Tanglewood — 2024/07/20-21

 This evening we get Wagner at his most tedious (except for Siegfried's funeral march) and tomorrow we get interesting, beautiful, and popular selections. First, here's WCRB telling us about this evening:

Saturday, July 20, 2024
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and an all-star cast, featuring soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Michael Weinius, in the epic conclusion of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, Act III of Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried)
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen)
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, Catherine Martin (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdamerung, Act III

The BSO performance detail page has this to say:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
John Matsumoto Giampietro, staging coordinator
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried) |
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen) 
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, and Annie Rosen (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdämmerung, Act III

Sung in German with English Supertitles

Please note that there is no intermission in this concert. Duration is about 90 minutes.

Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a masterpiece of art that weaves a fabric of passion, beauty, betrayal, tragedy, and redemption into the tapestry of myth and legend, all set to some of the most stirring, powerful music ever composed.

Join Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and an all-star cast for the peerless conclusion of Wagner’s massive, epic opera Götterdämmerung.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by Rabbis Rachel Hertzman and Rex Perlmeter.

The program note tries to give the whole story of the Ring cycle, which is probably necessary to understand the action of tonight's show. Unfortunately, they don't give the actual text. You'll have to find that for yourself somehow if you want it.

When i say "Wagner at his most tedious," I mean the whole Ring cycle is pretty tedious, but "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung" are especially so in my personal opinion — along with "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal." Opinions may vary. Maybe you'll like it. But one evening I was listening to the whole opera and was nearly jolted out of my chair by the beginning of the funeral march. You'll recognize it if you listen.

Then we come to Sunday evening's broadcast of the afternoon concert of the Tanglewood Center Orchestra (not the BSO). Again WCRB gives the outline:

Sunday, July 21, 2024
7:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’s Three Places in New England. Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a musically complex work that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Charles IVES Three Places in New England
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Richard STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

See also the BSO performance detail page for the links to the program notes (especially the Ives) and this overall description:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Emanuel Ax, piano

IVES Three Places in New England 
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Intermission
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work of intense emotionality and complex musicality that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’ palatial Also sprach Zarathustra, and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’ textured Three Places in New England, which tells three very different stories of historic events and landmarks throughout the region.

The 2024 Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert is supported by generous endowments established in perpetuity by Dr. Raymond and Hannah H. Schneider, and Diane H. Lupean

 Ives is kind of "quirky" and maybe not your proverbial cup of metaphorical tea, but I've become fascinated with much of his stuff, and I definitely want to hear the "Three Places in New England" again. With the Beethoven and Strauss, we're in a more familiar musical style. (I could do without the Strauss, but that's just me. Most concert-goers seem to like it.)

So give it all a try, despite my negativity. I'll be listening.

Tanglewood — 2024/07/19

 This evening's Tanglewood concert consists of two symphonies, one with piano and one without. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Friday, July 19, 2024
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name, featuring piano soloist Conrad Tao. The concert closes with Brahms’s dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3, which explores the happiness—and—loneliness of freedom.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

The BSO performance detail page gives a slightly longer introduction to the concert and has links to performer bios and to program notes for the pieces on the program.

Boston Symphony Orchestra 
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor 
Conrad Tao, piano

BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
-Intermission-
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name. The music's shape is meant to closely mirror the poem, which tells the story of four young strangers who meet in a bar during WWII. Young virtuoso Conrad Tao joins as the piano soloist for Bernstein.

Also on the program, Brahms’ dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3 explores the ideas of freedom, happiness, and loneliness.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by R. Martin Chavez.

I'm curious to hear the Bernstein.

I'l give previews of the Saturday and Sunday concerts later (maybe this evening, maybe tomorrow).

Tanglewood — 2024/07/13-14

 I didn't get a chance to include last evening's concert in this post. Here's what we have to look forward to today and tomorrow.

Here's WCRB's synopsis of tonight's concert:

    Saturday, July 13, 2024

8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons conducts a Boston Symphony program that includes Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, with soloist Yuja Wang, as well as two pieces by Duke Ellington and Carlos Simon’s “Warmth from Other Suns.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

Carlos SIMON Warmth from Other Suns, for string orchestra
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
Duke ELLINGTON Three Black Kings

    ELLINGTON A Tone Parallel to Harlem 

 

If you want to read up on the music, here's a link to the BSO's performance detai page, which has links to the program notes for the various pieces: https://www.bso.org/events/bso-simon-beethoven-featuring-yuja-wang?performance=2024-07-13-20:00

For Sunday, here's the program, per WCRB:

Sunday, July 14, 2024
7:00 PM

Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in a Boston Symphony concert led by Andris Nelsons that also features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light, a meditation on “perseverance, bravery, and alliance.”

