Opening Night at Symphony

The first piece ever performed by the BSO in October 1881, the Consecration of the House Overture is one of only three orchestral works Beethoven composed in his final decade.

The chamber music-like Concerto No. 23 in A is one of Mozart’s most lyrical and, in the central Adagio, poignant works. Mozart created the model of the piano concerto as we know it, writing a dozen highly varied pieces to perform for Vienna audiences of the 1780s.

Ellington's New World A-Coming was informed by, and takes its title from, a 1943 social history of Harlem by the prominent journalist Roi Ottley: New World A-Coming: Inside Black America.

Strayhorn wrote Tonk, named after Ellington’s favorite card game, to highlight Ellington as a pianist. It was transformed into a piano duet by 1946, when Ellington and Strayhorn began performing it as a high-energy showstopper.

Carlos Simon's BSO-commissioned Four Black American Dances celebrates the composer’s heritage and the presence of dance in Black culture as a medium for ritual, worship, celebration, and social connectivity.