New England. Also check out their BSO page for links to additional material.

BSO — 2013/10/24-26

This week brings the American premiere performances of a work that was co-commissioned by the BSO — Speranza, by Mark-Anthony Turnage, who also wrote the opera "Anna Nicole." Mahler's Lied von der Erde completes the program. On the BSO performance detail page we read:

English conductor Daniel Harding makes his BSO debut in a program featuring the first of several BSO-commissioned works for the 2013-14 season, Mark-Anthony Turnage's Speranza, which the composer calls "upbeat, extrovert, and optimistic." Harding led the premiere of his compatriot's piece with the London Symphony Orchestra in February 2013. Mahler's hour-long song-symphony Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth") is a group of wide-ranging settings of Chinese poetry translated into German; the composer responds with music tinged by Eastern exoticism.

As always, the page also includes links to program notes, interviews, audio previews, and performers bios.

I was there for the actual American premiere on Thursday, and although I liked the new piece initially, I'm having second thoughts. Maybe it's just a bit too unmusical and lugubrious, except in the third movement. That's not surprising, considering how the composer describes his development of the piece. Still, it is as it is, and you can listen and decide for yourself. The Mahler symphony seemed coarse and loud. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be, but it was harsher than I expected, and apart some excellent playing by Jason Snider in the lowest range of the french horn, I was generally underwhelmed. Some acquaintances I saw in the corridor afterwards were enthusiastic, so maybe it was better than I thought. The Globe reviewer was unenthusiastic, although his comments on the Turnage are similar to how I felt about it at the time, and I have to agree that the flute and english horn solos in the Mahler were impressive.

Classical New England will broadcast and stream the concert beginning at 8:00 this evening, with a retransmission on Monday, November 4, also at 8:00 p.m.. This evening there will be the usual warm-up at 7:00. Their web page devoted to the BSO has links to their own interviews with composer and conductor (and to lots else).

The CNE rebroadcast/stream on this Monday, October 28, will be last week's Wagner, Mozart, and Brahms program under the baton of Andris Nelsons.

BSO — 2013/10/17-19

After a couple of weeks with music of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Ives, and Adès (among others), our music director designate Andris Nelsons has come to town to give us a sort of throwback concert, with Wagner, Mozart, and Brahms. On the BSO program detail page — where you get the links to performer bios, program notes, and audio previews — we read:

For his first subscription concerts since being named the BSO's next Music Director, the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons leads music from the heart of the orchestral repertoire. The concerts begin with Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, a gentle tone poem composed for his wife Cosima's birthday. Nelsons and the orchestra are then joined by the brilliant English pianist Paul Lewis, who makes his subscription series debut with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25, one of the composer's biggest and most outgoing concertos. Brahms's robust Symphony No. 3, one of the greatest symphonies in the repertoire, closes the program.

As usual, you can listen live over the web or on radio at Classical New England. The preview starts at 7:00 and the concert broadcast/stream itself at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. CNE's page devoted to the BSO doesn't have a lot about this week's concert, other than a clip of some playing by the piano soloist, Paul Lewis. But there are still links to other BSO related material that may be of some interest. On that page we also are reminded that on Monday evening, they'll rebroadcast last week's concert of Mendelssohn, Ives, Adès, and Franck.

I was in Symphony Hall for the first presentation of this week's program. Unlike a week earlier, when at least 1/3 of the seats were empty, this time the hall was very nearly full. In part, it might have been the music, but — given that Maestro Nelsons was greeted by a standing ovation when he came on stage for the first time — I think many patrons wanted to be at his first concert since being named the next music director.

I thought I heard a bit more in the Siegfried Idyll than I had before. Some of it may come from  being less distracted than when I listen at home, some from having just read the program note, and some from Maestro Nelsons' leading of the orchestra. The Mozart seemed to be music that matters, not just some rococo pleasantry. The Brahms performance challenged my dislike of that composer's work. Maybe the interpretation had something to do with it; maybe this is actually one of his more enjoyable pieces; maybe my taste is evolving. At any rate, it was an enjoyable, if unspectacular, evening in Symphony Hall. The Boston Globe's reviewer liked it.

BSO — 2013/10/10-12

This week's concerts are an interesting mixture of the traditional and the modern. One can read something of an "ocean" theme into the three works preceding the intermission. I'm not sure how useful that is, though. Anyway, here's how the BSO itself describes the program:

English composer-conductor-pianist Thomas Adès returns to the BSO podium with more music of his own. He composed his symphonic poem Polaris in 2010; subtitled "Voyage for Orchestra," it calls for a spatial arrangement of the brass around the auditorium. The program begins with another "voyage" piece, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, which describes the composer's reaction to the Scottish seascape he visited on a tour of the British Isles. Charles Ives's Orchestral Set No. 2 is a series of smaller tone poems on subjects from New England and New York, featuring his inimitable use of quotation and collage of popular tunes. The Thursday and Saturday concerts also include César Franck's powerful Symphony in D minor-his most enduring orchestral work. (Emphasis supplied.)

The performance detail page, from which I copied the above, also has the usual links to performer info, program notes and audio previews. They don't mention there that the third section of the Ives piece also has an ocean connection: it is about the reaction of commuters in a train station to news of the sinking of the Lusitania.

I was at the concert on Thursday evening, and I really enjoyed it, especially the Ives and Adès. The Ives was so good (especially the brass section blaring "In the Sweet Bye and Bye") that I shouted "Bravo" as the applause was just starting. I like to think it encouraged more vigorous and sustained applause, leading to a second return to the stage for Maestro Adès — we'll see if he gets called back more than once this evening. In any event, I'm amazed that this particular piece has never been performed by the BSO before this week. I hope they'll do it again while I'm still able to get to Symphony Hall and enjoy it. The Globe reviewer also liked the concert.