Sunday, July 14, 2024
7:00 PM

Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in a Boston Symphony concert led by Andris Nelsons that also features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light, a meditation on “perseverance, bravery, and alliance.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin

Sarah KIRKLAND SNIDER Forward into Light 
Sergei PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 2
Antonín DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7

Here's the linkf or the performance detail page forr Sunday: https://www.bso.org/events/snider-prokofiev-dvorak?performance=2024-07-14-14:30

Note the earlier start time on Sunday.

Some of this is familiar and should be very good. Some of it is new and unfamiliar, so your guess is as good as mine. Enjoy what you can.

Tanglewood — 2024/07/05-07

 The BSO is back live at Tanglewood this weekend and WCRB is bringing us the concerts from the Music Shed as in previous years. Here's what we have to look forward to this weekend.

Here's WCRB's synopsis of tonight's concert:

Friday, July 5, 2024
8:00 PM

The 2024 Tanglewood season kicks off with a romantic tour de force: an all-Beethoven program headlined by violinist Gil Shaham in the composer’s Violin Concerto. Andris Nelsons also leads the BSO in the Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica” Symphony, an emotionally expansive piece that redefined what a symphony was by transforming the heroic journey into symphonic form.

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Gil Shaham, violin

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 3 Eroica

Clearly, this is a program worth hearing. I'll listen to this rather than the Red Sox game.

Tomorrow it will be the Boston Pops, rather than the BSO. Of course, there is considerable overlap in the rosters of the organizations. WCRB tells us:

Saturday, July 6, 2024
8:00 PM

Keith Lockhart leads the Pops and a cast of Broadway superstars in selections from such Tony-winning musicals as Hamilton, In the Heights, The Light in the Piazza, Kimberly Akimbo, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, The Band's Visit, and Dear Evan Hansen.

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Victoria Clark
Mandy Gonzalez
Joshua Henry
Darius de Haas
Bryce Pinkham
Scarlett Strallen
Jason Danieley, director
Georgia Stitt, music supervisor

Broadway Today!: Broadway’s Modern Masters

I'm not familiar with this music. Doubtless it will be very good, but I just might listen to the Sox instead.

On Sunday we get an "encore broadcast," described as follows by our friends at WCRB:

Sunday, July 7, 2024
7:00 PM

Christina and Michelle Naughton are the soloists in Poulenc’s firecracker Concerto for Two Pianos, and Earl Lee leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and “Pulse,” by Brian Raphael Nabors.

Earl Lee, conductor
Christina and Michelle Naughton, pianos

Brian Raphael NABORS Pulse
Francis POULENC Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, Scottish

This concert was originally broadcast on August 5, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear an interview with Christina and Michelle Naughton, recorded at Symphony Hall in October 2021. https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2021-10-05/twin-dynamism-with-the-naughton-sisters

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

This is a bit of a surprise, since there is a live concert (all Strauss) on Sunday afternoon with the BSO and Renee Fleming under the baton of Andris Nelsons. But the rebroadcast should be good. For whatever reason, WCRB isn't telling us yet what they plan to do next week. While they play it close to the vest, we'll just have to wait and see if this is going to be normal operating procedure (I hope not.) or what our British cousins call a one off.

At any rste they're following their pattern from past years of broadcasting the Friday and Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m. and delaying the 2:30 Sunday concert to 7:00 p.m. Lenox Time.

BSO — 2024/05/04

 The Symphony Hall subscription season ends with "Roméo et Juliette" by Hector Berlioz. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, May 4, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, May 13

To close the 2023-2024 Boston Symphony season, Andris Nelsons leads one of Hector Berlioz’s most beloved works, Roméo et  Juliette. Berlioz described his the piece as a “symphony with choruses,” with the title characters represented both in the orchestra and through the vocal soloists. 

Andris Nelsons, conductor
J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
John Relyea, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Hector BERLIOZ Roméo et Juliette

Apparently there is no interview with any of the artists, but that's probably not needed for this concert. We can visit the BSO performance detail page for more about the piece and links to performer bios and the program notes:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
John Relyea, bass
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor 

BERLIOZ Roméo et Juliette* 

*Sung in French with English supertitle

Friday afternoon's performance by J’Nai Bridges is supported by a gift in loving memory of Alan J. Dworsky.
This week's performances by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.

The works of William Shakespeare deeply influenced composer Hector Berlioz. In fact, it was actress Harriet Smithson’s performances of two great Shakespearean heroines — Ophelia in Hamlet and of Juliet inRomeo and Juliet — that captivated the composer and led to their (ill-fated) marriage. As we close the season, Andris Nelsons leads one of Berlioz’s most successful and vibrant compositions, Roméo et Juliette. Berlioz called his Roméoet Juliette a “symphony with choruses,” highlighting the importance of the orchestra and of the work’s overall form. These performances celebrate the role of French repertoire in the BSO’s rich history; the complete symphony and movements from it were frequently programmed by Pierre Monteux, Serge Koussevitzky, Charles Munch, and Seiji Ozawa. 

