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Andris Nelsons conducts Maskats, Tchaikovsky, Grigorjeva, and Shostakovich featuring violinist Daniel Lozakovich

Boston Symphony Orchestra

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Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the orchestra’s first-ever performances of Shostakovich’s rarely heard Symphony No. 2, To October, written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. This unusual work is a single, 20-minute movement in four sections, the last part being a choral finale on Alexander Bezemensky’s poem “To October,” addressed to Vladimir Lenin. These performances, part of Andris Nelsons’ and the BSO’s ongoing Shostakovich series, will be recorded for future release on Deutsche Grammophon.

Opening the program is the world premiere of a BSO-commissioned piece by Andris Nelsons’ Latvian compatriot, Arturs Muskats. Maskats is closely associated with the theater and has been artistic director of Latvian National Opera for more than two decades. The 18-year-old Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich, who made his BSO debut at Tanglewood in 2017, makes his subscription series debut in Tchaikovsky’s expressive and demanding Violin Concerto. On Leaving is a five-movement chorus-only setting of Orthodox prayers for the dead.by the important Ukraine-born Estonian composer Galina Grigorjeva, whose work is strongly influenced by Slavonic church music.

Featured Performers & Ensembles

Andris Nelsons, conductor
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The 2018-19 season is Andris Nelsons’ fifth as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Ray and Maria Stata Music Director. Named Musical America’s 2018 Artist of the Year, Mr. Nelsons leads fourteen of the BSO’s twenty-six subscription programs in 2018-19, ranging from orchestral works by Haydn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Copland to concerto collaborations with acclaimed soloists, as well as world and American premieres of pieces newly commissioned by the BSO from Thomas Adès, Sebastian Currier, Andris Dzenītis, and Mark-Anthony Turnage; the continuation of his complete Shostakovich symphony cycle with the orchestra, and concert performances of Puccini’s one-act opera Suor Angelica. In summer 2015, following his first season as music director, Andris Nelsons’ contract with the BSO was extended through the 2021-22 season. In November 2017, he and the orchestra toured Japan together for the first time. In February 2018, he became Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in which capacity he brings both orchestras together for a unique multi-dimensional alliance. Immediately following the 2018 Tanglewood season, Maestro Nelsons and the BSO made their third European tour together, playing concerts in London, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, and Amsterdam. Their first European tour, following the 2015 Tanglewood season, took them to major European capitals and the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg festivals; the second, in May 2016, took them to eight cities in Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg.

 The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2011, his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, and his BSO subscription series debut in January 2013. His recordings with the BSO, all made live in concert at Symphony Hall, include the complete Brahms symphonies on BSO Classics; Grammy-winning recordings on Deutsche Grammophon of Shostakovich’s symphonies 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 (The Year 1905) as part of a complete Shostakovich symphony cycle for that label; and a new two-disc set pairing Shostakovich’s symphonies 6 and 7 (Leningrad). Under an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, Andris Nelsons is also recording the complete Bruckner symphonies with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic.

 The 2018-19 season is Maestro Nelsons’ final season as artist-in-residence at the Konzerthaus Dortmund and marks his first season as artist-in-residence at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. In addition, he continues his regular collaborations with the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. Throughout his career, he has also established regular collaborations with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and has been a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

 Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. He was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2015, principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, from 2006 to 2009, and music director of Latvian National Opera from 2003 to 2007.
Andris Nelsons, conductor Daniel Lozakovich, violin
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Daniel Lozakovich was born in Stockholm in 2001, and began playing the violin in 2007, making his concerto debut with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Vladimir Spivakov two years later. Daniel has already performed as a soloist throughout Europe with orchestras including the the Orchestre national de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Russia, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra.

Recently, Daniel made his debuts with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse and Lorenzo Viotti, the Swedish Radio Symphony with Robin Ticciati, the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and Adam Fischer.

