BSO — 2023/04/29

WCRB gives us the basics, along with access to an interview with the soloist:

Saturday, April 29, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, May 8

Renowned South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho is the soloist in Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, and Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony in Caroline Shaw’s meditative Punctum and Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Caroline SHAW Punctum
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)

To hear a preview of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with Seong-Jin Cho, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Seong-Jin Cho, the pianist who's back in Boston after a few years, it turns out that you were here in 2020, just before everything got locked down for the pandemic. Seong-Jin Cho, thank you so much for a little bit of your time today.

Seong-Jin Cho My pleasure. It's really great to be back

For more information, we can visit the BSO's performance detail page, and from there we can follow links to the program notes for each piece.

Acclaimed South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho returns to Symphony Hall for Maurice Ravel’s Concerto in G, one of the composer’s final works, which ranges from jazzy energy to poignant lyricism. Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Caroline Shaw’s Punctum, is a meditation on a moment from J.S. Bach. Igor Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Petrushka, the second of his great trilogy for the Ballets Russes company, depicts the hapless living puppet title character in gloriously scored scenes from a carnival fair.

Saturday evening’s performance by Seong-Jin Cho is supported by the Roberta M. Strang Memorial Fund.

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Andris Nelsons, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Caroline SHAW Punctum
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
Intermission
STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)

This wasn't part of my subscription, so I'll be hearing it for the first time along with you. Of course, I've heard the Ravel and Stravinsky on other occasions, and I can recommend them. As for "Punctum," I see it was premiered last summer on July 30 at Tanglewood, but I have no memory of it. The program note doesn't tell us a lot either. There is no review of this concert in either the Globe or the Intelligencer, but a Globe review from last summer has this to say:

Shaw describes her “Punctum,” originally a string quartet but presented on Saturday in a new incarnation for orchestra, as “an exercise in nostalgia” inspired by a moving passage from Roland Barthes’s “Camera Lucida,” in which the author finds a photo of his deceased mother as a child and discovers in its smallest details the essence of her entire adult being. “Punctum” was also inspired by Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” and Shaw plays ingeniously with the idea of tonal harmony as a kind of found object, a photograph of a loved one who has been lost, an artifact that may be savored on its own terms but cannot be separated from the ravages of time. Robust chords drift in and out of focus. Seemingly unified gestures are fractured over the orchestra as a whole. In order to actually see history, Barthes writes, we must stand apart from it. Shaw’s work seems by turns to flout and accentuate that distance from an idealized classical past.

It should be a good concert. Enjoy.

BSO — 2023/04/22

 This evening it's Sibelius, Mozart, Adès, and Sibelius live from Symphony Hall. Here's what we read on WCRB's page about it:

Saturday, April 22, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, May 1

Anne-Sophie Mutter is the soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Thomas Adès’s Air, a work inspired by Sibelius, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Sibelius’s Luonnotar, with soprano Golda Schultz, and Symphony No. 5.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Golda Schultz, soprano
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

SIBELIUS Luonnotar (translation)
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 1
Thomas ADÈS Air, for violin and orchestra
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5

To hear a preview of Thomas Adès's Air with Anne-Sophie Mutter, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Anne-Sophie Mutter, who is back with the Boston Symphony with a couple of pieces. Anne-Sophie, thanks a lot for your time today. I appreciate it.

Anne-Sophie Mutter Great pleasure, Brian.

Brian McCreath We're going to talk about Thomas Adès's Air, this new piece. But first, I want to ask you about Mozart and whether this concerto number one, the Violin Concerto No. 1, is a specific choice to accompany Thomas's piece, or if there's any other particular reason you chose it for this concert.

Anne-Sophie Mutter Yeah. This is a very good question, actually. 

TO go a bit more in depth, here's what you get at the BSO performance detail page (with links to the program notes):

Andris Nelsons leads superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the American premiere of English composer Thomas Adès’ new Sibelius-inspired Air for violin and orchestra, a BSO co-commission written for Mutter. In her BSO debut, the young South African soprano Golda Schultz sings Jean Sibelius’ Luonnotar, a dramatic tone poem with voice based on Finnish creation myth. Though his Fifth Symphony was an enormous success at its 1915 premiere, Sibelius extensively revised the original four-movement work, completing the final three-movement version in 1919.

Friday afternoon's performance by the vocal soloist is supported by a generous gift from the Ethan Ayer Vocal Soloist Fund.

---

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Golda Schultz, soprano

SIBELIUS Luonnotar
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 1
Intermission
Thomas ADÈS Air, for violin and orchestra (American premiere; co-commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director, through the generous support of the New Works Fund established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency and the Arthur P. Contas Commissioning Fund.)
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5

There is a favorable review in the Globe and a very favorable and detailed one in the Intelligencer.

