BSO 2016/17 Season - Concert Previews

Listen to the concert preview for this series! Making his Boston Symphony debut, Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is joined by German violinist Arabella Steinbacher for Mendelssohn's sparkling Violin Concerto. The program concludes with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4, a dark but powerfully majestic work the composer finished in 1936. He withdrew the work prior to its premiere due to fears of official condemnation, writing instead the universally acclaimed, heroic Fifth the following year. The Fourth waited another quarter-century for its first performance.

Download the program notes for this series! Acclaimed for his previous Boston Symphony performances at both Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall, BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger leads a program pairing the Romantic with the ruminative. American violinist Joshua Bell is soloist in Bernstein's Serenade inspired by Plato's Symposium, a dialogue on the nature and value of love. Also on the program are two audience favorites: Tchaikovsky's emotionally charged fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, and Dvoˇrák's bucolic Symphony No. 8.

Watch the second Video in this new podcast series! Cynthia Meyers joined the Boston Symphony as piccolo in the autumn of 2006. Before coming to Boston, she served as the principal piccolo of the Houston Symphony for nine years under the direction of both Christoph Eshenbach and Hans Graf.

Listen to the concert preview for this series! Acclaimed for his previous Boston Symphony performances at both Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall, BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger leads a program pairing the Romantic with the ruminative. American violinist Joshua Bell is soloist in Bernstein's Serenade inspired by Plato's Symposium, a dialogue on the nature and value of love. Also on the program are two audience favorites: Tchaikovsky's emotionally charged fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, and Dvoˇrák's bucolic Symphony No. 8.

Listen to the concert preview for this series! This concert under the direction of acclaimed BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger offers two audience favorites: Tchaikovsky's emotionally charged fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, and Dvořák's bucolic Symphony No. 8. In between, the Hawthorne String Quartet, made up of four BSO members, is featured in Ervín Schulhoff's multi-faceted Concerto for String Quartet and Wind Orchestra (1930). Schulhoff, a gifted Czech composer whose bracing neoclassical style was influenced by jazz, died of tuberculosis in a concentration camp in 1942.

Watch the first Video in this new podcast series! Elita Kang has been with the BSO since the start of the 1997-98 season. In February 2001, she was appointed assistant concertmaster. In this interview, Elita discusses her experiences performing with the BSO, what she does when she is not playing music, and her personal highlights of the upcoming 2012-13 season. We look forward to bringing you more features with Boston Symphony Orchestra members throughout the 2012-13 Season!

Listen to the concert preview for this series! Reprising a highlight of the 2011 Tanglewood season, English conductor Bramwell Tovey, the BSO, a distinguished cast of soloists-headlined by Alfred Walker and Laquita Mitchell in the title roles-and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus present concert performances of George Gershwin's great American masterpiece, the blues-and-jazz inflected "Porgy and Bess". Described by the composer as an "American folk opera," Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway in 1935 and only slowly gained traction in the traditional world of opera. Three quarters of a century later, it has assumed its rightful place among the greatest works of America's music.

Listen to the concert preview for this concert! Legendary Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and conductor to begin the 2012-2013 season with an all-Beethoven Opening Night at Symphony. The program starts with the composer's lyrical early Romances No. 1 and 2 for violin and orchestra. Completing the program is the danceinfused Symphony No. 7 which the composer himself acknowledged as one of his finest works.

Listen to the Program Notes! Legendary Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and conductor to begin the 2012-2013 season with an all-Beethoven Opening Night at Symphony. The program starts with the composer's lyrical early Romances No. 1 and 2 for violin and orchestra. Completing the program is the danceinfused Symphony No. 7 which the composer himself acknowledged as one of his finest works.

Listen to the concert preview for this series! The 2011-12 BSO season closes triumphantly with the last of three Bernard Haitink-led concerts, a program of two very different works for voices and orchestra. Stravinsky's beautifully austere Symphony of Psalms was commissioned to commemorate the Boston Symphony's 50th anniversary and was given its American premiere by the BSO under Serge Koussevitzky in December 1930.

Donwload the Program Notes! The 2011-12 BSO season closes triumphantly with the last of three Bernard Haitink-led concerts, a program of two very different works for voices and orchestra. Stravinsky's beautifully austere Symphony of Psalms was commissioned to commemorate the Boston Symphony's 50th anniversary and was given its American premiere by the BSO under Serge Koussevitzky in December 1930.

Listen to the concert preview for this series! In the second of his three BSO programs this season, Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads Beethoven's warm and ever-popular "Pastoral" Symphony, which depicts a pleasant day in the country (notwithstanding a brief thunderstorm). Equally pastoral, but from a different world, is Debussy's lush, languid, modern "Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun", which reveals the still-young composer's mastery of a new musical language.

Download the Program Notes for this series! In the second of his three BSO programs this season, Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads Beethoven's warm and ever-popular "Pastoral" Symphony, which depicts a pleasant day in the country (notwithstanding a brief thunderstorm). Equally pastoral, but from a different world, is Debussy's lush, languid, modern "Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun", which reveals the still-young composer's mastery of a new musical language.

Listen to the concert preview for this series! BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads three weeks of programs to conclude the 2011-12 season. He is joined by popular actress Claire Bloom as narrator and the bright young singers Layla Claire and Kate Lindsey for Mendelssohn's delightful complete incidental music to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", also featuring the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Opening these three weeks of concerts, each of which features a Beethoven symphony, is the composer's Symphony No. 1, a piece many years in the making that helped establish Beethoven's status as the major inheritor of the Viennese Classical style from Mozart and Haydn.

Download the Program Notes for this series! BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink leads three weeks of programs to conclude the 2011-12 season. He is joined by popular actress Claire Bloom as narrator and the bright young singers Layla Claire and Kate Lindsey for Mendelssohn's delightful complete incidental music to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", also featuring the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Opening these three weeks of concerts, each of which features a Beethoven symphony, is the composer's Symphony No. 1, a piece many years in the making that helped establish Beethoven's status as the major inheritor of the Viennese Classical style from Mozart and Haydn.