Daniel has a close collaboration with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, since they played together during the New Year’s concert 2015 at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. He returned to the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra to perform the Beethoven violin concerto at the closing anniversary concert of the 15th Moscow Easter Festival, and later at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, also the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen and at the Rotterdam Gergiev Festival with Prokofiev concerto. Daniel opened the Münchner Philharmoniker festival, MPHIL 360°, alongside Maestro Valery Gergiev and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Mozart violin concerto. He also performed the Bach Concerto for Two Violins with Shlomo Mintz and the Cameristi della Scala and Daniel Cohen at the Crans-Montana Classics 2016 New Year’s Concert.

Daniel has a love of chamber music and has enjoyed collaborations with, among others, Ivry Gitlis, Daniel Hope, Martin Fröst, and Maxim Vengerov. In September 2015, Daniel recorded a selection of Bartók’s Violin Duos with Daniel Hope for Deutsche Grammophon, having previously performed together on ARTE’s Concert television program.

Daniel is a regular performer at the Verbier Festival and many other international music festivals, the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Corinthian Summer Music Festival in Austria, the Colmar Festival, Moscow Meets Friends, the International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival in Baku, and the Sommets musicaux de Gstaad, where he returned in February 2016 to perform both the Bach Concerto in A minor BWV 1041 and Concerto for Two Violins BWV 1043 with Renaud Capuçon and the Festival Strings Lucerne. He also made his chamber music debut at the Aix en Provence Festival de Pâques in 2016 with Renaud Capuçon, and Khatia Buniatishvili.

Highlights for the 17/18 season include: tours in Japan with Valery Gergiev at the Pacific Music Festival (PMF); Japan tour with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra conductor Andreas Orozko-Estrada; a return to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Semyon Bychkov and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Tugan Sokhiev; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Krzysztof Urbanski; Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra with Lahav Shani. Daniel will have his debut concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Liege Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Christian Arming; Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin; Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Torino; Gothenburg Symphony; Orchestra of Staatstheater Karlsruhe and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with Nikolaj Znaider. Furthermore, he will perform recitals at the Aix en Provence Festival; Salle Molière de Lyon; Les Grandes Voix – Les Grands Solistes; Tonhalle Zürich and return to the Verbier Festival.

At the Festival of the Nations Daniel has been awarded the prize of “The Young Artist of the Year 2017” and will perform with Munich Radio Orchestra and Mischa Damev.

Daniel has been awarded numerous international prizes including the 1st prize at the 2016 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition; both the 1st Prize and the “Grand Prix” at the 2012 EMCY international music competition, “Ohrid PEARLS”, Macedonia; 1st Prize and the “Gulda Nutcracker” at the 12th Nutcracker International Television Contest for Young Musicians in Moscow, 2011; 2nd Prize at the “Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists”, Austin, USA, 2014, and the 2015 Manfred Grommek Prize from Kronberg Academy. Daniel won three prestigious awards: the “Viennese Classics”, “String Soloists”, and “Best Interpretation of Sarasate ‘Gypsy Airs’” at the 2014 International Summer Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Excelentia Prizes under the Honour Presidence of Queen Sofia of Spain.

In June 2016, Daniel Lozakovich signed an exclusive recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon and will begin his long-term cooperation with the label by recording two orchestral albums and a recital disc.
Since 2012, Daniel studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music with Professor Josef Rissin, and he is mentored by Eduard Wulfson. Currently, he is a student at the Collège du Léman in Geneva. In his limited spare time, Daniel enjoys playing football, boxing, tennis and chess.

 
Daniel Lozakovich, violin
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
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Tanglewood Festival Chorus
James Burton, BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver (1939-2018), Founder

Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. In February 2017, following appearances as guest chorus conductor at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and having prepared the chorus for that month’s BSO performances of Bach’s B minor Mass led by Andris Nelsons, the British-born James Burton was named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Ch

The Tanglewood Festival Chorus joins the BSO this season for performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (October 25-30), Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (November 29-December 1), Puccini’s Suor Angelica (February 21 and 22), and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (February 28-March 2) all under Andris Nelsons, and Estévez’s Cantata Criolla (April 11-13) with guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Also in October, the TFC performed Maija Einfelde’s Lux aeterna with James Burton, BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, making his subscription-series conducting debut. Originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was established in 1970 by its founding conductor, the late John Oliver, who stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end of the 2015 Tanglewood season. In February 2017, following appearances as guest chorus conductor at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and having prepared the chorus for that month’s BSO performances of Bach’s B minor Massled by Andris Nelsons, James Burton was named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director. Mr. Burton occupies the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Chair on the Boston Symphony Orchestra roster.

