BSO — 2025/04/26

 The "Decoding Shostakovich" series continues, with some non-Shostakovich material as well. Here's WCRB's summary:

Saturday, April 26, 2025
8:00 PM

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. 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 Byzantine chant.

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

Aleksandra VREBALOV Love Canticles for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; BSO commission)
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

There are links to the program notes, which could be good reading about these unfamiliar pieces, at the BSO's performance detail page, which begins with this synopsis:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

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

Aleksandra VREBALOV Love Canticles for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director, through the generous support of Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser and the New Works Fund established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.)
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms
-Intermission-
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. Commissioned by the BSO especially for these concerts, Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Love Canticles sets Psalm texts in English from the King James Bible, using the same musical forces as Stravinsky’s masterpiece. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and winner of the prestigious 2024 Grawemeyer Award, Vrebalov composes music of deeply spiritual humanism influenced in part by traditional Eastern Orthodox chant.

Unusually, this evening's concert is the first performance of this program, so there has been no chance for anybody to publish a review. (Usually the Saturday concert is a repeat of what is given on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.) So you can hear the literal world premiere of the Vrebalov, and it could be worth hearing.