BSO 2016/17 Season - Concert Previews

Listen to the concert preview. Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo and Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein return to Symphony Hall, joining the BSO and the men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for the visionary Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni's monumental Piano Concerto, a fascinating but rarely heard work of Mahlerian scope dating from the first years of the 20th century. These are the first BSO performances. (Future BSO conductor Karl Muck led the premiere in Berlin in 1904.) Opening the program is a very different sort of piece from the same era, Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 3, a sunny, open work with numerous touches of folk-music simplicity.

Listen to the concert preview. Andris Nelsons is joined by countertenor Bejun Mehta and the Boston-based Lorelei Ensemble in the BSO's first performances of esteemed English composer George Benjamin's Dream of the Song, commissioned by the BSO for the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. Opening the program is Ravel's colorful orchestral version of his solo piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, inspired in part by the French Baroque composer François Couperin. Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, his first masterpiece, is innovative in form, remarkably forward-thinking in its use of the orchestra, and quintessentially Romantic in its depiction of an artist's unrequited love.

Listen to the concert preview. Andris Nelsons is joined by countertenor Bejun Mehta and the Boston-based Lorelei Ensemble in the BSO's first performances of esteemed English composer George Benjamin's Dream of the Song, commissioned by the BSO for the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. Opening the program is Ravel's colorful orchestral version of his solo piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, inspired in part by the French Baroque composer François Couperin. Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, his first masterpiece, is innovative in form, remarkably forward-thinking in its use of the orchestra, and quintessentially Romantic in its depiction of an artist's unrequited love..

Download the Program Notes. Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax team up for one of the pianist's favorites, Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The American composer Gunther Schuller wrote his kaleidoscopic Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee in 1959.

Listen to the concert preview. Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax team up for one of the pianist's favorites, Mozart's gregarious, large-scale Piano Concerto in E-flat, K.482, composed in late 1785 when Mozart was also working on his comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. The American composer Gunther Schuller wrote his kaleidoscopic Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee in 1959.

Listen to the concert preview. J.S. Bach's B minor Mass is one of the great works of music history. Although Bach composed most of his sacred cantatas, masses, and Passions wholly in the Lutheran tradition, the B minor Mass sets the complete conventional Catholic Mass text in its five big sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Composed over the course of several years beginning in 1733, the Mass is a monumental, encyclopedic achievement, a culmination of Bach's lifetime of music for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra.

Listen to the concert preview. J.S. Bach's B minor Mass is one of the great works of music history. Although Bach composed most of his sacred cantatas, masses, and Passions wholly in the Lutheran tradition, the B minor Mass sets the complete conventional Catholic Mass text in its five big sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Composed over the course of several years beginning in 1733, the Mass is a monumental, encyclopedic achievement, a culmination of Bach's lifetime of music for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra.

Listen to the concert preview. Juanjo Mena leads the American premiere of the fine English composer Julian Anderson's Incantesimi, co-commissioned by the BSO, the Royal Philharmonic Society, and the Berlin Philharmonic, which gave the world premiere in June 2016. Incantesimi is a study in long lines, using "five musical ideas that orbit each other in ever-differing relationships." French pianist/composer Jean-Frédéric Neuburger-introduced to BSO audiences in the 2014-15 season via the world premiere of his composition Aube-makes his BSO debut as piano soloist in Robert Schumann's passionate, lyrical Piano Concerto, which began life as a single-movement work and was written for Schumann's wife Clara, one of the great pianists of the age.

Listen to the concert preview. Juanjo Mena leads the American premiere of the fine English composer Julian Anderson's Incantesimi, co-commissioned by the BSO, the Royal Philharmonic Society, and the Berlin Philharmonic, which gave the world premiere in June 2016. Incantesimi is a study in long lines, using "five musical ideas that orbit each other in ever-differing relationships." French pianist/composer Jean-Frédéric Neuburger-introduced to BSO audiences in the 2014-15 season via the world premiere of his composition Aube-makes his BSO debut as piano soloist in Robert Schumann's passionate, lyrical Piano Concerto, which began life as a single-movement work and was written for Schumann's wife Clara, one of the great pianists of the age.

Listen to the concert preview. The great Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer joins Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena and the BSO for the Polish-born Soviet composer Moisey Weinberg's Violin Concerto. Weinberg-whose music has never been performed by the BSO-moved to the Soviet Union at the start of World War II, becoming a friend and protégé of Dmitri Shostakovich, who intervened with authorities when Weinberg was arrested on political grounds. Weinberg's Violin Concerto (1959) is a substantial work with a strong stylistic kinship to Shostakovich's music.

Listen to the concert preview. The great Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer joins Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena and the BSO for the Polish-born Soviet composer Moisey Weinberg's Violin Concerto. Weinberg-whose music has never been performed by the BSO-moved to the Soviet Union at the start of World War II, becoming a friend and protégé of Dmitri Shostakovich, who intervened with authorities when Weinberg was arrested on political grounds. Weinberg's Violin Concerto (1959) is a substantial work with a strong stylistic kinship to Shostakovich's music.

Listen to the concert preview. English conductor Bramwell Tovey is joined by virtuoso American organist Cameron Carpenter, who makes his BSO subscription series debut in a work written for him, At the Royal Majestic, by the innovative American composer Terry Riley, a founding father of musical minimalism. Himself an organist, Riley created this eclectic large-scale concerto "shifting, as its title suggests, from sounds reminiscent of the Mighty Wurlitzer housed in the grand movie palaces, to fragments of Calliope, Baroque Chorales, occasional craggy dissonance of clashing pipes, and boogie."

Listen to the concert preview. English conductor Bramwell Tovey is joined by virtuoso American organist Cameron Carpenter, who makes his BSO subscription series debut in a work written for him, At the Royal Majestic, by the innovative American composer Terry Riley, a founding father of musical minimalism. Himself an organist, Riley created this eclectic large-scale concerto "shifting, as its title suggests, from sounds reminiscent of the Mighty Wurlitzer housed in the grand movie palaces, to fragments of Calliope, Baroque Chorales, occasional craggy dissonance of clashing pipes, and boogie."

Listen to the concert preview. Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948.

Listen to the concert preview. Soloists from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra take center stage in this highly unusual, far-ranging program led by BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur. BSO piccoloist Cynthia Meyers performs Vivaldi's delightful Piccolo Concerto in C. BSO principal clarinet William Hudgins and clarinetist Michael Wayne are soloists in Mozart-contemporary Franz Krommer's Concerto No. 2 for two clarinets. BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs is soloist in French composer André Jolivet's Concertino for trumpet, piano, and strings, a dynamic, three-movement work from 1948.