Gil Shaham 59 James David Christie

Table of Contents | Week 20

7 bso news 15 on display in symphony hall 16 bso music director andris nelsons 18 the boston symphony orchestra 21 resonance by gerald elias 28 this week’s programs

Notes on the Program

30 The Program in Brief… 31 Jennifer Higdon 35 John Williams 41 Camille Saint-Saëns 51 To Read and Hear More…

Guest Artists

55 Stéphane Denève 57 Gil Shaham 59 James David Christie

62 sponsors and donors 72 future programs 74 symphony hall exit plan 75 symphony hall information

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115-4511 (617)266-1492 bso.org

andris nelsons, ray and maria stata music director bernard haitink, lacroix family fund conductor emeritus seiji ozawa, music director laureate 135th season, 2015–2016

trustees of the boston symphony orchestra, inc.

William F. Achtmeyer, Chair • Paul Buttenwieser, President • George D. Behrakis, Vice-Chair • Cynthia Curme, Vice-Chair • Carmine A. Martignetti, Vice-Chair • Theresa M. Stone, Treasurer

David Altshuler • Ronald G. Casty • Susan Bredhoff Cohen • Richard F. Connolly, Jr. • Alan J. Dworsky • Philip J. Edmundson, ex-officio • William R. Elfers • Thomas E. Faust, Jr. • Michael Gordon • Brent L. Henry • Susan Hockfield • Barbara W. Hostetter • Stephen B. Kay • Edmund Kelly • Martin Levine, ex-officio • Joyce Linde • John M. Loder • Nancy K. Lubin • Joshua A. Lutzker • Robert J. Mayer, M.D. • Susan W. Paine • John Reed • Carol Reich • Arthur I. Segel • Roger T. Servison • Wendy Shattuck • Caroline Taylor • Stephen R. Weber • Roberta S. Weiner • Robert C. Winters • D. Brooks Zug life trustees

Vernon R. Alden • Harlan E. Anderson • J.P. Barger • Gabriella Beranek • Leo L. Beranek • Deborah Davis Berman • Jan Brett • Peter A. Brooke • John F. Cogan, Jr. • Diddy Cullinane • Mrs. Edith L. Dabney • Nelson J. Darling, Jr. • Nina L. Doggett • Nancy J. Fitzpatrick • Charles H. Jenkins, Jr. • Mrs. Béla T. Kalman • George Krupp • Richard P. Morse • David Mugar • Mary S. Newman • Robert P. O’Block • Vincent M. O’Reilly • William J. Poorvu • Peter C. Read • Edward I. Rudman • Richard A. Smith • Ray Stata • John Hoyt Stookey • John L. Thorndike • Stephen R. Weiner • Dr. Nicholas T. Zervas other officers of the corporation

Mark Volpe, Eunice and Julian Cohen Managing Director • Thomas D. May, Chief Financial Officer • Bart Reidy, Clerk of the Board overseers of the boston symphony orchestra, inc. Philip J. Edmundson, Chair

Noubar Afeyan • James E. Aisner • Peter C. Andersen • Bob Atchinson • Lloyd Axelrod, M.D. • Liliana Bachrach • Judith W. Barr • Lucille M. Batal • Linda J.L. Becker • Paul Berz • Mark G. Borden • Partha Bose • William N. Booth • Karen Bressler • Anne F. Brooke • Gregory E. Bulger • Joanne M. Burke • Bonnie Burman, Ph.D. • Richard E. Cavanagh • Yumin Choi • Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn † • Charles L. Cooney • William Curry, M.D. • Gene D. Dahmen • Michelle A. Dipp, M.D., Ph.D. • Dr. Ronald F. Dixon • Ursula Ehret-Dichter • Sarah E. Eustis • Joseph F. Fallon • Beth Fentin • Peter Fiedler • Steven S. Fischman • John F. Fish • Sanford Fisher • Jennifer Mugar Flaherty • Alexandra J. Fuchs • Robert Gallery • Levi A. Garraway • Zoher Ghogawala, M.D. • Cora H. Ginsberg • Robert R. Glauber • Todd R. Golub • Barbara Nan Grossman • Nathan Hayward, III • Rebecca M. Henderson • James M. Herzog, M.D. • Stuart Hirshfield • Albert A. Holman, III • Lawrence S. Horn • Jill Hornor • Valerie Hyman • Everett L. Jassy • Stephen J. Jerome • Darlene Luccio Jordan, Esq. • Paul L. Joskow •

