The Answered Question

Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart talks with Brian McCreath about the 2015 Holiday Pops program and what it's like to coach a rotating cast of narrators for 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Boston Symphony Music Director Andris Nelsons describes the preparation necessary to conduct the Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler.

Two members of Boston's conductor-less chamber orchestra A Far Cry talk with WCRB's Alan McLellan about "A Tale of Two Sixes," a concert made up of works by Corelli and Handel.

(photo of A Far Cry by Yoon S. Byun)

Harpsichordist and conductor Richard Egarr talks about (and demonstrates!) Italian music of the early Baroque, and Michael Tilson Thomas looks back on his first experiences with Mahler and coming to Tanglewood.

(photo of Richard Egarr by Marco Borggreve)

Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Jules Eskin remembers the late Joseph Silverstein, a longtime concertmaster and assistant conductor of the orchestra, and Music Director Andris Nelsons previews a program that include works by Haydn, Bartók, and Tchaikovsky.

(photo of Joseph Silverstein by Walter Scott, courtesy of the BSO)

Andris Nelsons talks with WCRB's Brian McCreath about the arc of a program that includes works by Bach's motet Komm, Jesu, komm and Es ist genug, Berg's Violin Concerto, and the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich. Also, Tony Fogg previews the 2016 Tanglewood season, which includes five concerts led by Nelsons, 2016 Koussevitzky Artist Charles Dutoit, and the first ever instance of a Tanglewood program triggering an adult content warning.

(photo of Andris Nelsons by Marco Borggreve)

Pianist Martin Helmchen describes the intersection of German reunification and his own musical development, the essential nature of arts in education, and Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, and conductor Christoph von Dohnányi previews his November 2015 Boston Symphony program, including the world premiere of Aube by Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and the Piano Concerto No. 5 by Beethoven, with soloist Helmchen.

(photo of Martin Helmchen by Marco Borggreve)

Boston Symphony Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur describes Unsuk Chin's Mannequin, which he conducts in the work's U.S. premiere in November 2015, as well as Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 3, the "Rhenish." Also, Yo-Yo Ma talks with host Brian McCreath about the process of injecting life and vitality into familiar music through his new recording, Songs from the Arc of Life.

(photo of Ken-David Masur by Beth Ross-Buckley)

Violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman talks with Brian McCreath about the variety of orchestra with which he performs, the instrument he's played for decades, and what conducting has meant to his career. Also, mandolinist Chris Thile talks about Bach.

(photo of Pinchas Zukerman by Paul Labelle)

Boston Symphony Orchestra Assistant Concertmaster Elita Kang tells Ron Della Chiesa what it was like to audition for the BSO, and Alan McLellan goes backstage at the Boston Early Music Festival's production of Monteverdi's Ulisse.

(photo of Elita Kang by Stu Rosner, courtesy of the BSO)

Soprano Christine Goerke talks with Ron Della Chiesa about what it takes to sing Strauss's Elektra, and Boston Symphony Music Director Andris Nelsons describes the process of learning to conduct the opera over a two-year period.