Boston Symphony Orchestra

Leif Ove Andsnes Visits WCRB

Thursday, January 12, 2012   0 comments.

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has become one of the most admired pianists on today's concert stages.  In Boston as a guest soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he visits Classical New England's Fraser Studio for a performance and conversation with host Cathy Fuller.

 
To hear the program, click on "Listen" above, and see video below.

Drive Time Live: Leif Ove Andsnes plays the Granados "Spanish Dance" Op. 37 No. 5 from WGBH Classical New England on Vimeo.

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka.  After more than 30 discs for EMI Classics, he now records for Sony Classical.  Andsnes is also an active recording artist, as well as an avid chamber musician who has joined select colleagues each summer at Norway’s Risør Festival of Chamber Music. He will serve as Music Director of the 2012 Ojai Music Festival in California.

Andsnes has just begun "Beethoven - A Journey," a multi-year performance and recording project centered on the five concertos.

Andsnes currently lives in Copenhagen and Bergen, and also spends much time at his mountain home in Norway’s western Hardanger area.  He is a Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, a Visiting Professor at the Royal Music Conservatory of Copenhagen, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.  In June 2010, he achieved one of his proudest accomplishments to date: he became a father for the first time.

During his performance in our Fraser Performance Studio, Andsnes performed Granados's Spanish Dance, Op. 37, No. 5, Chopin's Waltzes, Op. 70, and the "Norwegian Peasant March" from Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Op. 54. Andsnes and Fuller also explored facets of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Here's a fun video of Andsnes with his friend, Marc-André Hamelin:

Lehninger Conducts Haydn, Turnage, and Strauss

Friday, January 6, 2012   0 comments.

Charting Their Own Paths: Top 5 Orchestral Albums Produced In-house

By Brian McCreath   |   Thursday, December 15, 2011   1 comments.

In these times of instability in the recording industry, more and more Symphony Orchestras are making their own albums.

It's old news that technological advances have rattled the grand old record labels. The golden era of companies like EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA and Columbia has come and (mostly) gone. It's been sobering for orchestras that once luxuriated in fancy recording contracts. But there's a silver lining, as the same advances in recording and distribution have enabled orchestras, chamber groups and even soloists to create in-house labels, gaining freedom rarely available when titanic companies set the rules. Below are five releases from American orchestras on their very own labels. Each one makes a distinctive statement, not by pandering to popular tastes, but by playing to each ensemble's strengths.
 

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Live

Like many orchestras who made their reputations in the golden age of big-label recording, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has recently seen a gradual transition to a new generation of players. After a period of settling in, the CSO brass announce (as only brass can) that one of the strongest aspects of the orchestra's identity is in good hands. No British reserve in Walton's Crown Imperial here, just brawny Midwestern punch. Gabrieli comes at you in full modern-instrument brightness, and, in the highlight of the disc, Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, with some gorgeous soft playing, could make you wonder if woodwinds are necessary at all.

Purchase

Listen to Gabrieli's Canzon duodecimi toni a 10:

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra:  Theofinidis and Lieberson

Music Director Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have continuously brought new music to the stage, sharing the mantle previously held by groups like the Louisville Orchestra and maintaining a tradition established by one of his predecessors, Robert Shaw. The brightly kinetic First Symphony by Christopher Theofanidis is a blazing demonstration of the appeal of the orchestra's signature "Atlanta School" of composers. By including Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs in a gorgeous performance by mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, the ASO embraces a piece that was perhaps in danger of being confined to a too-sacred, untouchable space, confirming it now as a truly enduring classic of our time.

Purchase

Listen to Theofinidis's Symphony No. 1 (excerpt):

Boston Symphony Chamber Players:  Profanes et Sacrées

The drama of James Levine's departure from Boston and its attendant publicity have tended to obscure the fact that the BSO remains an ensemble with a distinct identity, built on several strands of rich history. The Chamber Players pick up two strands of that heritage in this recording. The BSO's French legacy comes through in these musicians' ability to create both soft-focus and crystal-clear sounds simultaneously. And the orchestra's historic commitment to drawing connections between contemporary music and established repertoire illuminates the music on this disc, which ranges from 1907 to 1991.

Purchase

Listen to Francaix's Dixtuor (excerpt):

San Francisco Symphony:  Ives/Brant and Copland

Now that Michael Tilson Thomas' landmark Mahler project has concluded (17 CDs in all), SFS Media comes through with a very different recording, but one that says just as much about MTT and San Francisco. Here's a conductor with some of the best recordings of Charles Ives' music on his resume, so who better to get the most out what could have been the mere curiosity of Henry Brant's orchestration of Ives' "Concord" Piano Sonata? Copland also figures strongly into MTT's musical identity (he studied with the composer), and to hear the Organ Symphony is to encounter that fearlessly robust, all too rarely heard voice of the pre-Appalachian Spring American icon.

Purchase

Listen to Copland's Organ Symphony (excerpt):

Cincinnat Symphony Orchestra:  Baltic Portraits

In the 11 years Paavo Järvi led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a series of fine if largely undistinguished recordings of standard orchestral repertoire emerged on the Telarc label. This disc represents a dramatic contrast. Järvi leaves Cincinnati after this season, departing with a dynamic, brilliantly played homage to his musical roots in Estonia and Finland. These performances from the last decade show that while this fascinating music was happening during Järvi's entire tenure, only the most conventional repertoire was being disseminated via recordings. No better case for orchestras to cast off the shackles of labels and chart their own paths.

Purchase

Listen to Tüür's Fireflower:

Boston Symphony Orchestra's Rachel Childers

Tuesday, December 13, 2011   0 comments.

Bavouzet's Prokofiev with the BSO

Saturday, October 8, 2011   0 comments.

Jonathan Biss Plays Beethoven

Friday, December 2, 2011   0 comments.

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