BSO — 2026/05/02

 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

1. 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 conductor

   John 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.

Tanglewood — 2025/08/24

 I'm sorry I missed posting about yesterday's concert. My high school class 65th reunion, along with staffing the town's Task Force Against Discrimination's booth at the farmers' market, distracted me. If you listened, you got to hear Poulenc's "Gloria"and Holst's "The Planets." If you missed it or want to hear it again, WCRB offers concerts "On demand" for a while.

Tonight we get the traditional end-of-season Beethoven Ninth Symphony. This year it's preceded by the world premiere of "Words and Prayers of My Fathers" by Carlos Simon. Here's the blurb from WCRB: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-05-27/earl-lee-leads-the-bso-in-beethovens-ode-to-joy

Sunday, August 24, 2025
7:00 PM

For the BSO’s final performance of the Tanglewood season, Earl Lee conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with soloists Federica Lombardi, Isabel Signoret, Pene Pati, and Ryan Speedo Green and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The concert begins with the world premiere of Words and Prayers of My Fathers by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, commissioned by the BSO and conducted by BSO Choral Director James Burton.

Earl Lee, conductor
James Burton, conductor (Simon)
Federica Lombardi, soprano
Isabel Signoret, mezzo-soprano
Pene Pati, tenor
Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Carlos SIMON Words and Prayers of My Fathers (world premiere; BSO commission)
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

The BSO performance detail page notes that Zubin Mehta is unable to conduct the Beethoven as scheduled. It also gives all the usual links to performer bios and program notes. You may especially want to read the note about "Words and Prayers of My Fathers." https://www.bso.org/events/bso-august-24-zubin-mehta?performance=2025-08-24-14:30

This should be good.

Tanglewood — 2025/07/26-27

 There are two great evenings of music in store for us. (I'm sorry I missed last evening, but I had returned from several days away and it slipped my mind. If you checked it out without waiting for my preview, I'm sure you enjoyed the concert of music by Bach, Mahler, and Mendelssohn.)

July 26, 2025

This evening a world premiere awaits along with a well known symphony by Mahler.Here's WCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-04-24/a-john-williams-world-premiere-with-emmanuel-ax-at-tanglewood

Saturday, July 26, 2025
8:00 PM

Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the world premiere of John Williams’s Piano Concerto, inspired by three legendary jazz pianists and written for soloist Emanuel Ax, part of a program that also includes the epic musical journey of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

John WILLIAMS Piano Concerto (world premiere)
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 1

To hear a preview of John Williams's Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax, use the player above, and read the transcript below.

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Emanuel Ax. And Manny, thank you so much for a little of your time today. I appreciate it.

Emanuel Ax It's my pleasure to be here

The interview is interesting.

At the BSO's performance detail page https://www.bso.org/events/bso-july-26-emanuel-ax?performance=2025-07-26-20%3A00 we are treated to this synopsis by Robert Kirzinger:

A major new work by John Williams, a full-fledged Concerto for Piano and Orchestra composed for and premiered by Emanuel Ax with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at Tanglewood—it speaks for itself. This warm coming-together of artists who have a deep connection with Tanglewood, its history, and its future can only be topped by the performance itself on Saturday evening in the Shed. In this brilliant, virtuoso concerto, Williams draws on his lifelong love of the piano and some of its most individual talents: its three movements pay homage to jazz greats Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. The concerto shares the Saturday concert with Gustav Mahler’s powerful and lyrical Symphony No. 1. With its broad melodies, hints of birdsong, and its second-movement rustic dance, the symphony channels Mahler’s love of the outdoors and the countryside while also serving as a true orchestral showpiece. 

There are also full program notes for the piano concerto https://www.bso.org/works/john-williams-concerto-for-piano-and-orchestra and for the symphony https://www.bso.org/works/mahler-symphony-no-1-in-d .

It should be interesting to hear a new piece by John Williams.