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photos by Michael J. Lutch

Karen Kaplan • Stephen R. Karp • John L. Klinck, Jr. • Tom Kuo • Jay Marks • Jeffrey E. Marshall • Paul M. Montrone • Sandra O. Moose • Robert J. Morrissey • Cecile Higginson Murphy • Peter Palandjian • Donald R. Peck • Steven R. Perles • Wendy Philbrick • Randy Pierce • Claudio Pincus • Lina S. Plantilla, M.D. • Irving H. Plotkin • Irene Pollin • Jonathan Poorvu • William F. Pounds • Claire Pryor • James M. Rabb, M.D. • Ronald Rettner • Robert L. Reynolds • Robin S. Richman, M.D. • Dr. Carmichael Roberts • Graham Robinson • Patricia Romeo-Gilbert • Michael Rosenblatt, M.D • Susan Rothenberg • Joseph D. Roxe • Malcolm S. Salter • Kurt W. Saraceno • Donald L. Shapiro • Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D. • Anne-Marie Soullière • Michael B. Sporn, M.D. • Nicole Stata • Margery Steinberg • Patricia L. Tambone • Jean Tempel • Douglas Thomas • Mark D. Thompson • Albert Togut • Joseph M. Tucci • Sandra A. Urie • Edward Wacks, Esq. • Sarah E.R. Ward • Dr. Christoph Westphal • June K. Wu, M.D. • Patricia Plum Wylde • Marillyn Zacharis • Dr. Michael Zinner overseers emeriti

Helaine B. Allen • Marjorie Arons-Barron • Diane M. Austin • Sandra Bakalar • James L. Bildner • William T. Burgin • Mrs. Levin H. Campbell • Earle M. Chiles • Carol Feinberg Cohen • Mrs. James C. Collias • Ranny Cooper • Joan P. Curhan • Phyllis Curtin • James C. Curvey • Tamara P. Davis • Mrs. Miguel de Bragança • Paul F. Deninger • JoAnne Walton Dickinson • Phyllis Dohanian • Alan Dynner • Harriett Eckstein • George Elvin • Pamela D. Everhart • Judy Moss Feingold • Myrna H. Freedman • Mrs. James Garivaltis • Dr. Arthur Gelb • Robert P. Gittens • Jordan Golding • Mark R. Goldweitz • Michael Halperson • John Hamill • Deborah M. Hauser • Carol Henderson • Mrs. Richard D. Hill • Roger Hunt • Lola Jaffe • Martin S. Kaplan • Mrs. Gordon F. Kingsley • Robert I. Kleinberg • David I. Kosowsky • Robert K. Kraft • Peter E. Lacaillade • Benjamin H. Lacy • Mrs. William D. Larkin • Robert J. Lepofsky • Edwin N. London • Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr. • Diane H. Lupean • Mrs. Harry L. Marks • Joseph B. Martin, M.D. • Joseph C. McNay • Dr. Martin C. Mihm, Jr. • Robert Mnookin • Joseph Patton • John A. Perkins • Ann M. Philbin • May H. Pierce • Dr. John Thomas Potts, Jr. • Dr. Tina Young Poussaint • Daphne Brooks Prout • Robert E. Remis • John Ex Rodgers • Alan W. Rottenberg • Kenan Sahin • Roger A. Saunders • Lynda Anne Schubert • L. Scott Singleton • Gilda Slifka • Christopher Smallhorn • Samuel Thorne • Diana Osgood Tottenham • Paul M. Verrochi • David C. Weinstein • James Westra • Mrs. Joan D. Wheeler • Margaret Williams-DeCelles • Richard Wurtman, M.D.

† Deceased

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BSO News

Andris Nelsons and BSO Win 2016 Grammy For Best Orchestral Performance Released last summer, the first disc in Andris Nelsons’ continuing Shostakovich series with the BSO on Deutsche Grammophon, “Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow”—the composer’s Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk—was awarded the 2016 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards on February 15. In accepting the award on behalf of the BSO and the engineering and production team for this project, Maestro Nelsons commented that the award “shines a spotlight on my exceptional Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians, who so powerfully convey both the exquisite music and great depth of emotion stemming from Stalin’s Soviet Union” and “truly provides a new level of inspiration for us as we continue to move forward with our Shostakovich project alongside our equally exceptional partner, Deutsche Grammophon.” The next release in the series—to include symphonies 5, 8, and 9, plus selections from Shostakovich’s incidental music to Hamlet, all taken from live performances this season—is scheduled for this coming spring.

