Thursday, April 3, at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, April 6, at 10:00 pm
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
(Donald Runnicles, conductor; Cho-Liang Lin, violin)
Friday, April 4, at 8:00 pm
Guest Renee Rosnes
Pianist Renee Rosnes joins Marian McPartland on stage for the sixth annual Piano Jazz concert from the 2007 Tanglewood Jazz Festival. The two take turns quizzing each other and trade piano performances with bassist Todd Coolman. McPartland and Rosnes play together on "In A Mellow Tone" and "Swingin 'Till the Girls Come Home."
Saturday, April 5, at 1:30 pm
Giacomo Puccini: La Bohème
Puccini's archetypal opera story of the life and loves of starving Parisian artists was based on Henry Murger's novel Scènes de la Vie de Bohème. Rodolfo, a poor poet, falls in love with Mimi, an equally poor seamstress who lives upstairs. Rodolfo's roommate, the painter Marcello, has a tempestuous relationship with the coquette Musetta, who does love Marcello but flirts with other men to make him jealous. Rodolfo and Mimi are rapturously happy, until Rodolfo's increasing jealousy begins to drive Mimi away; then she discovers his real motive is concern that their poverty is making her chronic illness with tuberculosis worse. Eventually the lovers do part for a while, until Mimi returns, on the point of death, to declare her love and say goodbye to Rodolfo. Nicola Luisotti conducts this new production.
Angela Gheorghiu (Mimi); Ainhoa Arteta (Musetta); Ramón Vargas (Rodolfo); Ludovic Tézier (Marcello); Quinn Kelsey (Schaunard); Oren Gradus (Colline); Paul Plishka (Benoit/Alcindoro)
Saturday, April 5, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, April 5, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, April 6, at 12:00 noon
Guests Kronos Quartet
Severiano Briseno (arr. Osvaldo Golijov): El Sinaloense (The Man from Sinaloa)
Agustin Lara (arr. Osvaldo Golijov): Se Me Hizo Facil (It Was Easy for Me)
Silvestre Revueltas (arr. Stephen Prutsman): Sensemaya
Juan Garcia Esquivel (arr. Osvaldo Golijov): Mini Skirt
Alberto Dominguez (arr. Stephen Prutsman): Perfidia (Perfidy)
Chalino Sanchez (arr. Osvaldo Golijov): Nacho Verduzco
Osvaldo Golijov: K’in Sventa Ch’ul Me’tik Kwadulupe
Roberto Gomez Bolanos (arr. Ricardo Gallardo): Chavosuite
Sunday, April 6, at 1:00 pm
This week's program comes from our home at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston with seven accomplished musicians all under the age of 14, including 13-year-old composer Matthew Woodard, whose piece "Vignettes for Piano Trio" is performed by the Maggiore Trio, all aged 11 to 13, from Juilliard's Pre-College Division. We'll also hear young violinist Alice Ivy-Pemberton, 10, and pianist Stella Wong, 13, both from New York City, and cellist Lev Mamuya, 11, from Newton Highlands, Massachusetts.
Thursday, April 10, at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, April 13, at 10:00 pm
Schumann: Symphony No. 2
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
(Kwame Ryan, conductor; Leila Josefowicz, violin)
Friday, April 11, at 8:00 pm
Guest Lionel Hampton
Piano Jazz celebrates the centennial of vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. A historic figure in many ways, "Hamp" is credited with establishing the vibes as a jazz instrument, being a part of Benny Goodman's first racially integrated jazz group, and helping to launch the careers of Quincy Jones, Wes Montgomery, and Clark Terry. In this program from the archives, Hampton plays classics "Flying Home" and "Mack the Knife."
Saturday, April 12, at 1:30 pm
Sergei Prokofiev: The Gambler
Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote the novella on which Prokofiev based his opera, first performed in 1929. Set in the fictional German spa town of Roulettenberg in 1865, it concerns not one gambler, but a whole group of people whose addiction to roulette ruins their lives. Alexei, employed as tutor by the General, is in love with Paulina, the General's ward. Paulina gives Alexei her jewels to pawn so that he can win money to pay her debts to the Marquis, but Alexei loses. Annoyed, she provokes Alexei into acting wildly and causing a scene, so that the General fires him in fear of a scandal. The General, who is also being pressured to pay his debts to the Marquis, is waiting for the death of Paulina's rich grandmother from Moscow, his own aunt, hoping to inherit enough to be able to marry his mistress Blanche. Then Grandma turns up at the spa, recovered from her illness and determined to gamble herself. She proceeds to lose large sums of money. With his expectations gone, the General faces financial ruin, and Blanche leaves him for another man. Paulina is also desperate and goes to Alexei for help. Alexei then has an incredible run of luck at the table, winning an enormous sum, which he takes to Paulina. She offers to repay him with her body, but when Alexei is insulted, confesses her love and they embrace. But immediately she has second thoughts, throws the money in his face, and runs out. Alexei is left alone, dementedly recalling his good fortune at the roulette table. Valery Gergiev is the conductor.
Olga Guryakova (Polina); Olga Savova (Mme Blanche); Larissa Diadkova (Grammy); Vladimir Galouzine (Alexei); Nikolai Gassiev (The Marquis); John Hancock (Mr. Astley); Sergei Aleksashkin (The General)
Saturday, April 12, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, April 12, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, April 13, at 12:00 noon
Guests Thomas Hampson, baritone; Craig Rutenberg, piano
Francis Hopkinson: My Days Have Been so Wondrous Free
Stephen Foster: Hard Times
Aaron Copland: The Dodger
H.T. Burleigh: Lovely, Dark and Lovely One
Elinor Remick Warren: God Be in my heart
Virgil Thomson: Tiger! Tiger!
