BSO — 2014/02/14-16

Tonight, tonight won't be just any night./
Tonight they play "West Side Story."

That's right, folks: under the baton of David Newman the orchestra will be accompanying the movie. The performance detail page, with its links to notes and spoken audio, explains further:

Experience a thrilling new presentation of this iconic film and winner of ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The Boston Symphony plays Leonard Bernstein's electrifying score live, while the newly re-mastered film is shown on large screens in high definition with the original vocals and dialogue intact.  This classic romantic tragedy, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is one of the greatest achievements in the history of movie musicals. It features Robbins' breath-taking choreography and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman based on the masterful book by Arthur Laurents.

(Emphasis added.)

One is entitled to wonder why. Not having heard the audio podcasts, I'm guessing that they thought it would fill the seats for St. Valentine's Day weekend. I truly wish them well, even though I'm not very interested. Of course listeners via radio or internet won't see the screen, but I gather we'll hear the sounds of the movie, including the singing, along with the live orchestra.

Since they did not do the show on Thursday — instead there's a Sunday matinee, so there's still time to go see it if you live around here — I can't offer an opinion as to how good it was. I can't find a review in the Globe, either, although they offered a preview, focusing mainly on Marni Nixon, whose voice was used in the movie in place of Natalie Wood.

As usual, you can hear it live over Classical New England's radio station or webstream, beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, but tonight, tonight will be the only night you can listen on the air. There will not be a rebroadcast on February 24, or any other time. I'm not sure whether it'll be available over the web on demand; I wouldn't count on it, but you can always try. Their BSO page has a link to an interview with the conductor, and the usual information about future broadcasts.

BSO — 2014/02/06-08

Bernard Haitink is back to conduct a second week of concerts (again with no performance on the following Tuesday). Let's see what the orchestra says about it on their performance detail page.

BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink is joined by revered American pianist Murray Perahia for the powerful and lyrical Piano Concerto of Robert Schumann. Schumann wrote this piece over several years. Schumann's protégé Johannes Brahms waited until his forties to complete a first symphony, but all four of his works in the genre remain central to the orchestral repertoire. In characteristic understatement, Brahms downplayed the intense, minor-mode Fourth. Opening the program is a wind ensemble re-composition, created by the American, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky of the 17th-century Englishman Henry Purcell's funeral music for Queen Mary.

(Emphasis added)
Visit that page for the usual links to various types of background material.

I was in the hall for the Thursday performance, and I found the Stucky arrangement of the Purcell delightful. I'm not so familiar with 17th Century Music that I could have been sure that it was a modern arrangement: it simply sounded like baroque music to me. The favorable reviews in the Boston Globe and in the Boston Musical Intelligencer both picked up on the line in the program note which said that in  the third episode, "Stucky uses sustaining instruments—piano and metallic pitched percussion—as well as added chromaticism and multiple tempos to “smear” the surface of the music, giving it a kind of mysterious glow." I was looking for it and didn't detect the smearing and the glow, but the reviewers found it. I guess that's why they write reviews for publication and I don't; but I can't help wondering if they'd have noticed it if the program note hadn't said it was there. At any rate, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to listening to this evening's broadcast. Maybe I'll get the smearing and the glow, but even if not, it will be good. The Schumann was pleasant enough as well. As for the Brahms, I will have no comment, because I avoided it by leaving at intermission. I find Brahms's orchestral music unpleasant — too forced-seeming, as if the musicians are straining to push it out — and with too much dissonance. The early works don't share those qualities. Several years ago James Levine led the orchestra in a performance of Brahms' Serenade No. 2, and it was delightful. But I know most people don't find most Brahms so unpleasant, so don't let me dissuade you from listening to the second half of the concert.

As always, Classical New England is your headquarters for the broadcast and webstream over WCRB. The concert is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Boston Time. There are indications that they begin programming for the concert with preliminaries at 7:00, but the past few times I've listened, I haven't heard references to the upcoming concert in the 7-8:00 hour. They have their own BSO page, as I always note, with links to material about this concert and earlier ones and the schedule of upcoming concerts. The rebroadcast/stream will be on Feb. 17th at 8:00 p.m. EST, and it will also be available on demand, as noted in that page.

This is music I think most people will like. Enjoy!