BSO Music Director Laureate Seiji Ozawa Wins 2016 Grammy for Best Opera Performance Also at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards on February 15, BSO Music Director Laureate Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra won the 2016 Grammy for Best Opera Recording, for their recording of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges and Shéhérazade featuring mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto Chorus and Children’s Chorus. This follows Maestro Ozawa’s recent recognition—along with Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, and Cicely Tyson—when he was among the honorees celebrated at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors this past December.

BSO 101, the BSO’s Free Adult Education Series at Symphony Hall and Beyond “BSO 101: Are You Listening?” offers the opportunity to enhance your listening abilities and appreciation of music by focusing on upcoming BSO repertoire with BSO Director of Program Publications Marc Mandel and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra on selected Wednesdays from 5:30-6:45 p.m. in Higginson Hall. The last of this season’s Symphony Hall sessions is scheduled for April 6, when BSO percussionist Kyle Brightwell joins Marc Mandel for a discussion entitled “Masters of Orchestral Color—Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel.” Also this season, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, BSO

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101 takes to the road, offering two more BSO 101 sessions on Sunday afternoons from 2-3:30 p.m., at the Newton Free Library (March 20) and the Watertown Arsenal Center for the Arts (April 10). All of these sessions include recorded musical examples, and each is self-contained, so no prior musical training, or attendance at any previous session, is required. For further details, please visit bso.org, where BSO 101 can be found under the “Education & Community” tab on the home page.

Free Sunday-afternoon BSO Community Concerts The BSO continues its series of free Community Chamber Concerts throughout the greater Boston area, offering chamber music performances by BSO musicians on selected Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m. Each program lasts approximately one hour and is followed by a coffee- and-dessert reception for the audience and musicians. Coming up this Sunday afternoon, March 20, at Chelsea High School is a program of music by John Williams, Saint-Saëns, and Debussy with BSO violinist Victor Romanul, violist Michael Zaretsky, flutist Cynthia Meyers, and harpist Jessica Zhou. The concert of Sunday, April 3, at Methuen Memorial Music Hall features BSO clarinetist Thomas Martin, harpist Jessica Zhou, and string players Si-Jing Huang, Ronan Lefkowitz, Rebecca Gitter, and Joel Moerschel in music of Miroslav Srnka, Hindemith, and André Previn. Admission is free, but reservations are required; please call 1-888-266-1200. For further details, please visit bso.org and go to “Education & Community” on the home page. individual tickets are on sale for all concerts in the bso’s 2015-2016 season. for specific information on purchasing tickets by phone, online, by mail, or in person at the symphony hall box office, please see page 75 of this program book.

The Helen and Josef Zimbler Fund, string players and performing, in most cases, Friday, March 18, 2016 without a conductor. The Sinfonietta pioneered Friday evening's appearance by Gil Shaham a renewed appreciation of 17th- and 18th- is supported by the Helen and Josef Zimbler century repertoire and performance, champi- Fund in the BSO’s endowment, established oned contemporary music, made numerous with a generous bequest from the Estate of recordings, and in 1957 toured Central and Helen Zimbler supporting the artistic expens- South America. Josef was held in high esteem es of the BSO. A Cincinnati native, Helen by his colleagues and always performed with Rigby Zimbler pioneered the place of women them, but never in first chair. in American orchestras when, in 1937, she Helen remained in Boston until 1974 when she accepted a position in the double bass sec- returned to Cincinnati, where, over the years tion of the Houston Symphony. She was also that followed, she gave numerous vocal recitals an accomplished singer, actor, and painter. In and was active as a freelance bass player. 1939 Helen married Josef Zimbler, who was a She passed away in 2005 at the age of 91. BSO cellist from 1932 until his death in 1959. Josef Zimbler left to Helen his entire estate, Josef Zimbler, born in 1900 in Pilsen (now including a collection of correspondence, auto- part of the Czech Republic), was encouraged graphed photographs, and recordings docu- by his first cousin, Arthur Fiedler, to come to menting his many years with the BSO and the Boston in 1927. During his tenure with the Zimbler Sinfonietta. This collection came to BSO, Josef founded the Zimbler Sinfonietta, the BSO Archives in the spring of 2006, through composed of approximately twenty BSO a bequest from the Estate of Helen Zimbler.