July 27, 2025

As always the Sunday afternoon concert is broadcast for us on Sunday evening at 7:00, in WCRB's usual "In Concert" time slot. They describe it thus: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-04-24/lang-lang-and-the-bso-play-saint-saens-at-tanglewood

Sunday, July 27, 2025
7:00 PM

Lang Lang is the soloist in the beautifully romantic Piano Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saëns in a program led by Andris Nelsons that also includes Gabriela Ortiz’s exuberant La Calaca, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lang Lang, piano

Gabriela ORTIZ La Calaca, for string orchestra
Camille SAINT-SÄENS Piano Concerto No. 2

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, Pastoral 

Again, the BSO performance detail page for the weekend has a synopsis by Robert Kirzinger, as follows:

Sunday’s concert features another outstanding pianist, Lang Lang, playing Camille Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the best known of the composer’s works. Saint-Saëns, a virtuoso pianist himself, played its premiere in Paris in December 1868. The concert opens with Mexican composer and 2025 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music Director Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, a hypnotically rhythmic, dancing work whose title refers to the stylized, music-loving skeleton figures of Day of the Dead celebrations. Beethoven’s sunny Pastoral Symphony—complete with birdsong, a country dance, and a brief (musical) summer storm—completes the program.

At the page for this concert we find he program notes for the Ortiz work https://www.bso.org/works/ortiz-la-calaca , for the concerto https://www.bso.org/works/piano-concerto-no-2-saint-saens , and for the symphony https://www.bso.org/works/beethoven-symphony-no-6-pastoral .

All in all, it should be a very enjoyable pair of concerts.

Tanglewood — 2025/07/05-06

 This is the week the Boston Symphony returns to Tanglewood, and WCRB will be broadcasting their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday concerts from now through the end of the season on August 24. As usual, the Sunday afternoon concerts will be recorded to be transmitted Sunday evening. Here's what we get this weekend.

WCRB says: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-04-22/opening-night-at-tanglewood-with-daniil-trifinov 

Saturday, July 5, 2025
8:00 PM

The 2025 Tanglewood season opens with an All-Rachmaninoff program, headlined by pianist Daniil Trifonov.The concert begins with the composer’s daunting Piano Concerto No. 3 and closes with the drama and excitement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, all led by Music Director Andris Nelsons.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano

ALL-RACHMANINOFF program
Piano Concerto No. 3
Symphonic Dances

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

The orchestra's performance detail page has links to the program notes and performer bios.

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano

ALL-RACHMANINOFF program
Piano Concerto No. 3
Symphonic Dances

Tonight's concert is generously supported by Jane B. and Robert J. Mayer, M.D.

Sat, Jul 5, 2025, 8:00pm EDT

I expect to be listening.

Then on Sunday, per WCRB:

Sunday, July 6, 2025
7:00 PM

In an All-Beethoven program, Yefim Bronfman is the soloist in composer’s Third Piano Concerto, and Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in the iconic Symphony No. 5.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Leonore Overture No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 3
Symphony No. 5

Meanwhile, at the performance detail page we get:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Leonore Overture No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 3
Symphony No. 5

The Leonore Overture No. 3 is the one that is usually played in concerts and recorded, so this should be interesting. The program note gives some background. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing this concert on Sunday evening.

BSO/Classical New England — 2025/06/07

 From Tanglewood 2023:

https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2023-06-08/carmina-burana-with-nelsons-and-the-bso-at-tanglewood

Saturday, June 7, 2025
8:00 PM

In an encore broadcast from the 2023 Tanglewood season, Erin Morley, Reginald Mobley, Will Liverman, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus bring you Orff’s bawdy and intimate Carmina Burana.