Samuel Barber: Sure On This Shining Night
Stephen Paulus: A Heartland portrait: A Summer Night
Charles Ives: In Flanders Fields
Arthur Farwell: The old man’s love song
William Grant Still: Grief
Stephen White: Shenandoah
Aaron Copland: The Boatman
Sunday, April 13, at 1:00 pm
This program comes from our home at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston. The lineup of outstanding young musicians includes a performance from 17-year-old New Jersey cellist Nico Olarte-Hayes and 15-year-old Roving Reporter Emily Mayer asking him about his colossal sleep issues. We'll also hear violinist Charles Yang, 18, from Austin, Texas; marimba player Molly Yeh, 18, from Glenview, Illinois; pianist Gen Tomuro from Tokyo; and the members of the Elusium String Quartet from New England Conservatory Preparatory Division (Audrey Wright, 17, and Alanna Tonetti-Tieppo, 16, violins; James Larson, 18, viola; and Ji Eun Lee, 16, cello).
Thursday, April 17, at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, April 20, at 10:00 pm
Wagner: Prelude to Parsifal
Ligeti: Lontano
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Prokofiev: selections from Romeo and Juliet
(Roberto Minczuk, conductor; Dejan Lazic, piano)
Friday, April 18, at 8:00 pm
Guest Chuck Leavell
Pianist Chuck Leavell has played for some of the shining stars of rock and jazz, but his most enduring gig has been as pianist and music coordinator for the Rolling Stones. In addition to his piano playing, Leavell is also an accomplished tree farmer. He and McPartland discuss their love of the environment and celebrate Leavell's southern heritage with "Georgia on My Mind."
Saturday, April 19, at 1:30 pm
Philip Glass: Satyagraha
The text of this opera, first performed in 1980, is in Sanskrit, adapted from the Bhagavad Gita by the composer and Constance DeJong. The story parallels Hindu myth with the struggle of Indian workers in South Africa for civil rights in the early 20th century. The movement's political and spiritual leader was Mohandas K. Gandhi, founder of the Satyagraha movement, or non-violent resistance through mass civil disobedience. This production, the work's premiere at the Met, is conducted by Dante Anzolini.
Rachelle Durkin (Miss Schlesen); Richard Croft (M.K. Gandhi); Earle Patriarco (Mr. Kallenbach); Alfred Walker (Parsi Rustomji)
Saturday, April 19, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, April 19, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, April 20, at 12:00 noon
Guest Gottlieb Wallisch, piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Phantasie in c minor, KV 475
Claude-Achille Debussy: “La soiree dans Grenade” (from Estampes)
Robert Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
Sunday, April 20, at 1:00 pm
From the Top comes from its home at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston. Repertoire to be announced.
Thursday, April 24, at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, April 27, at 10:00 pm
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Robert Wendel: Towers of Light (world premiere)
(Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Jere Flint, conductor)
Friday, April 25, at 8:00 pm
Guest Bobby Broom
At age sixteen, guitarist Bobby Broom was recruited by Sonny Rollins. Since then, he's been dazzling listeners and fellow musicians with his well-honed technique and innovative style. His love of jazz flows through his fingers and resonates on his six strings, as he solos on his own tune "Coming Home," before joining bassist Gary Mazzarroppi and McPartland for "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Donna Lee."
Saturday, April 26, at 1:30 pm
Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment)
Donizetti's 1840 comedy is the stuff of old-fashioned romance. Sulpice, the sergeant of the 21st Regiment of the French army, once found an orphaned girl, Marie, and adopted her as the mascot of the regiment. Now grown, Marie has fallen in love with Tonio, a local Tyrolean boy who saved her life. Since Marie has promised to marry only a soldier of the 21st, Tonio enlists in order to marry her. The requisite complication appears in the form of the Marquise of Berkenfield, a noblewoman who encounters the regiment on her way to Austria. The Marquise reveals that Marie is the lost-lost child of her sister, and, shocked by the girl's rough manners, resolves to take her home to her own castle and give her a proper education. Tonio follows and asks for Marie's hand, but the Marquise is unmoved by his declaration of love. She has arranged a marriage for Marie with a rich Duke, which Marie plans to refuse, preferring love to money and position. The Marquise eventually admits to Sulpice that the girl is her own illegitimate daughter. When Marie finds out the truth, she feels she cannot go against her mother's wishes and agrees to the marriage. Tonio and the soldiers of the 21st arrive in the nick of time to save her, Marie explains the great debt she owes to the kindness of the regiment, and true love is triumphant, as the Marquise is so moved she consents to Marie's marriage to Tonio. Marco Armiliato is the conductor.
Natalie Dessay (Marie); Felicity Palmer (Marquise of Berkenfield); Juan Diego Flórez (Tonio); Alessandro Corbelli (Sulpice); Zoe Caldwell (Duchess of Krakenthorp)
Saturday, April 26, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, April 26, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, April 27, at 12:00 noon
Guests David Shifrin, clarinet; Fred Sherry, cello; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Aaron Jay Kernis: Trio in Red
Johannes Brahms: Trio in a minor for clarinet, cello and piano, Op. 114
Sunday, April 27, at 1:00 pm
This week's program comes from the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, California. We feature performances by 16-year-old violinist Zenas Hsu from San Jose and a teenage ensemble from Los Angeles, the Colburn School Honors Quartet. Also clarinetist Gabriel Campos, 17, from Costa Rica; pianist Rieko Tsuchida, 12, from Mill Valley, California; and cellist Julian Schwarz, 16, from Seattle, Washington, with pianist Daniel Walden, 18, from Berkeley, California.
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Page updated 4/24/08