BSO/Classical New England — 2020/03/28

This week's concert is an "encore presentation" of the all-Wagner concert of April 7,  2018. The performance detail page had this to say about it:

Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is a hymn to the intense spirituality that accompanies transcendent earthly love. Musically and operatically innovative, it remains a watershed in the history of music; to hear its music live is an unforgettable experience. Andris Nelsons leads an outstanding cast of singers-including the great German tenor Jonas Kaufmann (taking the role of Tristan for the very first time) and the acclaimed Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund-in Act II of the opera, in which the title characters come together under the spell of a love potion, only to be discovered by King Marke, Tristan's uncle and lord, to whom Isolde is betrothed. The concert opens with one of Wagner's few purely instrumental works still heard today, the Siegfried Idyll, which he composed in 1869 and had performed as a surprise birthday gift for his wife Cosima. The "Siegfried" of the title is the couple's son, born the previous June, though Wagner later incorporated some of the Idyll's music into the third of his Ring operas, Siegfried.

(Some emphasis added.)

The reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer are mildly unenthusiastic about Nylund and Kaufmann's performances. Still, it's a chance to hear them sing the roles for the first time anywhere.

As I've commented before, I generally find Wagner's writing for singers dull and uninteresting (after "Flying Dutchman, that is), while the orchestral music can be quite enjoyable. So I won't be terribly disappointed to have my brother's phone call from Japan take me away from most of the operatic performance. Based on the reviews, though, it would be good to be through in time to hear King Marke's monologue toward the end. And the Siegfried Idyll, which opens the show is pleasant listening.

You can hear it and decide for yourself by listening to WCRB tonight at 8:00, Boston Time. The usual rebroadcast  — on the second Monday following the concert — won't happen. They're giving a different BSO concert every evening except Sunday for the next three weeks. Check the website for details.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/03/21

The BSO has unsurprisingly cancelled the rest of their season, and WCRB has decided to give us BSO concerts six nights a week, beginning on Monday, March 23.. (They have other programming on Sunday evenings, which you might like to check out.) They will be presenting encore broadcasts of concerts conducted by Music Director Andris Nelsons. There's a link on their homepage. While this evening's concert is not listed as part of the series, it is de facto as they present the concert of March 31, 2014.

I posted about it at the time. The performance detail page has this description:

Andris Nelsons leads the American premiere of Partita, a new work co-commissioned by the BSO and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig from esteemed German composer Jörg Widmann, whose powerful Trauermarschfor piano and orchestra was performed by Maestro Nelsons and the BSO with Yefim Bronfman in the fall of 2016. To conclude this program, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and BSO principal violist Steven Ansell are spotlighted in Richard Strauss's picaresque tour-de-force Don Quixote, a tone poem whose episodes illustrate scenes from Cervantes' famous novel. Opening these concerts is Mozart's brief, rarely performed Symphony No. 23, written in 1773 when he was just seventeen.

(Some emphasis added.)

The links to the reviews in the Boston Globe and the Boston Musical Intelligencer still work. On WCRB's page about the concert there are links to an audio interview of Yo-Yo Ma and Brian McCreath, and a video of Ma and Andris Nelsons talking about "Don Quixote."

You can hear it over WCRB this evening at 8:00, Boston Time. Enjoy!

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/03/14

My apologies for not posting about the past two weekends' concerts. I was away on February 29 and too busy with preparations for the trip (a weekend retreat) to make a post. A week ago, basically I got distracted with other activities (shopping, meal preparation, meetings) that I forgot to post.

Last Saturday's concert was worth hearing, so I recommend catching the rebroadcast on March 16 at 8:00 p.m. Boston Time (EDST). It included a recent piece by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a Prokofiev piano concerto, and a Sibelius Symphony. See the performance detail page for more information. There was a favorab;e review in the Intelligencer; the Globe review was mixed.

Now on to the business at hand. The BSO had no concert scheduled this weekend, so WCRB is reaching into their archive to bring us the concert of Saturday, August 18, 2019, at Tanglewood. Here's what they say about it:

Saturday night at 8, in an encore broadcast from the 2019 Tanglewood season, Kirill Gerstein is the soloist in the mighty Piano Concerto No. 2 by Brahms, and François-Xavier Roth leads the BSO in Schumann's Symphony No. 2.