BSO — 2014/01/30–02/02

This week it's all Ravel with the BSO. On the orchestra's performance detail page, in addition to links to program notes, audio previews, and performer bios, we get the following detail about the performance:

BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads two consecutive weeks of concerts this season, beginning with an all-Ravel program featuring the dazzling mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as soloist in the atmospheric orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade. The composer's Spanish-tinged, pictorial Alborada del graciosoopens the program, and the work Ravel considered his best, the complete "symphonie choréographique" Daphnis and Chloé, concludes it. Ravel wrote this cornerstone of musical impressionism for the famous Ballets Russes, which gave the premiere in Paris in 1912.

(Underlining added)
I'm not sure why they neglect to mention that the Tanglewood Festival Chorus sings (wordlessly) in the "Daphnis and Chloé," as always, from memory.

Thursday's concert was favorably reviewed in the Boston Musical Intelligencer and had a mixed review (okay, but they've done better) in the Boston Globe. I'm not enough of a musician, musicologist, or aficionado of these pieces to be able to offer an opinion on the niceties of the performances. I can say that I thought the prominent instrumental solos were impressive and that the Ms. Graham's singing had no apparent flaws. Unfortunately for me, though, I just don't like Ravel very much. The opening "Alborada" was boisterous and amusing in light of the inappropriateness of the style to the presumed situation in which it would be performed (as recounted in the program note). So that was enjoyable. "Shéhérazade," although beautifully sung, was nothing really impressive to my personal taste. Worst of all — and again, this is just me — I found "Daphnis and Chloé," in my grandmother's word, "boresome." By the time it was about half over, I was completely ready for it to be done. Sitting, as I was, in an aisle seat in a back row, adjacent to a door, I actually considered slipping out rather than sitting through the tedium to the end. But I was polite and stayed and stayed until it was finally over. If it appears on the program again, I'll know enough to avoid it. But you might like it. As Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said about a book whose author asked him to recommend it, "It will be greatly enjoyed by all who like this sort of thing." So give it a try. Most people like Ravel.

As usual, it will be broadcast and streamed over Classical New England/WCRB beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time (= Eastern Standard), and repeated on February 10 at 8:00 p.m. On February 3, the repeat will be of last week's Wagner/Lutosławski/Shostakovich concert. Check out CNE's BSO page for the season broadcast schedule and links of various sorts.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2014/01/23-25

This week's concert presents works by Wagner, Lutosławski, and Shostakovich. Here's what the BSO's performance detail page says about it.

For his first full BSO subscription concerts, Latvian BSO Assistant Conductor Andris Poga is joined by eminent American pianist Garrick Ohlsson for the great Polish composer Witold Lutosłaswki's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, a rhapsodic work from 1988. Its only previous performances by the BSO were led by the composer himself at Symphony Hall in October 1990. Opening the program is Wagner's boisterous overture to his early opera Rienzi, composed partly in Poga's hometown of Riga, Latvia, and premiered in 1842 in Dresden. Shostakovich's utterly characteristic final symphony, No. 15, closes the program. The Russian composer wrote this big piece in 1971.

Emphasis added.

See that page also for the usual links to background material.

I was at the Friday matinee and really enjoyed it. In the first place, the Rienzi overture is a stirring piece of music which I am always happy to hear. The BSO at one time frequently began its concerts with a "curtain raiser," often an opera overture or concert overture. Recently these brief starters for the concert have become less common, but I think they are a good way to begin. The Lutosławski concerto was performed in substitution for the originally programmed world premiere of the piano concerto by Justin Dello Joio, which the BSO  had commissioned. Apparently it wasn't completed in time to be rehearsed and presented at these concerts. The Lutosławski was not unpleasant to listen to, although it seemed kind of disjointed. After intermission, the Shostakovich symphony was quite enjoyable (with quotes from the William Tell Overture in the first movement, and the "fate" motive from Wagner's Ring Cycle in the fourth, and a wonderful conclusion featuring unusual percussion). There were numerous solos or duets from various instruments, and the composer did a good job of quieting the orchestral accompaniment so that they could be clearly heard. All seemed very ably performed. The Globe's review was largely positive.

