2024-25 BSO Season

Keith Lockhart, conductor

Thirty years since the destruction of the second Death Star, the sinister First Order, commanded by the mysterious Snoke and apprentice Kylo Ren, rise from the ashes of the Empire. The Resistance, led by General Leia Organa, attempts to thwart the First Order's threat, but they're desperate for help. Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, find themselves joining forces with Han Solo and Chewbacca in a perilous mission to return a BB-unit droid back to the Resistance with a map to Luke Skywalker.

Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts. ®All rights reserved.

Keith Lockhart, conductor

Experience the story of “the boy who lived” and his mortal struggle against You-Know-Who as John Williams’ magical score and a vivid narration conjure up this world of wizards and wonders that has captivated audiences for decades.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger, pianos
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Keila Wakao, violin

Carlos SIMON New work (world premiere; BSO commission)
RAVEL Tzigane, for violin and orchestra
CANTELOUBE Selection of Songs of the Auvergne
SAINT-SAËNS Carnival of the Animals, for pianos and orchestra
RAVEL La Valse

Opening Night features the first commission from our new Composer Chair, Carlos Simon, dedicated to Andris Nelson’s 10th anniversary season as music director. Our soloists for the evening include superstar mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, dazzling husband-and-wife pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger, and the winner of the 2023 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, the brilliant newcomer violinist Keila Wakao.

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Cirque de la Symphonie

The peerless artistry of the Boston Pops meets the athletic elegance of some of the most talented circus performers in the world as they tumble and fly through the air to a soundtrack featuring timeless tunes from the silver screen.

Keith Lockhart, Andris Nelsons, and Thomas Wilkins, conductor

We throw open the Symphony Hall doors to showcase all that the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops have to offer, alongside our arts and music education partners and programs from throughout Greater Boston. Join BSO and Pops musicians, Music Director Andris Nelsons, Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart, and Youth and Family Concerts Conductor Thomas Wilkins for a free and joyful afternoon of music-making and community spirit.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
William R. Hudgins, clarinet

Tania LEÓN New work (world premiere; BSO co-commission)
COPLAND Clarinet Concerto
BARBER Adagio for Strings
Carlos SIMON Wake Up: A Concerto for Orchestra

Music Director Andris Nelsons leads this all-American program including works by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León and inaugural BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon. BSO Principal Clarinet William R. Hudgins is the soloist in Aaron Copland’s delightful Clarinet Concerto, contrasting with Samuel Barber’s soulful Adagio for Strings.

Featuring an all-American program curated by Carlos Simon

This is a non-subscription performance

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Latonia Moore, soprano 1
Christine Goerke, soprano 2
Ying Fang, soprano 3
Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo-soprano 1
Gerhild Romberger, mezzo-soprano 2
Andreas Schager, tenor
Michael Nagy, baritone
Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor
Boys of the St. Paul’s Choir School
 Brandon Straub, Music Director

MAHLER Symphony No. 8

Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” for eight soloists, large chorus, children’s chorus, organ, and orchestra, was the composer’s most ambitious work philosophically as well as musically. By pairing in this oratorio-like work – a vast setting of the hymn “Veni, creator spiritus” – with the redemptive final scene of Goethe’s Faust, Mahler strives for the widest possible scope of spiritual optimism.

Samy Rachid, conductor
Olivier Latry, organ

BERLIOZ Waverley Overture
Michael GANDOLFI Ascending Light, for organ and orchestra
SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3, Organ Symphony

BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid makes his BSO subscription debut in a program featuring the glorious Symphony Hall organ. Olivier Latry, organist at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, premiered Michael Gandolfi’s Ascending Light here in 2015. The BSO-commissioned work was composed as tribute to Armenian culture on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Camille Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony features the organ prominently in its majestic finale. Hector Berlioz’s Waverley Overture evokes the romance and intrigue of Sir Walter Scott’s historical novels.

Xian Zhang, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano

CHEN Yi Landscape Impression
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
MOZART Symphony No. 39

Xian Zhang makes her Symphony Hall debut leading a work she premiered with the New Jersey Symphony in June 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese-born composer Chen Yi’s Landscape Impression. American pianist Jonathan Biss is the soloist in Robert Schumann’s lyrical and powerful Piano Concerto. Schumann wrote the piece at the urging of his wife Clara, one of the great pianists of the age. Mozart’s elegant Symphony No. 39 was the first of his final trilogy of symphonies, written at lightning speed in summer 1788.