It has occurred to me that my ability to enjoy the music of Ives (and other 20th and 21st century composers) owes a lot to reading program notes in advance to get an idea of what a composition is all about, how it works. So I definitely recommend following the links on the performance detail page when there's an unfamiliar piece.

You can hear it for yourself over the radio or the web on Classical New England. Their page devoted to the BSO includes, among others potentially interesting things, a link to an interview with the composer/conductor, in which he talks about all the pieces on the program. I haven't heard it yet, but I hope I'll have a chance to before tonight's broadcast.

BSO — 2013/10/03-08

This week's program includes music of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Strauss. Here's how the BSO performance detail page summarizes it:

French conductor Stéphane Denève is joined by universally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma for one of the 20th century's great concertos, Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. This intense, highly personal work was composed for Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered it in 1959. Also on the program is Serge Prokofiev's Suite from his opera The Love of Three Oranges, based on an 18th-century Carlo Gozzi farce and featuring some of Prokofiev's most characterful and familiar passages. Richard Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben ("A Heroic Life") quotes liberally from the composer's own earlier tone poems summing up the first phase of his musical life in a powerful orchestral tour de fource.

As always, the page contains links to audio and text background material (including performer bios if you click on the photos).

Listen on Classical New England at 8:00 p.m. Boston time (with pre-concert material at 7:00). Their BSO page has links to various related items, as well as the season schedule. The station's weekly schedule also shows Boston Symphony Orchestra on Mondays from 8:00-10:00 p.m. I've read elsewhere that this is a rebroadcast of a previous concert, but I'm not sure if it is the concert from two or nine days earlier. Sometime I'll check it out. You can too, of course.

I was at the concert on Thursday. Overall, I didn't really care very much for the Prokofiev, but it was certainly tolerable. What I did like was some nice solo viola playing at one point. The conductor gave the violist a solo bow at the end of the piece. The Shostakovich was more musical to my ears. Of course, it was an outstanding performance by Yo-Yo Ma. I was also very impressed by extended solo work in the Strauss by concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, returning this season after a couple of years' health leave. The Globe reviewer liked it.

BSO — 2013/09/26-10/01

This week's concert has but a single work: Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection." For a brief description, with links to program notes, audio material, and performer info, go to the BSO's performance detail page, where we read:

In the second of his five BSO programs this season, Christoph von Dohnányi leads Gustav Mahler's inspirational Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling, British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Mahler composed this five-movement work over several years, making a number of major changes along the way. The third movement is a setting of "Urlicht," a poem from the volumeDes Knaben Wunderhorn, which was a significant source of texts for Mahler's songs. The finale's second half is a setting for chorus and soprano of Klopstock's poem Resurrection, which Mahler had heard sung at the funeral of his colleague Hans von Bülow.

The pre-concert material on Classical New England begins at 7:00, with the concert itself at 8:00. See also their BSO page for their own links and info.

There was also a rave review of the Thursday performance in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The reviewer also noted that the concert actually began at 8:09, and that there was a five minute pause between the first and second movements (which, it turns out, Mahler called for in the score).

BSO — 2013/09/21-24

This is the opening concert of the Boston Symphony's 2013-2014 season. It's an all-Brahms program, which will probably appeal to many listeners. Here's what the performance detail page tells us:

To open the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2013-14 subscription season, revered German-born conductor Christoph von Dohnányi is joined by violinist Augustin Hadelich in his BSO subscription series debut and cellist Alban Gerhardt for Johannes Brahms's Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra, the composer's final orchestra work. Brahms's Symphony No. 2 dates from the previous decade. Composed relatively quickly after the composer's long-awaited First, the lilting No. 2 is generally regarded as the most genial and relaxed of Brahms's four works in the genre. Opening Night includes a pre-concert reception at 7PM.

The page, linked above, provides further links to audio previews and to the program notes from the program booklet. In addition, there are brief bios of the musicians which you can see by brining your cursor over their pictures, and complete official bios by clicking on said pix.

As usual, it will be broadcast and streamed virtually live by Classical New England. The official starting time is 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Beginning at 7:00 they have pre-concert features, consisting mostly of music composed by the evening's composer or performed by the evening's performers. They also have a page of their own devoted to the BSO broadcasts with the season schedule and links to their own related material.

Last year they rebroadcast/streamed the concerts at 1:00 p.m. on the Sunday 8 days later. I don't notice anything about it right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do so again. I'd be disappointed if they don't, but so far it isn't included in the regular weekly schedule page.

Classical New England — 2013/09/14

This evening's placeholder in the regular BSO slot on Classical New England http://www.wgbh.org/995/ is this summer's August 6 "Tanglewood on Parade" concert. There's some information at the CNE home page. Also, see their BSO page — http://www.wgbh.org/995/bso.cfm — for a bit more about is, as well as a brief preview of the upcoming season of the BSO and other links. There is more about this concert in my post for the weekend of the concert. The program this evening begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston time.

As noted on CNE's BSO page, the regular BSO season begins on Sept. 21. I presume* that they'll have their pre-concert show at 7:00, with the concert scheduled for 8:00. (It never actually starts before 8:05 — a courtesy to patrons who hit a slight delay getting there, I suppose.)

* When I presume, I make a pres. of u and me.