Saturday, March 14, 2020
(encore broadcast Monday, March 23)
8:00 PM

Boston Symphony Orchestra
François-Xavier Roth, conductor
Kirill Gerstein, piano

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2

And here's a link to the performance detail page. It was favorably reviewed in the Globe.

So enjoy.

BTW, the orchestra has cancelled its concerts for the rest of March, so we'll be getting rebroadcasts for (at least) the next two weeks.

BSO — 2020/02/22

And we're back live from Symphony Hall this evening. Here's the description on the orchestra's performance detail page (where you can also find links to background material, as well as a listing of the order in which the works are actually to be performed):

The eminent violinist Pinchas Zukerman conducts this beautifully balanced program, which also features him as soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the composer’s earliest masterpieces, written when he was 19. Richard Strauss’ surprisingly deft, precocious Serenade for 13 winds dates from 1881, when he was only 17. The Bruckner Adagio, played here by string orchestra, is the second movement of his String Quintet, his most substantial piece of chamber music. Concluding these concerts is Haydn’s Symphony No. 49, from 1768, which may be derived from music he wrote for the theater (the nickname was not the composer’s). The BSO’s only previous performances of this piece were in 1979 at Symphony Hall and 1988 at Tanglewood.

(Emphasis added.)

The program was given, without the Bruckner, on Friday evening; and there is a favorable review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. There is nothing yet in the Globe, and I wasn't there last night.

I don't think I've ever heard the pieces by Strauss and Bruckner, but I'm looking forward to hearing them this evening, and of course the Haydn and Mozart are very good. So tune your computer or your radio to WCRB at 8:00 p.m, Boston Time for some good music. They will rebroadcast it on March 2, also at 8:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/15

For the final Saturday before the live BSO subscription concerts resume, WCRB has chosen to present the Tanglewood concert of Saturday, August 10, 2019. The orchestra's performance detail page gives us the basics and links to background information:

The 2019 Tanglewood season will also see the BSO and Tanglewood debut of Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, who leads the orchestra on Saturday, August 10, in Carreño’s Margaritena, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Nikolai Lugansky, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.

(Some emphasis added.)

On their page about the concert, WCRB has a link to an interview with the conductor.

The Boston Globe has a noncommittal review, which I find interesting because it mentions two horn players. I posted a very brief preview back in August.

It should be a pleasant evening this evening at 8:00 and again on February 24 at 8:00 p.m., EST, over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/08

WCRB has picked a good concert from last summer to rebroadcast and stream this evening and again on February 17 at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time. It's the concert that was given on August 4. Yefim Bronfman is piano soloist and Dima Slobodeniouk is conductor the the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto № 3 and Sibelius Symphony № 1. While neither is on my "must listen" list, the concerto is highly regarded, and I like listening to Sibelius. WCRB doesn't seem to have any links to further material on their page about the concert. The BSO's performance detail page is also pretty "bare bones" but it does have links for the performers and the Rachmaninoff concerto.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer did not review the concert. The Globe is favorable, but with reservations — not a rave. I posted a preview, but it adds nothing to what's in this post.

My recommendation on balance: give it a listen if you can. Go to WCRB. As always, the home page links other features.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/02/01

The BSO had scheduled a tour to the Far East. The coronavirus panic has scuttled thos plans, but they have no concerts scheduled in Symphony Hall until February 21, with the next Saturday concert on the 22nd. So WCRB is following their usual procedure of retransmitting past concerts. This evening — and again on Monday, Feb. 10 — it is a concert from last summer at Tanglewood, specifically the concert of August 2, 2019.

Here's WCRB's summary on their BSO page:

Saturday at 8pm in an encore broadcast from the 2019 Tanglewood season, the American violinist is the soloist in Dvorák’s folk-infused Violin Concerto, and Ken-David Masur leads the BSO in the Czech composer's Symphony No. 8.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
(encore broadcast Monday, February 10)
8:00 PM
Recorded August 2, 2019
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
MARTINŮ Memorial to Lidice
DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

Of course Ken-David Masur conducts all three pieces, not just the concluding symphony.

I'm having trouble accessing prior posts, but I'm confident I posted about it back then, and you can find all the usual links for Tanglewood concerts there,

As always, you can listen to it on line or on air at WCRB.

Enjoy!