The Friday Preview talk on May 3 will begin at 12:15pm. Admission included with ticket.

Thursday's performance will end around 9:10pm, Friday's performance will end around 3:10pm, and Saturday's performance will end around 9:40pm.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have provided the text. I've found this link https://www.opera-arias.com/berlioz/romeo-et-juliette/libretto/english/ at "Berlioz Romeo et Juliette libretto."

The Intelligencer has a descriptive review with no complaints. The review in the Globe was also descriptive, with some minor quibbles.

I don't think I've ever heard the full piece, but the love scene is often played on the radio. Based on that and on my overall liking for Berlioz's music, I think you'll like this one a lot.

P.S. From now until the BSO begins its Tanglewood Season in July, WCRB will fill the Saturday evening time slot with encore broadcasts of some of the concerts from last summer. I may not post something about each one of them, but you can find a listing of what they will offer here: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra  Enjoy!

BSO — 2024/04/27

 This evening's Boston Symphony concert could be challenging or fun, depending on which review you believe. Before we get to the reviews, here's what WCRB says:

Saturday, April 27, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, May 6

BSO Principal Trumpet Thomas Rolfs is the soloist in Detlev Glanert’s Trumpet Concerto, an eclectic, dramatic work commissioned for and premiered by Rolfs in 2019. The concert opens with a new work by one of the greatest living composers, Sofia Gubaidulina’s The Wrath of God, dedicated to Beethoven, and closes with Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4, commissioned by longtime BSO Music Director Serge Koussevitzky for the orchestra’s 50th anniversary in 1931.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Thomas Rolfs, trumpet

Sofia GUBAIDULINA The Wrath of God (American premiere)
Detlev GLANERT Trumpet Concerto
Sergei PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 4

In a preview of Detlev Glanert's Trumpet Concerto, the composer and the soloist, BSO Principal Trumpeter Thomas Rolfs, describe the very personal expressions of emotion, first inspired by Glanert's friend and mentor, composer Oliver Knussen, that are woven throughout the score and through Rolfs's performances. To hear the interview with CRB's Brian McCreath, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Thomas Rolfs, principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony, and Detlev Glanert, the composer

Turning to the BSO's performance detail page, we read the following:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Thomas Rolfs, trumpet 

Sofia GUBAIDULINA The Wrath of God 
Detlev GLANERT Trumpet Concerto
Intermission
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 4, Op. 47 (original version)

Thursday evening’s performance is supported by Hemenway & Barnes LLP.
Thursday evening's performance by Thomas Rolfs is supported by Dr. Kenan E. Sahin and Andrea TN Sahin.
Friday afternoon's concert is supported by the Gilbert Family

The program begins with the American premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s musically and spiritually forceful Wrath of God, a 2019 work dedicated to Beethoven that Andris Nelsons recorded with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is the soloist in Detlev Glanert’s Trumpet Concerto, an eclectic, dramatic work commissioned for and premiered by Rolfs in 2019. The program concludes with Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4, commissioned by longtime BSO music director Serge Koussevitzky for the orchestra’s 50th anniversary in 1931.

As always, there are links to the program notes for each of the pieces, and they could be well worth reading.

The Globe review is lukewarm and suggests that much of the evening's music could be challenging. The Intelligencer's reviewer finds no difficulty in an interesting and enjoyable evening. I guess the only thing to do is listen and decide for ourselves.

BSO — 2024/04/20

 This evening the BSO will give us a couple of pieces from the standard repertory along with one unfamiliar item to open. Here's the summary from WCRB:

Saturday, April 20, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 29

Hilary Hahn returns to Symphony Hall and the Boston Symphony as the soloist in the Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms. The program, led by Andris Nelsons, also includes Mozart’s charming, lesser-known Symphony No. 33 and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s orchestrally imaginative Archora, inspired by the primordial energy of her Icelandic homeland.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Hilary Hahn, violin

Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Archora 
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Symphony No. 33
Johannes BRAHMS Violin Concerto

To hear a preview of Brahms's Violin Concerto with Hilary Hahn, as well as her reflections of her #100daysofpractice Instagram series, use the player above and read the transcript below.