I enjoyed my evening in Symphony Hall on Thursday. Jeffrey Gantz in the Intelligencer put it very well when he wrote, "Air (think also “Aria” and perhaps Shakespeare’s Ariel) is 15 minutes of slow spirals and concentric circles." There was nothing offensive in any of it, and I thought the soprano did very well in Luonnotar.

So give it a listen, and don't forget the rebroadcast.

BSO — 2023/04/15

 This week we're back to live music from Symphony Hall. WCRB, which will be broadcasting the concert, gives us the essentials:

Saturday, April 15, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 24

French cellist Gautier Capuçon takes center stage with the Boston Symphony for the American premiere of Thierry Escaich’s new work for cello and orchestra, and Andris Nelsons conducts Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Rachmaninoff’s romantic Symphony No. 2.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Gautier Capuçon, cello

RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
Thierry ESCAICH Les Chants de l’Aube, for cello and orchestra
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2

To hear a preview of Thierry Escaich's Les Chants de l’Aube with cellist Gautier Capuçon, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall

You can listen to the interview via a link on their page or read the transcript there, if you wish.

And here's the BSO's own performance detail page, with iits customary links to program notes etc.:

Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the American premiere of a new work for cello and orchestra by French organist-composer Thierry Escaich, written for soloist Gautier Capuçon. Maurice Ravel’s exuberantly orchestrated Alborada del gracioso is tinged with Flamenco rhythms and Spanish flavors. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s by turns lush and exuberant Symphony No. 2 closes the program.

---

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Gautier Capuçon, cello

RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
Thierry ESCAICH Les Chants de l'aube, for cello and orchestra (American premiere; co-commissioned by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director, through the generous support of Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser.)
Intermission
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2

The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a highly favorable review of the concert. The Boston Globe's review concentrates on the cello concerto, and +is similaryly favorable.

I was there for the Thursday evening performance, and thought it was all very okay. The Ravel was snappy. The Escaich was pleasant enough. I noticed that at many points the flute was echoing the cello, and szo was the clarinet. I didn't really catch the elements which the composer and program annotator referred to as represented in the music (dtained glass, dance, etc.) but it wasn't hard to listen to. And the Rachmaninoff symphony, for all its length, didn't seem over-long. In other words, this wasn't a piece where I found myslef thinking, "Enough, already!" Still, none of it struck me as "must listen" music. I will try to catch the cello conceerto again during the rebroadcast (my brother's phone call will be when it's being played this evening) and I'll have the radio on this evening.

So you might as well tune in, if you're free.

P.S. I was busy last Saturday and never posted about the concert that evening. I'll see if I can pull something together before the rebroadcast onApril 17.

B BSO/Classical New England — 2023/04/01

 This evening we get an "encore broadcast" from WCRB, the concert performed on February 12, 2022. Herewith their blurb:

Saturday, April 1, 2023
8:00 PM

In an encore Boston Symphony broadcast, Philippe Jordan makes his BSO debut conducting an all-Russian program of Borodin, a suite from Prokofiev’s "Romeo and Juliet," and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Yefim Bronfman.

Philippe Jordan, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

BORODIN Overture to Prince Igor
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3
PROKOFIEV Suite from Romeo and Juliet

This concert was originally broadcast on February 12, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear Philippe Jordan describe his own suite from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, the differences between conducting ballet music for a ballet and in concert, and the complicated history of Borodin's Prince Igor Overture with the audio player above, or in the tab below. Read the transcript in the tab below.

Hear Yefim Bronfman describe the challenge of returning to Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto after being away from it for many years, the value of hearing the composer play it, and the mysteries of choosing the right instrument to play it on, using the audio player in the tab below. Read the transcript in the tab below.

Interview With Philippe JordanInterview With Yefim Bronfman

I posted about it back then. I hope the links to the reviews and performance detail page still work. As you see, there are links on the WCRB page to interviews with the pianist and the conductor. It's all pretty standard stuff. So enjoy.

Since this is an "encore" there apparently won't be a chance to hear it again on April 10.

BSO — 2023/03/25

 This evening's concert could be "challenging." Here's the word from WCRB:

Saturday, March 25, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, April 3

Thomas Adès returns to the Boston Symphony to conduct Igor Stravinsky’s dreamy retelling of Perséphone and two of his own works inspired by Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century Italian epic poem Commedia.

