This evening's concert is the last of the season. WCRB gives us the basics; https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2026-01-08/slobodeniouk-and-beethovens-ninth-with-the-bso-and-tfc
Saturday, May 2, 2026
8:00 PM
For the final concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-2026 season, Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus in John Adams’ spaciously pulsating Harmonium and, with four stellar soloists, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and its “Ode to Joy.”.
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Andrea Carroll, soprano
Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Haji, tenor
Morris Robinson, bass
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Jean-Sébastien Vallée, guest choral conductorJohn ADAMS Harmonium
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9
The BSO performance detail page https://www.bso.org/events/apr-30-may-3-adams-beethoven?performance=2026-05-02-20:00 gives access to performer bios as well as program notes when you click on the arrows next to the names of the performers or the pieces. There we also read the following:
Boston Symphony Orchestra Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor Andrea Carroll, soprano Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano Andrew Haji, tenor Morris Robinson, bass Tanglewood Festival Chorus Jean-Sébastien Vallée, guest choral conductorJohn ADAMS Harmonium intermissionBEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9*
*Performed in German with English supertitles
Returning for his second BSO program this season, Dima Slobodeniouk leads one of the American composer John Adams’ first major works, Harmonium for chorus and orchestra. Written in 1981 for the San Francisco Symphony, this grand, half-hour work sets a poem by John Donne and two by Emily Dickinson in gradually unfolding, majestic textures. With its slowly evolving harmonic fields and rhythmic energy, Harmonium marked the future Pulitzer Prize winner and composer of the operas Doctor Atomic and Nixon in China as an important and original voice in American music. Beethoven's larger-than-life, ecstatic Symphony No. 9 closes the season.
I suppose we all know what to expect with the Beethoven, but the Adams will be new to me, so I found the program note worth reading.
The review in the Intelligencer is very descriptive. https://classical-scene.com/2026/05/01/brisk-symphony/
I recommend listening.