Xian Zhang, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano

CHEN Yi Landscape Impression
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
MOZART Symphony No. 39

Xian Zhang makes her Symphony Hall debut leading a work she premiered with the New Jersey Symphony in June 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese-born composer Chen Yi’s Landscape Impression. American pianist Jonathan Biss is the soloist in Robert Schumann’s lyrical and powerful Piano Concerto. Schumann wrote the piece at the urging of his wife Clara, one of the great pianists of the age. Mozart’s elegant Symphony No. 39 was the first of his final trilogy of symphonies, written at lightning speed in summer 1788.

Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Hannah KENDALL O flower of fire (American premiere)
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings dazzling elegance to Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which distills the turbulent essence of Romanticism. Italian-British conductor Antonio Pappano also leads two works asking deep questions of humanity while expanding the range of the orchestra. Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, with its immediately recognizable opening “sunrise,” is a musical response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s metaphysical novel of the same name. Hannah Kendall uses unusual orchestral techniques and music boxes in her recent O flower of fire, inspired by the work of Guyanese-British poet Martin Carter.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

POULENC Sonata for flute and piano
POULENC Sonata for oboe and piano
POULENC Sonata for clarinet and piano
Betsy JOLAS Music for here, for bassoon, viola, and cello
FRANÇAIX Dixtour for winds and strings

Brett Miller, organ

Experience the grotesque terror of F.R. Murnau’s 1922 genre-defining horror classic just as silent-film audiences of the time did, with live organ accompaniment creating a chilling atmosphere that will have you shaking in your seat!

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Based on an original poem and characters created by Tim Burton, the film was first released in 1993 as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach), the film follows the earnest-but-misguided adventures of Jack Skellington, Halloween Town's beloved Pumpkin King.

Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine of Halloween, Jack longs to try something new. Convinced that he can spread the joy of Christmas and against the advice of Sally, a caring and clever ragdoll, Jack enlists three mischievous trick-or-treaters – Lock, Shock, and Barrel – to kidnap Santa Claus. But Jack’s merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere.

The film is rated “PG.”

Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts. ®All rights reserved.

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Step into the mesmerizing world of Mexican tradition as we present a vibrant celebration of "El Día de Muertos" – The Day of the Dead. Join us for an evening filled with music that honors this rich cultural heritage where life and death intertwine in a beautiful tapestry of remembrance and reverence.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Gerald Clayton, piano
Renese King, vocalist
Vocal Ensemble

ALL-ELLINGTON PROGRAM
Three Black Kings
New World A-Coming, for piano and orchestra
Night Creature
Selection from the Sacred Concerts

The BSO and Thomas Wilkins mark the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death with three of this American musical genius’ symphonically ambitious “Tone Parallels” — his personal take on the tone poem; Gerald Clayton is soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming. Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts of 1965, 1968, and 1973, conceived as a parallel to traditional European church music, feature styles at the core of jazz, including gospel, the blues, and spirituals in a multi-dimensional, oratorio-like presentation.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Gerald Clayton, piano
Renese King, vocalist
Vocal Ensemble

ALL-ELLINGTON PROGRAM
Three Black Kings
New World A-Coming, for piano and orchestra
Night Creature
Selection from the Sacred Concerts

The BSO and Thomas Wilkins mark the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death with three of this American musical genius’ symphonically ambitious “Tone Parallels” — his personal take on the tone poem; Gerald Clayton is soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming. Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts of 1965, 1968, and 1973, conceived as a parallel to traditional European church music, feature styles at the core of jazz, including gospel, the blues, and spirituals in a multi-dimensional, oratorio-like presentation.

Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (BYSO)

PROKOFIEV Peter and the Wolf

Philippe Jordan, conductor
Jan Lisiecki, piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki is the soloist in Mozart’s mysterious and stormy Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor which owes much to the composer’s sensitivity to operatic drama and expressivity. This concerto was particularly admired by artists of the Romantic era. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky said of his poignant Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, “I love it as I have never loved any of my musical children.” It was his last completed work; he led the premiere less than two weeks before his death

Philippe Jordan, conductor
Jan Lisiecki, piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki is the soloist in Mozart’s mysterious and stormy Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor which owes much to the composer’s sensitivity to operatic drama and expressivity. This concerto was particularly admired by artists of the Romantic era. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky said of his poignant Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, “I love it as I have never loved any of my musical children.” It was his last completed work; he led the premiere less than two weeks before his death

Samy Rachid, conductor (Schoenberg)
Randall Hodgkinson, piano

Kevin PUTS (new work)
Adam SCHOENBERG Slice (BSO co-commission)
BRITTEN Temporal Variations, for oboe and piano
COPLAND Appalachian Spring

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano
Rod Gilfry, baritone
Wendall Harrington, video artist

MOZART Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio
MOZART Symphony No. 36, Linz
Kevin PUTS The Brightness of Light, for soprano, baritone, and orchestra

Painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband Alfred Stieglitz tell their love story in Kevin Puts’ poignantly romantic The Brightness of Light, a BSO commission composed for Renée Fleming. Wendall Harrington designed the accompanying lush projections based on images from O’Keeffe’s life and work. The program opens with two high-spirited Mozart works dating from his early Vienna years, when he was creating a new life as an independent composer.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Ross Jamie Collins and Na’Zir McFadden, Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows
Sergio Tiempo, piano

SIBELIUS Finlandia
GRIEG Piano Concerto
GRIEG Holberg Suite
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 7

Andris Nelsons and our two summer 2024 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows share this concert of Norwegian and Finnish works. Argentine pianist Sergio Tiempo is soloist in the Norwegian Edvard Grieg’s fiery Piano Concerto, paired with the composer’s delightful Holberg Suite, based on Baroque dances. Jean Sibelius composed Finlandia pointedly to elevate Finnish national feeling, and it succeeded wonderfully, becoming one of his most popular works. His late single-movement Seventh Symphony is the ultimate expression of his personal musical language.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 2
Symphony No. 3, Eroica

Our exploration of Beethoven starts with his beginnings as an acolyte of Joseph Haydn and W.A. Mozart in his Symphony No. 1 in 1800. Beethoven revolutionized the symphony – and the language of music – through the startlingly innovative Second and Third (Eroica) symphonies which incorporated the heroic journey into symphonic form

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No.4
Symphony No. 5

Beethoven composed his Fourth and Fifth symphonies almost concurrently, but they’re very different in their expressive impact. The Fourth is one of Beethoven’s warmest, most congenial works, sharing that mood with the Violin Concerto completed just after the symphony. The Fifth Symphony, by contrast, creates wonderful intensity through the famous four-note “fate” motif—perhaps the most famous musical fragment of all time—and resolves that tension in a triumphant finale.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Symphony No. 7

Beethoven conceived his Pastoral Symphony, No. 6, as an illustration of a lovely day spent in the countryside, where we encounter babbling brooks, birds of various sorts, friendly country dwellers, and a brief, tumultuous storm. His Seventh Symphony has long been one of his most popular works—especially its solemn Allegretto, which had such an effect at its premiere that it was immediately encored.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Amanda Majeski, soprano
Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano
Pavel Černoch, tenor
Andrè Schuen, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 8
Symphony No. 9

For all his reputation as a prickly artistic genius whose music crackles with heaven-storming power, Beethoven shared with his teacher Haydn a delightful musical wit, nowhere so clearly demonstrated as in his Eighth Symphony. The cycle concludes with his hugely ambitious and all-embracing Ninth, a revolution in and of itself; it was the first symphony to include chorus, transforming Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” into a rallying cry for humanity.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christine Goerke, soprano (Marietta)
Elisa Sunshine, soprano (Juliette)
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano (Brigitte)
Brandon Jovanovich, tenor (Paul)
Joshua Sanders, tenor (Victorin)
Neal Ferreira, tenor (Gaston)
Terrence Chin-Joy, tenor (Graf Albert)
Andrzej Filończyk, baritone (Frank)
Elliot Madore, baritone (Fritz)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor

KORNGOLD Die tote Stadt*

Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”) is an incredibly tender work, embodying the twilight of the Romantic era. Korngold, a remarkable prodigy who later became one of Hollywood’s most important composers, began the opera when he was only 19 and completed it at age 23. It opened simultaneously in December 1920 in Cologne and Hamburg and became one of the biggest operatic successes of the era. The opera’s theme of struggling with the memory of a lost loved one undoubtedly resonated with audiences still traumatized by the recent catastrophe of World War I.