Thomas Adès, conductor
Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Danielle de Niese, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor

STRAVINSKY Perséphone (libretto and translation)
Thomas ADÈS Inferno Suite
ADÈS Paradiso

To hear a preview of Inferno Suite and Paradiso with Thomas Adès, use the player above or the tab below. For a preview of Stravinsky's Perséphone with Danielle de Niese, use tab below:

Interview With Thomas AdèsInterview With Danielle De Niese 

And here's the BSO performance detail page:

English composer Thomas Adès returns to lead two works from The Dante Project, a three-part ballet score from 2021 based on Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century Italian epic poem Commedia. The piece was written to mark the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death. Igor Stravinsky’s mythology-based Perséphone for narrator, tenor, chorus, and orchestra is a magically surreal neoclassical retelling of the goddess Persephone’s abduction by Hades, god of the underworld.

Sung in French with English supertitles

Friday afternoon’s appearance by Edgaras Montvidas is supported by a gift in loving memory of Alan J. Dworsky.

---

Thomas Adès, conductor
Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Danielle de Niese, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor
The Boys of the St. Paul’s Choir School
 James Kennerly, director

STRAVINSKY Perséphone
Intermission
Thomas ADÈS Inferno Suite
Thomas ADÈS Paradiso

The reviews are in. The Globe's is a rave, while in the Intelligencer we are exhorted to listen even though music of these styles may not be our cup of tea.

I didn't hear it, but Stravinsky is Stravinsky, it seems, and, if nothing else, Adès is apparently loud. So maybe give it a try, but don't be surprised if you don't like it.

BSO — 2023/03/18

 The third concert in the BSO's series “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope” is being given this evening. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, March 18, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, March 27

In the third program of “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope,” the women’s vocal ensemble joins the BSO in composer Julia Wolfe’s commemoration of the fight for women’s suffrage, and Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Aleksandra Kurzak, soprano
Lorelei Ensemble (Beth Willer, Artistic Director)

Henryk GÓRECKI Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Julia WOLFE Her Story, for vocal ensemble and orchestra

To hear an interview with Beth Willer, founder and Artistic Director of Lorelei Ensemble, listen with the player above, and read the transcript below.

To hear an interview with Giancarlo Guerrero, listen with the player below and read the transcript in the tab below.

Giancarlo Guerrero InterviewBeth Willer Interview

Note that there are two interviews available.

Here's what the BSO says on their performance detail page:

In this third concert in a series exploring complex social issues, frequent guest Giancarlo Guerrero leads American composer Julia Wolfe’s BSO co-commissioned Her Story, featuring the Lorelei Ensemble women’s vocal group. Originally commissioned to commemorate the centenary of women’s right to vote in the U.S., the piece broadly speaks of the continuing struggle for women’s rights. The three movements of Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songsmovingly contemplates the anguish of the separation of a mother from her child.

Festival: Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope is supported by the generosity of the Elinor V. Crawford Living Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation.

GÓRECKI performed with English supertitles 

---

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Aleksandra Kurzak, soprano
Lorelei Ensemble
Beth Willer, conductor
Eliza Bagg, soprano
Taylor Boykins, alto
Sarah Brailey, soprano
Meg Dudley, soprano
Christina English, alto
Stephanie Kacoyanis, alto
Michele Kennedy, soprano
Emily Marvosh, alto
Sophie Michaux, alto
Sonja DuToit Tengblad, soprano
Anne Kauffman, stage director
Jeff Sugg, scenic, lighting, and production designer
Márion Talán De La Rosa, costume designer
Andrew Cotton, sound designer

GÓRECKI Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Intermission
Julia WOLFE Her Story, for vocal ensemble and orchestra (Co-commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the National Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commission is through the generous support of the New Works Fund established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the Morton Margolis Fund.)

Neither the Globe nor the Intelligencer has published a review that I can find, so for further information about the music, you'll need to look at the BSO website for the program notes and/or listen to the interviews on the WCRB page. All I can say is that the Lorelei Ensemble is good, and so's the BSO.

See what you think.

BSO — 2023/03/11

 Sorry. I've been preoccupied. Here are the usual links.

https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2022-11-11/wilkins-the-bso-and-voices-of-loss-reckoning-and-hope

https://www.bso.org/events/bonds-davis-dawson

https://www.classical-scene.com/2023/03/10/reckoning-hope/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/10/arts/clarinets-right-remain-silent-speak-out/

Should be interesting.

BSO — 2023/03/04

 WCRB says:

Saturday, March 4, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, March 13

André Raphel conducts the Boston Symphony in the first part of “Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope,” including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Petite Suite and William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, as well as Uri Caine’s The Passion of Octavius Catto, commemorating the life of the 19th century civil rights pioneer.

