BSO 2016/17 Season - Concert Previews

Listen to the Audio Concert Preview for this series. Over the course of three programs, the orchestra presents all five Beethoven piano concertos with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, along with the composer's Triple Concerto and all three Leonore overtures under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi. These concerts trace the evolution of Beethoven as a pianist-composer over 15 years, from the early period influenced by Mozart and Haydn to the middle, so-called "heroic" period, culminating in the Emperor Concerto in 1809. For the final program of the festival Thursday, March 20-Saturday, March 22, Mr. Bronfman will be joined by violinist Guy Braunstein (BSO debut) and cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Listen to the Audio Concert Preview for this series. Over the course of three programs, the orchestra presents all five Beethoven piano concertos with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, along with the composer's Triple Concerto and all three Leonore overtures under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi. These concerts trace the evolution of Beethoven as a pianist-composer over 15 years, from the early period influenced by Mozart and Haydn to the middle, so-called "heroic" period, culminating in the Emperor Concerto in 1809. For the final program of the festival Thursday, March 20-Saturday, March 22, Mr. Bronfman will be joined by violinist Guy Braunstein (BSO debut) and cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Download the Program Notes for this series.Over the course of three programs, the orchestra presents all five Beethoven piano concertos with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, along with the composer's Triple Concerto and all three Leonore overtures under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi. These concerts trace the evolution of Beethoven as a pianist-composer over 15 years, from the early period influenced by Mozart and Haydn to the middle, so-called "heroic" period, culminating in the Emperor Concerto in 1809. For the final program of the festival Thursday, March 20-Saturday, March 22, Mr. Bronfman will be joined by violinist Guy Braunstein (BSO debut) and cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Download the Program Notes for this series. BSO Music Director Designate Andris Nelsons leads a stellar cast in this special, one-night-only concert performance of Salome, Richard Strauss's 1905 leap into modernism. The libretto is a nearly exact German translation of Oscar Wilde's lurid amplification of the well-known Biblical story of Herodias' young daughter Salome, who dances for King Herod and in return demands the head of John the Baptist. The opera's highly innovative music matches the psychological ambiguity and intensity of the plot.

Download the Program Notes for this series. Acclaimed for decades as a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, eminent pianist Menahem Pressler-who recently turned ninety in December 2013-joins members of the BSO for an intimate all-Mozart program of smaller ensemble works, including the Piano Quartet in E-flat, considered one of the composer's greatest chamber music masterpieces. The outer works on this concert-two popular serenades, multi-movement works designed as entertainment during parties-duplicate the all-Mozart program of January 14.

Download the Program Notes for this series. The peerless German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter joins the BSO and Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, for two works by Dvořák: the composer's Violin Concerto, originally conceived for Brahms's friend, the great Joseph Joachim, but never performed by him; and the Romance for violin and orchestra, which began life as the slow movement of the composer's F minor string quartet. Honeck also leads Beethoven's groundbreaking Eroica Symphony, inspired by Napoleon's rise to power.

Audio Podcast - Brian Bell speaks with BSO Principal Oboist John Ferrillo about Loeffler’s Two Rhapsodies, which will be performed at the BSO Chamber Players concert of February 9th, 2014.

Download the Program Notes for this series. Experience a thrilling new presentation of this iconic film and winner of ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The Boston Symphony plays Leonard Bernstein's electrifying score live, while the newly re-mastered film is shown on large screens in high definition with the original vocals and dialogue intact. This classic romantic tragedy, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is one of the greatest achievements in the history of movie musicals. It features Robbins' breath-taking choreography and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman based on the masterful book by Arthur Laurents.

James Markey joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as bass trombonist in August 2012. Having joined the trombone section of the New York Philharmonic in 1997 as associate principal trombone, he became the Philharmonic's bass trombonist in 2007. Previously, he was principal trombone of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. Mr. Markey has had numerous solo appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, United States Army Band, Hora Decima Brass Ensemble, New York Staff Band of the Salvation Army, and the Hanover Wind Symphony.

Brian Bell talks with Bernard Haitink about working with the BSO on standard works like the Brahms 4th Symphony.

Listen to the Audio Concert Preview for this series. BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink is joined by revered American pianist Murray Perahia for the powerful and lyrical Piano Concerto of Robert Schumann. Schumann wrote this piece over several years. Schumann's protégé Johannes Brahms waited until his forties to complete a first symphony, but all four of his works in the genre remain central to the orchestral repertoire. In characteristic understatement, Brahms downplayed the intense, minor-mode Fourth. Opening the program is a wind ensemble re-composition, created by the American, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky of the 17th-century Englishman Henry Purcell's funeral music for Queen Mary.

Download the Program Notes for this series. BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink is joined by revered American pianist Murray Perahia for the powerful and lyrical Piano Concerto of Robert Schumann. Schumann wrote this piece over several years. Schumann's protégé Johannes Brahms waited until his forties to complete a first symphony, but all four of his works in the genre remain central to the orchestral repertoire. In characteristic understatement, Brahms downplayed the intense, minor-mode Fourth. Opening the program is a wind ensemble re-composition, created by the American, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky of the 17th-century Englishman Henry Purcell's funeral music for Queen Mary.

Bernard Haitink speaks with Brian Bell about two pieces on the Ravel program of January 30th, 31st and February 1st, 2014, Daphnis et Chloe, and Maestro Haitink begins with Alborada del gracioso.

Listen to the Audio Concert Preview for this series. BSO Music Director Designate Andris Nelsons leads a stellar cast in this special, one-night-only concert performance of Salome, Richard Strauss's 1905 leap into modernism. The libretto is a nearly exact German translation of Oscar Wilde's lurid amplification of the well-known Biblical story of Herodias' young daughter Salome, who dances for King Herod and in return demands the head of John the Baptist. The opera's highly innovative music matches the psychological ambiguity and intensity of the plot.

Listen to the Audio Concert Preview for this series. BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads two consecutive weeks of concerts this season, beginning with an all-Ravel program featuring the dazzling mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as soloist in the atmospheric orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade. The composer's Spanish-tinged, pictorial Alborada del gracioso opens the program, and the work Ravel considered his best, the complete "symphonie choréographique" Daphnis and Chloé, concludes it. Ravel wrote this cornerstone of musical impressionism for the famous Ballets Russes, which gave the premiere in Paris in 1912.