*Sung in German with English supertitles.
Presented in collaboration with the Boston Lyric Opera.

Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Veronika Eberle, violin

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
STRAVINSKY The Firebird (1919 suite)

French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann makes her BSO conducting debut with German violinist Veronika Eberle in her Symphony Hall debut in Beethoven’s towering Violin Concerto. Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and Stravinsky’s ballet score The Firebird are both marvels of orchestral brilliance from the 1910s: Ravel’s one of his many Spanish-influenced confections and Stravinsky’s a journey through a Russian folk tale of heroism, magic, and renewal that vaulted the composer to the forefront of modern music.

Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Herbert Blomstedt, celebrating a seven-decade conducting career, returns to lead the BSO in Franz Schubert's light-hearted, cheerful Symphony No. 6, composed when he was 20 and notable as a satisfyingly classical work preceding his more searching later symphonies. Brahms was strongly influenced by Schubert but more so still by Beethoven, whose symphonic shadow apparently kept Brahms from completing his First Symphony until he was 43 years old. A prominent theme in its finale is a direct nod to Beethoven’s Ninth.

J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
Samy Rachid, conductor (Golijov)

SCHUBERT Notturno in E-flat for violin, cello, and piano, D.897
RAVEL Chansons madecasses
Osvaldo GOLIJOV Laika
BRAHMS String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 18

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Isabelle Faust, violin

HAYDN Symphony No. 48, Marie Therese
STRAVINSKY Violin Concerto
HAYDN Symphony No. 99

Isabelle Faust and Alan Gilbert return for Stravinsky’s bracing, wry Violin Concerto, a work at the core of his sparkling and witty neoclassical period. Bracketing Stravinsky’s concerto are two Joseph Haydn works from early and late in his symphonic career, during which he largely created the foundations for the 18th-century Viennese Classical era.

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Alban Gerhardt, cello

Gabriela ORTIZ Revolución diamantina
TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini

Acclaimed Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, known for her vibrant instrumental colors and skill with dramatic narrative, wrote her ballet score Revolución diamantina with Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. The piece explores the powerful Mexican feminist “Glitter Revolution” campaign to highlight an epidemic of violence against women. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wonderfully depicts love’s passion and an infernal whirlwind in his tone poem Francesca da Rimini, inspired by a historic injustice recounted in Dante’s Inferno. Murdered by her husband, Francesca suffers in the second level of hell for her lustfulness, buffeted by an eternal storm. As a contrast, Alban Gerhardt is soloist in the composer’s charming Variations on a Rococo Theme.

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Alban Gerhardt, cello

Gabriela ORTIZ Revolución diamantina
TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini

Acclaimed Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, known for her vibrant instrumental colors and skill with dramatic narrative, wrote her ballet score Revolución diamantina with Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. The piece explores the powerful Mexican feminist “Glitter Revolution” campaign to highlight an epidemic of violence against women. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wonderfully depicts love’s passion and an infernal whirlwind in his tone poem Francesca da Rimini, inspired by a historic injustice recounted in Dante’s Inferno. Murdered by her husband, Francesca suffers in the second level of hell for her lustfulness, buffeted by an eternal storm. As a contrast, Alban Gerhardt is soloist in the composer’s charming Variations on a Rococo Theme.

Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano

LIADOV The Enchanted Lake
BARTÓK Piano Concerto No. 3
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3

South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her BSO debut with a trio of pieces exploring innovation within tradition. Star pianist Inon Barnatan returns to Symphony Hall to take on one of Bartók’s final works, the Third Piano Concerto, a love letter to his wife and his home country. While living in poverty in New York having fled the onslaught of the Nazis into Hungary, Bartók’s creativity had stalled out, and his body was failing from a long illness. The concerto — not quite finished when he passed — is a more gentle and accessibly poetic work than his previous concerti, a summation of where Bartók’s style left him at the end of his life.