André Raphel, conductor
Barbara Walker, vocalist
Uri Caine Trio
Catto Chorus

Samuel COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Petite Suite de Concert
William Grant STILL Symphony No. 1, Afro-American
Uri CAINE The Passion of Octavius Catto

LOUD SOUND WARNING: About 25 minutes into The Passion of Octavius Catto, a starter's pistol is fired several times.

Read program notes for this concert

To hear a preview of the program with André Raphel, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with André Raphel, who is here with the Boston Symphony for a fascinating program:

And here's the synopsis from the performance detail page:

American conductor André Raphel leads this first program in a series exploring complex social issues. The centerpiece of these concerts is Philadelphia jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine’s gospel and popular music-based The Passion of Octavius Catto, which tells of the 19th-century civil rights leader’s fight for justice. English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s charming potpourri Petite Suite de Concert dates from about 1911. In four movements, “Longing,” “Sorrow,” “Humor,” and “Aspiration,” William Grant Still’s 1930 Afro-American Symphony, his best-known work, is a blues-tinged panorama of the composer’s heritage.

Festival: Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope is supported by the generosity of the Elinor V. Crawford Living Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation.

Support for these performances of “The Passion of Octavius Catto” has been generously provided by Vita L. Weir and Edward Brice, Jr., and Pamela Everhart and Karl Coiscou.

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André Raphel, conductor
Uri Caine Trio
Uri Caine, piano
Mike Boone, bass
Clarence Penn, drums
Barbara Walker, vocalist
Catto Chorus

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Petite Suite de Concert 
STILL Symphony No. 1, Afro-American
---- Intermission----

Uri CAINE The Passion of Octavius Catto

There is not a review but a preview of this and the next two weeks in the Globe.  The Intelligencer has nothing I could find. Since it wasn't part of my subscription, I can't shed any light beyond what you read in the BSO's program notes, other than to say that I have generally good impressions of Coleridge-Taylor and Still and no idea about Caine.

BSO/Classical New England — 2023/02/25

The orchestra isn't performing in Symphony Hall this week, so WCRB is treating us to an encore broadcast as noted here:

Saturday, February 25, 2023
8:00 PM

Tonight at 8, Lisa Batiashvili is the soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, and Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in William Grant Still's tribute to the Finnish composer, as well as a Symphonic Fantasy on Richard Strauss's opera "The Woman Without a Shadow," in an encore broadcast on CRB.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

STILL Threnody: In Memory of Jan Sibelius
STRAUSS Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

This concert was originally broadcast on October 16, 2021 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear a conversation with Lisa Batiashvili and CRB's Brian McCreath with the audio player above, and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: 

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath from

I wrote about it at the time it was performed, and I have nothing to add except that my vague memory is that it was okay.

The links to the reviews in my post still work, but the one to the performance detail page doesn't. It is archived here. The links to the notes on each piece still work there.

WCRB doesn't promise another rebroadcast nine days hence, and based on past practice I wouldn't expect one. So "it's now or never." Enjoy.

BSO — 2023/02/18

 The newest piece from the BSO this evening was composed in 1939. As always, we start with WCRB's synopsis:

Saturday, February 18, 2023
8:00 PM

Encore broadcast on Monday, February 27

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the Boston Symphony for Saint-Saëns’s virtuosic Egyptian Concerto, and Israeli conductor Lahav Shani leads the BSO in his Symphony Hall debut with Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s dazzling Symphonic Dances.

Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

To hear a preview of Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, use the player above, and read the transcript below:

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Sym

The BSO's performance detail page tells us just a bit more about each piece  and provides the usual links:

Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, making his Symphony Hall debut, and elegant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian, a brilliantly virtuosic but tuneful Romantic-era work for which Thibaudet is an ideal interpreter. Sergei Prokofiev’s delightful First Symphony was conceived as a 20th-century successor to works by Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ingeniously constructed, brilliantly colorful Symphonic Dances was his last finished work. 

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Lahav Shani, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, Classical (15)

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian (29)

---- Intermission----

RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances (33)

The reviews are in. The Globe likes the way all the music was performed. The Intelligencer is maybe a notch less fulsome but still quite favorable.

I misread the season preview brochure and thought that this concert was one I wasn't especially interested in, so I decided to stay home. It was nice to relax, but I'm sorry I missed the show. Interestingly (to me) the brochure from last spring said the piano concerto would be by Aram KLhachaturian, another 20th Century piece. I don't see any explanation of the change, but maybe they thought it would make the concert "too much of a muchness," and opted for the 19th Century concerto instead.

Enjoy this evening and on the 27th.