As usual, you can listen in to the Saturday evening performance (8:00 p.m., Boston Time) on Classical New England. It will be broadcast and streamed again on February 3, again at 8:00 p.m. Also as usual, CNE's page devoted to the BSO has a link to an interview with the conductor, a schedule of the remaining BSO concerts this season (including a reminder that last week's Mozart/Bruckner concert will be rebroadcast/streamed on January 27), and various other links.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2014/01/16-18

It's Mozart and Bruckner this week. More from the BSO performance detail page, where you also get the links to performer bio (click on the photo) and links to audio previews and program notes:

German conductor-pianist Christoph Eschenbach returns as both soloist and conductor for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, a work of chamber-musical understatement and surpassing elegance that Mozart wrote for his own Vienna performances in late 1782. On the other end of the symphonic scale is Bruckner's magisterial Symphony No. 9, a work left incomplete (in just three movements) at the composer's death in 1896. This cathedral-like symphony shows the continuing influence of Wagner in its harmonic language and scope, with the particular Austrian lyricism and gift for counterpoint for which Bruckner was known.

(Emphasis added)

I was there for the Thursday performance and was figuratively blown away by the Mozart. It may be partly the heightened attention in the hall, but it was as if there were parts of the concerto I'd never heard before. I think it's at least in part because of the performance itself. I tried to get a standing ovation going for Eschenbach, but everybody else waited for the Bruckner.  The Globe reviewer also found it remarkable. He and I were also pleased with the Bruckner. It was very satisfying, although I'll confess that maybe I hadn't got enough sleep the night before or taken a long enough nap that afternoon, because toward the end I became somewhat dozey.

You can hear for yourself with the concert broadcast/webstream over Classical New England beginning at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, with the encore on January 27, also at 8:00 As with the other concerts, it will also be available on line for on demand listening. There's an interview with the maestro as well as a performance by him and oboist Keisuke Wakao of the BSO linked on CNE's BSO page.

Enjoy.

BSO — 2014/01/09-11

This week Robert Spano leads a few members of the Boston Symphony and several other ensembles in Alejandro Golijov's Pasión según San Marcos. Go to the BSO performance detail page for links to background material and an interview with the composer. They describe it as follows:

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano, whose ties to the BSO go back two decades, returns to lead a work given its United States premiere by the BSO under his direction in 2001-Osvaldo Golijov's La Pasión según San Marcos("The Passion According to St. Mark"). The Jewish, Latin American-raised Golijov was one of four composers from different religious and musical traditions asked to compose a Passion setting to mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death and the end of the second millennium. Golijov's vibrant, immediate, pan-Latin American approach draws on multiple musical and Christian traditions in presenting this universal narrative. The BSO is joined by a cast of stylistically diverse performers central to the original creation of this remarkable piece.

I was there for the Thursday performance. I found that the loud percussion and Latin rhythms were at times a distraction from the actual meaning of the text. Others who are more accustomed to that style of music may find it easier to relate to. But there were definite moments of beauty as well, especially a couple of soprano arias: one as Jesus at the Last Supper and the other as Peter weeping over his betrayal of Jesus. Much is made of the fact that the composer is Jewish, but I saw nothing in the text or the music to give the work the character of "a Jew looks at the Passion according to Mark," except the final piece, which is a setting of an Aramaic translation of the mourner's Kaddish — which is perfectly appropriate at that point, and could even have been thought of by a Christian composer.

Anyway, it seems a straightforward, if spectacular,  presentation, in Latin American musical forms, of the St. Mark Passion. The Globe review was more factual than opinionated — certainly finding no real fault. IMO it's worth hearing. It would be very worthwhile to listen to the podcast linked on the BSO performance detail page and to read the program notes in advance. I haven't been able to locate the full text online, but if you can find it, that would also be good to have.

As usual, the performance can be heard over Classical New England, beginning at 8:00 p.m., with preliminary show at 7:00, a rebroadcast/stream on January 20 at 8:00, Boston time, and on demand availability thereafter. Check out their BSO page for a link to another interview with the composer.

Classical New England — 2014/01/04

For the last Saturday before the Boston Symphony resume their concerts, Classical New England has decided to repeat a concert from last summer's Tanglewood season, specifically, August 17, 2013. As they put it:

In an encore from the 2013 Tanglewood season, soprano Camilla Tilling joins the BSO for the Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler, and Isabelle Faust is the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, with conductor Bernard Haitink.

(Emphasis added)

Their BSO page, in addition to the above, has their schedule for the rest of the BSO's season, including rebroadcasts, and other links. The BSO's own performance detail page has links to program notes.

Classical New England — 2013/12/28 & New Year's Day

My apologies for getting so distracted by other things that I didn't get around to posting about what was being offered last Saturday. I hope you found it on your own, if you were interested. Of course, I realize that you can listen to the broadcasts or webstreams whenever you want. I offer these posts as a way of giving a little preview and reminder which I hope will encourage you to listen, and at least help you decide whether you want to do so or not.

