BSO 2016/17 Season - Concert Previews

Listen to the Concert Preview! This unique program, led by James Levine and featuring casts of internationally acclaimed vocalists, presents two short 20th-century operatic masterworks in concert performances. Stravinsky wrote his Latin-language "opera-oratorio" Oedipus Rex in collaboration with the French multi-talented playwright and artist Jean Cocteau. Their choice of Latin for this austere masterpiece lends the familiar story a sense of ritual. Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle", one of a trio of stage works defining the composer's lush, brilliant, and exotic music of the 1910s, is based on Charles Perrault's dark fairy tale of Duke Bluebeard.

Listen to the audio analysis of Harbison's Symphony No. 2, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the audio analysis of Schumann's Symphony No. 2, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Download the Program Notes. James Levine leads the BSO and Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider in Mozart's elegant Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the five concertos for the instrument Mozart wrote in his late teens. Also on the program are Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 2 and John Harbison's Symphony No. 2.

Listen to the audio analysis of Schumann's Symphony No. 3, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the audio analysis of Harbison's Symphony No. 1, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the Concert Preview! James Levine leads the BSO and Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider in Mozart's elegant Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the five concertos for the instrument Mozart wrote in his late teens. Also on the program are Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 2 and John Harbison's Symphony No. 2.

Listen to the Concert Preview! In celebration of Robert Schumann's bicentennial, the BSO performs the composer's four symphonies in a three-week span, continuing this week with James Levine leading the Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish", which was inspired by the composer's environs in Northern Germany and the Rhine River. Maestro Levine also continues the BSO's two-season cycle of complete John Harbison symphonies.

Download the Program Notes. In celebration of Robert Schumann's bicentennial, the BSO performs the composer's four symphonies in a three-week span, continuing this week with James Levine leading the Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish", which was inspired by the composer's environs in Northern Germany and the Rhine River. Maestro Levine also continues the BSO's two-season cycle of complete John Harbison symphonies.

Watch the video interview with Kurt Masur! The BSO celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great German composer Robert Schumann with three concerts encompassing all four of the composer's symphonies. In the first of these programs, Kurt Masur leads the First and Fourth symphonies as part of an all-Schumann program also featuring the Piano Concerto, with the esteemed Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire as soloist.

Watch the biography of Robert Schumann from the BSO's Classical Companion!

Listen to the audio analysis of Schumann's Symphony No. 1, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the audio analysis of Schumann's Symphony No. 4, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the audio analysis of Schumann's Piano Concerto, taken from the BSO Classical Companion.

Listen to the Concert Preview! The BSO celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great German composer Robert Schumann with three concerts encompassing all four of the composer's symphonies. In the first of these programs, Kurt Masur leads the First and Fourth symphonies as part of an all-Schumann program also featuring the Piano Concerto, with the esteemed Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire as soloist.