Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Randall Goosby, violin
SMYTH Overture to The Wreckers
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
Intermission
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 5, Reformation
Saturday evening’s concert is in memory of Jane O’Keefe, supported by Cecilia O’Keefe.
Music Director Andris Nelsons opens the program with the overture to the 1906 opera The Wreckers by Dame Ethel Smyth, a composer and suffragist who was one of England’s leading musicians of her time. American violinist Randall Goosby, the youngest-ever winner of the Sphinx Concerto Competition, makes his BSO debut with Max Bruch’s spirited Violin Concerto No. 1. The program closes with Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, composed in 1830 as part of celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The music quotes the familiar hymn “Ein feste Burg,” a link to Reformation leader Martin Luther.
On February 2 the Friday Preview will be given by Marc Mandel, former BSO Director of Program Publications, at 12:15pm. Admission included with ticket.
Friday's concert will end around 3:15pm, and Saturday's concert will end around 9:45pm.
- The Norman V. and Ellen B. Ballou Memorial Concert
Performance Details
Feb 2, 2024, 1:30pm EST
Program Notes & Works
Overture to The Wreckers
Ethel Smyth's 1904 opera The Wreckers is based on a particularly English story inspired by the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. Her 10-minute overture conjures the picaresque and majestic energy of seafaring England.
Violin Concerto in G minor
The first of his three violin concertos was one of his earliest successes and remains the most frequently performed of all his works.
Symphony No. 5, Reformation
Mendelssohn was 20 when he began writing his Reformation Symphony, anticipating the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a major event in the establishment of Protestant theology and the Lutheran Church. He underlines this connection by using Martin Luther’s hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser G...
