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Boston Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to announce programs for the 2021-22 Season and the reopening of Symphony Hall for concertgoers

Andris Nelsons and the BSO perform Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, 3.24.16

The BSO music director Andris Nelsons enthusiastically welcome audiences back to Symphony Hall for in-person performances for the first time since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an 18-month performance hiatus and the closing of its historic home.

For the season opener of the BSO's 141st season on September 30, Mr. Nelsons shares the podium with John Williams, in a program featuring special guest Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist in Mr. Williams' Violin Concerto No. 2, plus Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture, and a BSO signature work, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Andris Nelsons, in his Eighth Season as BSO Music Director, Leads 13 of the
Season’s 24 Programs at Symphony Hall and Performances at Carnegie Hall and on
Tour
Highlights include:
  • Concert performances of Berg’s Wozzeck with Bo Skovhus and Christine Goerke
  • World premieres by Julia Adolphe, HK Gruber, and Kaija Saariaho and American premieres by
  • Unsuk Chin and Jörg Widmann, as well as Sofia Gubaidulina’s The Light of the End and Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
  • A continuation of the BSO’s Grammy award-winning Shostakovich recording cycle with Deutsche Grammophon
  • A new cycle of six major works by Richard Strauss
  • The launch of a performance cycle of all five Beethoven piano concertos with soloist Mitsuko
  • Uchida, starting with Nos. 2 and 4
  • Major Andris Nelsons-led European tour and recording project, in partnership with the Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig (GHO), as well as details of the season’s “Leipzig Week in Boston,” to be announced in the fall
  • A return to Carnegie Hall on March 14 and 15, with Andris Nelsons and BSO performing an Ives, Unsuk Chin, and Berlioz program and Berg’s Wozzeck
  • Orchestral works by Berlioz, Brahms, Ives, Mahler, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Still, and Stravinsky
Andris Nelsons to Collaborate with Major Artists of our Time
  • Lisa Batiashvili (Sibelius' Violin Concerto)
  • Lise Davidsen (Strauss' Four Last Songs)
  • Hilary Hahn (Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5)
  • Håkan Hardenberger (American premiere of Jörg Widmann's Towards Paradise [Labyrinth VI], for trumpet and orchestra)
  • Lucas and Arthur Jussen (Mozart's Concerto in E-flat for Two Pianos)
  • Leonidas Kavakos (American premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2, Scherben Der Stille [Shards of Silence])
  • Anu Komsi (world premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Saarikoski Songs)
  • Marlis Petersen (Strauss' “Dance of the Seven Veils” and final scene from Salome)
  • Baiba Skride (Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1)

Press Contact

Jan Devereux
Senior Director, Public Relations and Communications
jdevereux@bso.org

Matthew Erikson
Senior Publicist and Media Relations Lead
merikson@bso.org

Rena Cohen
Publicist
rcohen@bso.org

Voice mailbox: 617-638-9280