Though first established for performances at the BSO’s summer home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was soon playing a major role in the BSO’s subscription season as well as BSO concerts at Carnegie Hall; the ensemble now performs year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. It has performed with the BSO on tour in Hong Kong and Japan, and on two European tours, also giving a cappella concerts of its own on those two occasions. The TFC made its debut in April 1970 at Symphony Hall, in a BSO performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Its first recording with the orchestra, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with Seiji Ozawa, received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance of 1975. The TFC has since made dozens of recordings with the BSO and Boston Pops, with Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams. In August 2011, with John Oliver conducting and soloist Stephanie Blythe, the TFC gave the world premiere of Alan Smith’s An Unknown Sphere for mezzo-soprano and chorus, commissioned by the BSO for the ensemble’s 40th anniversary. Its most recent recordings on BSO Classics, all drawn from live performances, include a disc of a cappella music marking the TFC’s 40th anniversary; Ravel’s complete Daphnis et Chloé (a 2009 Grammy-winner for Best Orchestral Performance), Brahms’s German Requiem, and William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony for chorus and orchestra (a BSO 125th Anniversary Commission). On July 4, 2018, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus joined Keith Lockhart for the “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular” on the Charles River Esplanade.

Besides their work with the BSO, TFC members have also performed with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic and in a Saito Kinen Festival production of Britten’s Peter Grimes under Seiji Ozawa in Japan. The ensemble had the honor of singing at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s funeral; has performed with the Boston Pops for the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics; and can be heard on the soundtracks of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, John Sayles’s Silver City, and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. TFC members regularly commute from the greater Boston area and beyond to sing with the chorus in Boston and at Tanglewood. For more information about the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and upcoming auditions, please visit www.bso.org/tfc.

 

 
James Burton
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James Burton was appointed Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director, in February 2017. He made his BSO subscription-series conducting debut in October 2018, leading the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Maija Einfelde’s Lux aeterna. Born in London, Mr. Burton holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. He began his training at the Choir of Westminster Abbey, where he became head chorister, and was a choral scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He has conducted concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata. He made his debut with the Boston Pops in December 2017 and returns to the Pops podium this coming December. He is a regular guest of the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional of Mexico and returns this season to lead performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Opera credits include performances at English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, and the Prague Summer Nights Festival, and he has served on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera and Opéra de Paris. Mr. Burton’s extensive choral conducting has included guest invitations with professional choirs including the Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Enlightenment, Wrocław Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers, with whom he performed in the inaugural season of Dubai’s Opera House in 2017. From 2002 to 2009 he served as choral director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he was music director of the Hallé Choir and founding conductor of the Hallé Youth Choir, winning the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009. He was music director of Schola Cantorum of Oxford from 2002 to 2017. Mr. Burton is well known for his inspirational work with young musicians. In 2017 he was director of the National Youth Choir of Japan; he has recently conducted the Princeton University Glee Club, Yale Schola Cantorum, and University of Kentucky Symphony. In 2018 he founded the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir. Mr. Burton has given conducting master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Tanglewood Music Center, and founded a scholarship for young conductors at Oxford. His growing composition portfolio contains works for commissioners including the National Portrait Gallery in London, the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and the Exon Festival, where he was composer-in-residence in 2015. In July 2019, Mr. Burton will conduct the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir and Boston Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of his The Lost Words, as part of next summer’s gala Tanglewood on Parade concert. His works are published by Edition Peters. As BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton occupies the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky chair, endowed in perpetuity.

 
Program Notes Audio
Arturs MASKATS - “My River runs to thee…”
(Homage to Emily Dickinson)
(world premiere; BSO co-commission)
TCHAIKOVSKY - Violin Concerto Download Program Notes Download Program Audio
Galina GRIGORJEVA - On Leaving, for unaccompanied choir (November 21, 23, 26)
SHOSTAKOVICH - Symphony No. 2, To October