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Erin Morley, soprano
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Will Liverman, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
James Burton, conductor
Boston Children’s Chorus,
Emily Howe, conductor
Kenneth Griffith, music director

Ludwing Van BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
Carl ORFF Carmina burana

This concert was originally broadcast on July 16th, 2023 and is no longer available on demand.

and

https://www.bso.org/events/bso-carmina-burana?performance=2023-07-16-14:30 

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Erin Morley, soprano
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Will Liverman, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor
Boston Children’s Chorus
 Emily Howe, conductor
 Kenneth Griffith, music director

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
ORFF Carmina burana

Sung in Latin with English supertitles

The link to the program note for the Beethoven still works, but not the one for the Orff. Unfortuately this means that unless you can find the texts somewhere else, you won't know exactly what they're singing about, although you'll hear the music.

The Beethoven is a staple of the repertoire, and deservedly so. I personally don't care much for the Orff piece, but clearly there are enough who do like it that it still gets played.

BSO/Classical New England — 2025/05/24-26

 Here's the program for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, May 24.

WCRB tells us:

Saturday, May 24, 2025
8:00 PM

The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons continue their journey through all nine Beethoven Symphonies in a special Friday night broadcast of a program that includes the lyric and joyful Symphony No. 4 and the iconic Symphony No. 5.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 5

This concert was originally broadcast on January 17, 2025, and is no longer available on demand.

Learn more about the cultural impact of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony from Matthew Guerrieri, author of The First Four Notes: Beethoven's Fifth and the Human Imagination, in a conversation with WCRB's Brian McCreath.

Learn more about the BSO's "Beethoven and Romanticism" festival.

You can also check out the program notes linked to the BSO performance detail page, which tells us the following:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No.4
-Intermission-
Symphony No. 5

Beethoven composed his Fourth and Fifth symphonies almost concurrently, but they’re very different in their expressive impact. The Fourth is one of Beethoven’s warmest, most congenial works, sharing that mood with the Violin Concerto completed just after the symphony. The Fifth Symphony, by contrast, creates wonderful intensity through the famous four-note “fate” motif—perhaps the most famous musical fragment of all time—and resolves that tension in a triumphant finale.

Sunday, May 25.

Per WCRB:

Sunday, May 25, 2025
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the third part of an epic survey of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, including the Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral Symphony, and the Symphony No. 7, a work infused with dynamic rhythmic energy.

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Symphony No. 7

This concert was originally broadcast on January 18, 2025, and is no longer available on demand.

Learn more about the BSO's "Beethoven and Romanticism" festival.

From the performance detail page:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
-Intermission-
Symphony No. 7

Beethoven conceived his Pastoral Symphony, No. 6, as an illustration of a lovely day spent in the countryside, where we encounter babbling brooks, birds of various sorts, friendly country dwellers, and a brief, tumultuous storm. His Seventh Symphony has long been one of his most popular works—especially its solemn Allegretto, which had such an effect at its premiere that it was immediately encored.

Monday, May 26.

For your Memorial Day enjoyment.

Here's WCRB's blurb:

Monday, May 26, 2025
8:00 PM

The Boston Symphony’s Beethoven cycle, led by Music Director Andris Nelsons, culminates with the playful Symphony No. 8 and the Symphony No. 9, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and a stellar cast of soloists in its iconic final movement, the “Ode to Joy.”

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Sara Jakubiak, soprano
Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano
David Butt Philip, tenor
Andrè Schuen, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 8
Symphony No. 9

This concert was last broadcast on January 25, 2025, and is no longer available on demand.

Learn more about the BSO's "Beethoven and Romanticism" festival.

The BSO performance detail page puts it this way:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Sara Jakubiak, soprano
Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano
David Butt Philip, tenor 
Andrè Schuen, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
 James Burton, conductor

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Symphony No. 8
-Intermission-
Symphony No. 9

For all his reputation as a prickly artistic genius whose music crackles with heaven-storming power, Beethoven shared with his teacher Haydn a delightful musical wit, nowhere so clearly demonstrated as in his Eighth Symphony. The cycle concludes with his hugely ambitious and all-embracing Ninth, a revolution in and of itself; it was the first symphony to include chorus, transforming Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” into a hymn for humanity.

This is all worth hearing, of course.