Roderick Cox conducts Mozart and Mendelssohn featuring Principal BSO clarinetist William R. Hudgins
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
American conductor Roderick Cox, makes his BSO debut leading BSO Principal Clarinet William Hudgins in Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Concerto. One of the composer’s last major works, it was written for his clarinetist friend Anton Stadler, perhaps the greatest master of the instrument of his time. Felix Mendelssohn’s always fresh Symphony No. 3, Scottish, was inspired by a long trip to the British Isles in his early twenties, but it wasn’t until more than a decade later that he finally completed this dramatic but classically balanced symphony.
Regrettably, Ton Koopman has had to withdraw from his upcoming appearances with the orchestra due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. We are thankful that the American conductor Roderick Cox, making his BSO debut, was available at short notice to lead the orchestra in these concerts. Please note that Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, Scottish, replaces Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2.
Performance Details
Nov 11, 2021, 10:30am EST
Program Notes & Works
Clarinet Concerto
Mozart wrote for the clarinet as early as 1771 when it was just beginning to be established as a normal part of the orchestra, but his real discovery of its character came about when he met the clarinetist Anton Stadler in Vienna in 1781.
Symphony No. 3, Scottish
"The chapel beside it has lost its roof and is overgrown with grass and ivy, and at that broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything there is ruined, decayed and open to the clear sky. I believe that I have found there today the beginning of my Scotch Symphony." — Felix Mendelssohn
