Last week it was the opera, this week there will be more singing, followed by some purely orchestral pieces. Gunther Schuller's new piece will get its world premiere tonight. Schuller is known for what he called "third stream" in which he tried to fuse elements of jazz and classical music into his compositions. You can see a complete copy of the program notes for the concert at http://www.bso.org/images/program_notes/20090205.pdf
The program will be performed again Friday night, Feb. 6, and Saturday night, Feb. 7, at 8:00 Eastern Time. You can listen live to the Saturday performance at www.wcrb.com. There will be a rebroadcast of one of the concerts on www.wgbh.org at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15. (And don't forget you have another chance to listen to "Simon Boccanegra" this Sunday, Feb. 8, at 2:00 also over www.wgbh.org — I guess they do these delayed rebroadcasts when a program isn't available for a live broadcast on Friday afternoon. Neither this week's nor last weeks program was scheduled for Friday afternoon.)
Here's some of what the BSO website says:
Mozart, Schuller and Brahms
Boston Symphony Orchestra
February 5, 2009 8:00 PM
Symphony Hall
Boston, Massachusetts
Featured Artists
James Levine
conductor
Barbara Frittoli
soprano
MOZART
Bella mia fiamma addio, Concert aria, K.528
MOZART
"Oh smania! oh furie!...D'Oreste, d'Aiace," from Idomeneo, Act III
SCHULLER
Where the Word Ends (world premiere; BSO 125th anniversary commission)
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 2
Program Notes
The Pre-Concert Talk will be given by Robert Kirzinger, BSO Publications Associate, from 6:45 PM - 7:15 PM at Symphony Hall. Free to performance ticket holders. Pre-Concert Talks are sponsored by New England Coffee.
February 5, 2009 8:00 PM
Symphony Hall
Boston, Massachusetts
Featured Artists
James Levine
conductor
Barbara Frittoli
soprano
MOZART
Bella mia fiamma addio, Concert aria, K.528
MOZART
"Oh smania! oh furie!...D'Oreste, d'Aiace," from Idomeneo, Act III
SCHULLER
Where the Word Ends (world premiere; BSO 125th anniversary commission)
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 2
Program Notes
The Pre-Concert Talk will be given by Robert Kirzinger, BSO Publications Associate, from 6:45 PM - 7:15 PM at Symphony Hall. Free to performance ticket holders. Pre-Concert Talks are sponsored by New England Coffee.
About the Music
Following her performances as Amelia in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Barbara Frittoli returns to sing very different music: a Mozart concert aria as well as a dramatic scene from his first operatic masterpiece, Idomeneo, King of Crete. Also on the program is the fourth world premiere of this season, eminent American musician Gunther Schuller's orchestrally kaleidoscopic, symphony-like Where the Word Ends, a BSO 125th anniversary commission. Brahms's wonderfully warm Symphony No. 2 closes the program.
Following her performances as Amelia in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Barbara Frittoli returns to sing very different music: a Mozart concert aria as well as a dramatic scene from his first operatic masterpiece, Idomeneo, King of Crete. Also on the program is the fourth world premiere of this season, eminent American musician Gunther Schuller's orchestrally kaleidoscopic, symphony-like Where the Word Ends, a BSO 125th anniversary commission. Brahms's wonderfully warm Symphony No. 2 closes the program.
8 comments:
wow symphony hall is like a 15 minute walk from me. plus I have a season pass to concerts. I really should look into it!
Hey Tommy!
Yeah, you should.
The Schuller piece on tonight's concert was enjoyable. You can attend the concert tomorrow (Friday) night at 8 or Saturday night at 8. You shouldn't have any trouble getting a seat. There were more empty seats on Thursday that I can remember seeing in the four years since I started going on a regular basis (not every week, but maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the concerts. I'm amazed. You'd think Mozart and Brahms would pack them in. Plus Schuller is kind of a local celebrity, since he was president of New England Conservatory for a number of years.
Well the people who were there liked it.
Oh, BTW, Tommy, there is always a pre-concert talk an hour and three-quarters before the starting time. So for an 8:00 concert the talk begins at 6:45. If you have time to get to that, it's usually worthwhile.
Thursday evening, Gunther Schuller joined the speaker for a few minutes toward the end and talked about the new piece and about his ideas about composing in general.
I don't have a ticket to next week's concert, which should be pretty good: all Mozart, but I do plan to go to the concerts on February 19 and 26, March 19 and 26, and April 16 and 30. I'm especially looking forward to the last two, with the Beethoven violin concerto on Apr. 16, and the Berlioz Te Deum on the 30th. I don't know the Berlioz piece, but if it's anything like his Requiem it will be spectacular.
Information about all the concerts through May 2 is available on the BSO website — www.bso.org — and I'm sure you can find something you'll like.
How do I miss all these times?
I am not a music buff, but I like new sounds.
@naturgesetz
Thanks for the info unfortunately I have colorguard on friday and saturday nights and then biology lab on thursday nights. Hopefully, once school times calms down ill be able to see a concert. I went last year to see the Boston Pops before christmas and they were amazing! =)
@ A.Friend — if you have some free time next Sunday, why not check out the stream over www.wgbh.org ?
@ bostonboy13 — They actually do more Fiday matinee concerts than Friday evening. There are concerts at 1:30 on February 20*, 27*, March 6, 13, 20*, 27*, April 10, 24, and May 1*. They also often give the previous week's program on Tuesday evenings at 8:00. The remaining Tuesday concerts are February 17, March 10, 17, 24*, and April 14.
The ones with * after them are concerts I have a ticket for on the previous Thursday. So if you can get to one of those we could compare note (no pun intended). Information about what they'll be playing is available on the BSO website www.bso.org
I went ahead and bookmarked it. Do they stream everything?
A.Friend — WGBH streams their entire broadcast day, which includes just about every Boston Symphony Friday matinee concert. When the BSO has a program which they don't give at a Friday matinee, WGBH usually provides a delayed broadcast and stream of one of the evening concerts. This delayed broadcast/stream usually is on a Sunday afternoon at 2:00 or 3:00, depending on the length of the concert.
So most weeks from the end of September to early December, and again from early January to the end of April, you can get a BSO concert streamed either Friday or Sunday afternoon. If you are free to listen to concerts on Saturday evenings, www.wcrb.com broadcasts and streams those. Their announcer is not so knowledgeable about the music, though; and they don't have intermission features related to the day's concert.
In the summer, when the BSO goes to Tanglewood, there are concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, with a different program for each concert. I think WCRB streams all three. I'm sure WGBH streams the ones on Sunday afternoon, but I don't think they do the others.
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