This week, on December 28, Classical New England is giving us a New England Conservatory performance of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and other Christmas pieces at 7:00 p.m. At 8:00 they will offer a repeat of a concert which took place last summer* at Tanglewood: Symphony No. 3 by  Mahler under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Here's a bit more detail from the station's Holiday Specials page:

Saturday, Dec. 28

7pm: A Centennial Ceremony of Carols: A Benjamin Britten Holiday Celebration

We mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the renowned British composer Benjamin Britten through his Ceremony of Carols and other holiday works, as well as traditional carols arranged by Sir David Willcocks, all performed by the NEC Chamber Chorus, led by Erica Washburn.

8pm: Boston Symphony Orchestra: Sound the Posthorn!

We ring out the old year by revisiting one of the highlights of the 2013 Tanglewood season: Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, with mezzo-soprano Ann-Sophie von Otter, the PALS Children's Chorus and the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

* Here's a link to what I wrote at the time. It, in turn, contains a link to the BSO's performance detail page for the concert.


You can find other programming between now and January 5 listed on the same page as the description of December 28. It also lists all the concerts and programs of the Christmas — and Hanukkah — season which are now available on line for on demand listening. There's a lot, and a good variety. Follow the link.


On New Year's Day, continuing a long-standing tradition, at 11:00 a.m. they will broadcast and stream the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day Concert. Music of Johann Strauss is always a large part of the program. Then at 3:00 p.m., something new this year, I think — a New Year's Day concert by Boston Baroque. Each will be repeated in the evening. Once more, a quote from their page:

Wednesday, Jan. 1

11am: New Year's Day from Vienna

Direct from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, it’s the most popular classical music concert in the world! Laura Carlo hosts this national broadcast, produced by WCRB, as Daniel Barenboim leads the annual celebration concert by the Vienna Philharmonic.

3pm: Boston Baroque's Gala First Day Concert

Champagne, Concertos…and Coffee! Join us for a Boston New Year’s Tradition, now shared with the nation! Martin Pearlman leads Boston Baroque, now in its 40th Anniversary Season as America’s oldest “period-instrument” orchestra in a festive All-Bach New Year’s Day concert, live from Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square.

5pm: encore of New Year's Day from Vienna

10pm: encore of Boston Baroque's Gala First Day Concert

Happy listening!

Since this is probably my last post of the year, I want to wish my readers a New Year that is happy in every possible way, as well as to express Christmas greetings, with the hope that Christmas Day was merry and that the joy of the celebration is continuing through the twelve days (and beyond if your Christmastide extends to the celebration of the Lord's Baptism or even to Candlemas). Joy to you all!

Classical New England — 2013/12/14

This week's offering from Classical New England in their regular Boston Symphony time period, beginning at 7:00 p.m. this evening, is a rebroadcast of a Tanglewood concert in which Leon Fleisher is soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The orchestra also plays the Siegfried Idyll by Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, all under the baton of Kazushi Ono. You can get links to an interview with Leon Fleisher, the schedule for future Saturday evenings this season, and other items at the station's BSO page.

This concert was given on July 12, 2013, and my post about it at the time is here. I'm happy to note that the BSO performance detail page which I linked at the time is still up at this point, and the links on that page are still working — including more program notes than were there when I originally posted.

Classical New England — 2013/12/07

With the Boston Pops taking over from the Boston Symphony for December, there will be no live symphony broadcasts until January 11, 2014. Rather than give us the same "Holiday Pops" concert four weeks in a row (followed by some filler on January 4), Classical New England is filling the slots with various Christmas programs and other things. There are also other special programs during the month. Here's a link to the page that lists them all. You can see for yourself, but here's what they say about this evening:

Saturday, Dec. 7

7pm: A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico

The award-winning choir from London pays a visit to St. Paul's Church in Harvard Square for a concert of radiant sacred music for the Christmas season.

Note that the programming this evening starts at 7:00, like the regular pre-concert programming, not at 8:00 like the BSO concerts themselves.

So far I don't see anything to tell us about January 4, but I'm guessing that, like December 28, it'll be a rerun of some earlier BSO concert. Also, on Monday, December 9 at 8:00 p.m., we get the repeat of the BSO concert of November 30 with Brahms and Beethoven.

And there is the ongoing Winter Orgy®Period on WHRB, which I noted in the preceding post.