BSO — 2020/01/25

The Dvořák is a familiar "warhorse." The stuff before the intermission could be interesting. Performance detail says:

Continuing the BSO’s cycle of music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts Rudolf Barshai’s string-orchestra arrangement of the composer’s Eighth String Quartet, Op. 110 (1960), which the composer suggested was his most autobiographical work. (Barshai was an important conductor and champion of Shostakovich’s music; Op. 110a was the first and most important of several arrangements of Shostakovich’s string quartets.) Completing the program are Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Mediation and Dance of Vengeance, a 15-minute concert work excerpted from a 1946 ballet score for the choreographer Martha Graham, and Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony, the most important piece he composed during his years in the U.S., when he was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. The beloved four-movement symphony uses musical elements shared by both North American and Czech folk music

(Some emphasis added.)

It's too late for me to find and link reviews. It's on WCRB this evening and Monday week as usual.

BSO — 2020/01/18

There is new music (pretty good, IMO), familiar Mozart music, and unfamiliar Tchaikovsky music in this week's Boston Symphony concert. The performance detail page (for once listing the pieces in the order they will be performed — now that wasn't so hard, was it?) tells us:

Making his subscription series debut with these concerts, BSO Assistant Conductor Yu-An Chang, who is from Taiwan, leads the world premiere of a new BSO-commissioned work by the prominent Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-sun Lee. Austrian pianist Till Fellner makes his second appearances with the BSO as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, the biggest, most symphonic, and most contrapuntally intricate of his concertos. Compared to his five other symphonies, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 (the nickname “Polish” was not the composer’s own) is rarely performed; the BSO last played it in Symphony Hall in 1995. The symphony is, unusually, in five movements, three of which are strongly dance-oriented.

(All emphasis added.)

The title of the new piece is "Formosan Triptych," and there is plenty of descriptive material available via links from the performance detail page, WCRB, and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.

I couldn't be there on Thursday, but I exchanged my ticket and attended the Friday afternoon performance, which I enjoyed. The "Formosan Triptych" was never unpleasant to listen to. I caught some of what the program notes mention ( e.g., horn player Jason Snider and tuba player Mike Roylance blowing through their instruments), but other things I could only guess at. Even if the criticisms in the Intelligencer are fair, I wasn't at all unhappy with what I heard in the Mozart and Tchaikovsky. BTW, the conductor was very animated, using big, fluid gestures to direct the orchestra.

The review in the Globe expresses dissatisfaction with how the Tchaikovsky was performed, but likes the Mozart. Of course, with a world premiere, a critic is in no position to say they got it wrong, and the reviews are mainly descriptive. As hinted earlier, the Intelligencer's reviewer was dissatisfied with how both the Mozart and Tchaikovsky were performed. On the Intelligencer's front page, you can also find interview articles with Ms. Lee and Mr. Fellner.

I think you'll like this concert, so I recommend listening over WCRB at 8:00, Boston Time, this evening, and again (same time) on Monday, January 27.

BSO — 2020/01/11

This evening the BSO gives us a Francophile's delight (unless your taste in French music runs more to Marc-Antoine Charpentier or Hector Berlioz): a French conductor, a French organist, and three French composers. Details and links are to be found, appropriately, on the orchestra's performance detail page, where we read:

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who first conducted the BSO in spring 2017, returns with an all-French program featuring the debut of the outstanding French organist Thierry Escaich in two works showcasing the Symphony Hall organ. Francis Poulenc described his ambitious 1938 Organ Concerto as being close in intent to his religious music. The concerto was given its American premiere by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops with organist E. Power Biggs in 1941 in Symphony Hall. Closing the program is Camille Saint-Saëns’ popular, exuberant Symphony No. 3, which features the organ as a solo and orchestral instrument. Altinoglu also leads his own orchestral suite of music from Claude Debussy’s uniquely gorgeous and probing operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Thursday concert was part of my subscription, but it was a cold night at the end of a cold snap, and Debussy and Poulenc aren't my favorite composers, and I've heard  the Saint-Saëns several times,so I decided to stay home. The rave reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer tell me that I made a big mistake and that we should all be listening when WCRB broadcasts and streams it live this evening at 8:00 EST. This week they are promising the usual encore broadcast/webstream, on January 20. Check out their website for links to more about the concert, as well as other programming.