Hear more from Hilary Hahn, with Jeremy Siegel, on GBH's Morning Edition.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Hilary Hahn, who has returned to the Boston Symphony for the Violin 

The BSO performance detail page has the following overall description:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Hilary Hahn, violin 

Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Archora
MOZART Symphony No. 33
Intermission
BRAHMS Violin Concerto

[…]

Opening the program is Wolfgang Mozart’s charming Symphony No. 33, followed by Anna Thorvaldsdottir's monumental work Archora, a recording of which was named among the best of 2023 by the Boston Globe, New York Times, and NPR. Closing the program, international star Hilary Hahn is soloist in one of the greatest works in the repertoire: Brahms’s Violin Concerto. Brahms composed this rich, lyrical work in 1878 for, and with the advice of, his friend Joseph Joachim, a towering virtuoso of the age. 

The program notes are all linked, and could be interesting previews.

The program wasn't part of my subscription, so I can't give you any personal impressions. The review in the Globe was favorable and gives an encouraging overview of the Thorvaldsdottir piece. The Intelligencer is also favorable, with a more detailed description of the Thorvaldsdottir.

All in all, this semms like a concert worth hearing.

BSO — 2024/04/13

 A single work makes up this evening's concert, as WCRB tells us:

Saturday, April 13, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 22

French composer Olivier Messiaen was famously synesthetic, “hearing” colors as harmony and seeing colors in sound. Turangalîla-symphonie summed up the composer’s passions for nature, birdsong, Catholicism, Eastern philosophy and music, and romantic love as embodied in the legend of Tristan and Isolde. Andris Nelsons conducts, Yuja Wang plays the work’s substantial piano part, and Cécile Lartigau performs the rarely heard ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument invented in 1925.

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Yuja Wang, piano 
Cécile Lartigau, ondes Martenot 

Olivier MESSIAEN Turangalîla-symphonie

Here's the link to the BSO performance detail page,where you can follow the link to the program note. Messiaen's own description of the parts which is there may help. They summarize:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Yuja Wang, piano 
Cécile Lartigau, ondes Martenot

MESSIAEN Turangalîla-symphonie

French composer Olivier Messiaen was famously synesthetic, “hearing” colors as harmony and seeing colors in sound. The Turangalîla-symphonie summed up the composer’s passions for nature, birdsong, Catholicism, Eastern philosophy, music, and romantic love as embodied in the legend of Tristan and Isolde; in this concert, Andris Nelsons leads this work that the BSO premiered in 1949 under Leonard Bernstein’s baton. The brilliant Yuja Wang takes on the work’s hefty piano part and Cécile Lartigau performs on the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. Turangalîla was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky. 

There are favorable reviews in the Globe and in the Intelligencer.

I hadn't really expected to enjoy it yesterday, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is pretty cacophonous at times, but not terribly off-putting; and there are calm passages as well. So I recommend giving it a try. I'll be listening this evening and again on the 22nd if I'm free.

BSO — 2024/04/06

 Tonight the BSO gives a program I don't care much about, but you may find it interesting. Here's the scoop from WCRB's webpage:

Saturday, April 6, 2024
8:00pm

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 15

The first program in the BSO’s Music for the Senses festival centers on Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire, in which the composer depicts the evolution of human consciousness. Also on the program are Anna Clyne’s Color Field, inspired in part by the vibrancy of the Mark Rothko 1961 painting Orange, Red, Yellow, Richard Wagner’s ecstatic Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Franz Liszt’s Prometheus.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Anna CLYNE Color Field
Richard WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Franz LISZT Prometheus
Alexander SCRIABIN Prometheus, Poem of Fire, for piano, color organ, chorus, and orchestra

To hear a preview of Scriabin's Prometheus, Poem of Fire with pianist Yefim Bronfman, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Sym

You'll note that apart from the opening piec, it's all pre WWI music.

As always, we get more from the BSO's performance detail page:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Yefim Bronfman, piano 
Anna Gawboy, lighting research
Justin Townsend, lighting designer
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor

Anna CLYNE Color Field 
WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Intermission
LISZT Prometheus 
SCRIABIN Prometheus, Poem of Fire, for piano, color organ, chorus, and orchestra

This week's performances by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.

A program of color: It opens with Anna Clyne’s Color Field, inspired in part by the vibrancy of a Mark Rothko painting. Followed by Richard Wagner’s ecstatic Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, and Franz Liszt’s Prometheus. The program closes with Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire. When Alexander Scriabin wrote Prometheus, Poem of Fire, he conceived of a “light organ” that would project colors corresponding to his music. Prometheuspremiered in 1911 with future BSO Music Director Serge Koussevitzky, whose 150th birthday year we celebrate in 2024.

See the linked program notes for more information about each piece.

The review in the Intelligencer tells about what went on with the colors, but the reviewer was not very pleased with the perforance, especially the Wagner. The Globe was tepid.

I'll probably have a lie-down with the radio on while this plays, and loook forward to hearing the rebroadcast on April 15.