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Ray Chen, violin
Dashon Burton, baritone

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
Michael TILSON THOMAS Whitman Songs
BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Ray Chen plays Tchaikovsky’s beloved Violin Concerto, the first work the composer completed after his separation from his disastrous marriage and a piece he almost dedicated to his student – and likely lover and inspiration, Iosif Kotek. 120 years later, Michael Tilson Thomas lovingly set three of Walt Whitman poems about longing and belonging for baritone and orchestra. Leonard Bernstein’s star-crossed lovers close the program in an iconic love letter to New York and love itself.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor

Edwin Outwater, conductor

COLTRANE Legacy for Orchestra
Arranged and curated by Carlos Simon

Considered one of the most preeminent jazz artists of all time, and one of the most influential musical artists of any genre, John Coltrane has truly played a part in shaping the music of today. Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra is a new live concert experience re-framing some of John Coltrane’s most popular and influential works with lush orchestrations, accompanied by exclusive and recently-exhibited personal photographs of John Coltrane.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Erin Morley, soprano
Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano
Anthony Gregory, tenor
Morris Robinson, bass
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

Arvo PÄRT Tabula Rasa
MOZART Requiem

This concert probes the intersection of quiet contemplation and fervent prayers, beginning with Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa — an introspective piece exploring silence, space, and spirituality that quietly changed the shape of 20th century music.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
ELGAR Violin Concerto

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919 explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Adolphus HAILSTORK Lachrymosa: 1919
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
ELGAR Violin Concerto

Dima Slobodeniouk leads three works, all notable for their proximity to wartime. Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto can be seen in retrospect as an idyllic calm before the storm of World War I. Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919 explores the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of the war. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was the composer’s dark reaction to the universal devastation of World War II.

Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (BYSO)
Marta Żurad, conductor
Matt Roberts, magician

Anna Handler, conductor (Langer)

Elena LANGER Five Reflections on Water
Sofia GUBAIDULINA Sonata for bass and piano
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Symphony No. 6
Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

The first in our series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the composer folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Written more than 50 years after the Russian Revolution and during another point of political and historical upheaval, Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony is a revisitation of the events of Bloody Sunday, integrating Russian folk and revolutionary songs. The final movement is simultaneously a rallying cry and a warning to future tyrants.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Symphony No. 6
Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

The first in our series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the composer folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Written more than 50 years after the Russian Revolution and during another point of political and historical upheaval, Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony is a revisitation of the events of Bloody Sunday, integrating Russian folk and revolutionary songs. The final movement is simultaneously a rallying cry and a warning to future tyrants.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Cello Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

A part of our series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the composer folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Yo-Yo Ma brings the specter of resistance to the stage. Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto is a prime example of the composer using music to protest an authoritarian regime; the cello stands defiant against the orchestra, often playing out its own theme not reflected in the ensemble, until it disseminates into a wild cadenza and is whisked away into a sudden abrupt end.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Mitsuko Uchida, piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 15

Mitsuki Uchida has, from an early age, been considered a standout interpreter of Beethoven. This is considered Beethoven’s first piano concerto wherein he broke away from the more traditional format prescribed by Mozart (an orchestral introduction with a dramatic solo entrance) and created his own way forward, letting the instrument speak for itself — intimately and delicately so — and leading the way for the rest of the ensemble. Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony is his last symphony and is full of quotations, codes, clues, and ambiguity. This is an experience defying description which invites the listener to create their own personal interpretation.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

Aleksandra VREBALOV New work for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; BSO commission)
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

This program pairs Shostakovich’s introspective, classically elegant Sixth Symphony with Stravinsky’s austerely profound Symphony of Psalms, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the BSO’s 50th anniversary. In fact, Shostakovich so revered Stravinsky’s piece that he made a two-piano arrangement of the score. The BSO commissioned Aleksandra Vrebalov to compose a psalm setting using the same musical forces as Stravinsky’s masterpiece. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and winner of the prestigious 2023 Grawemeyer Award, Vrebalov composes music of deeply spiritual humanism influenced in part by Orthodox chant.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Baiba Skride, violin

ALL-SHOSTAKOVICH program
Violin Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 8

A part of our series looking at the music and times of Dmitri Shostakovich and how the composer folded messages of revolution and resistance into his music during a politically turbulent time. Latvian violinist Baiba Skride brings her signature dulcet tones to Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. This work is a deeply personal one, influenced by the composer’s fear of the Soviet censors and actual encounters with restrictive directives from the government. These bitter feelings toward the regime especially color the third and fourth movements. In this way and many others, we see the composer finding ways to stand up to prevailing political winds; for example, the whole piece is shot through with Jewish klezmer influence at a time when antisemitism was on the rise in the USSR.