week 20 bso news 9 10 BSO Broadcasts on WCRB Join Our Community of Music BSO concerts are heard on the radio at 99.5 Lovers—The Friends of the BSO WCRB. Each Saturday-night concert is broad- Attending a BSO concert at Symphony Hall is cast live at 8 p.m. with host Ron Della Chiesa, a communal experience—thousands of con- and encore broadcasts are aired on Monday certgoers join together to hear 100 musicians nights at 8 p.m. In addition, interviews with collaborate on each memorable performance. guest conductors, soloists, and BSO musicians Without an orchestra, there is no perform- are available online, along with a one-year ance, and without an audience, it is just a archive of concert broadcasts. Listeners can rehearsal. Every single person is important to also hear the BSO Concert Channel, an online ensuring another great experience at Sym- radio station consisting of BSO concert per- phony Hall. There’s another community that formances from the previous twelve months. helps to make it all possible, one that you Visit classicalwcrb.org/bso. Current and might not notice while enjoying a concert— upcoming broadcasts include last week’s the Friends of the BSO. Every $1 the BSO all-Beethoven pairing of the Piano Concerto receives in ticket sales must be matched with No. 1 and Seventh Symphony led by Herbert an additional $1 of contributed support to Blomstedt with pianist Garrick Ohlsson cover its annual expenses. Friends of the BSO (encore March 21), this week’s program of help bridge that gap, keeping the music play- Jennifer Higdon, John Williams, and Saint- ing to the delight of audiences all year long. Saëns with soloists Gil Shaham and James In addition to joining a community of like- David Christie with Stéphane Denève con- minded music lovers, becoming a Friend of ducting (March 19; encore March 28), and the BSO entitles you to benefits that bring music of Kancheli, Rachmaninoff, and you closer to the music you cherish. Friends Shostakovich with pianist Nikolai Lugansky receive advance ticket ordering privileges, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus with discounts at the Symphony Shop, and access Andris Nelsons conducting (March 26; to the BSO’s online newsletter InTune, as encore April 4). well as invitations to exclusive donor events, such as BSO and Pops working rehearsals Go Behind the Scenes: and much more. Friends memberships start at just $100. To join our community of The Irving W. and Charlotte F. Rabb music lovers as a Friend of the BSO, please Symphony Hall Tours contact the Friends Office at (617) 638-9276, The Irving W. and Charlotte F. Rabb Symphony [email protected], or join online at Hall Tours—named in honor of the Rabbs’ bso.org/contribute. devotion to Symphony Hall with a gift from their children James and Melinda Rabb and BSO Members in Concert Betty (Rabb) and Jack Schafer—provide a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes at Founded by former BSO cellist Jonathan Miller, Symphony Hall. In these free guided tours, the Boston Artists Ensemble performs a pro- experienced members of the Boston Sym- gram entitled “Passion and Restraint” on phony Association of Volunteers unfold the Friday, March 18, at 8 p.m. at Hamilton Hall history and traditions of the Boston Symphony in Salem and on Sunday, March 20, at 3 p.m. Orchestra—discussing its musicians, conduc- at its new location in Brookline, St. Paul’s tors, and supporters—while also offering in- Episcopal Church, 15 St. Paul Street. Joining depth information about the Hall itself. Free Mr. Miller for this program of Fauré’s Piano walk-up tours are available on most Wednes- Quartet in G minor, Op. 45, and Shostakovich’s days at 4 p.m. and two Saturdays each month Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, are violin- at 2 p.m. during the BSO season. Please visit ists David Coucheron and Sharan Leventhal, bso.org/tours for more information and to violist Dmitri Murrath, and pianist Randall register. Hodgkinson. Tickets are $30 (discounts for

week 20 bso news 11 seniors and students), available at the door. Those Electronic Devices… For more information, call (617) 964-6553 As the presence of smartphones, tablets, and or visit bostonartistsensemble.org. other electronic devices used for communica- The Boston Cello Quartet, founded in 2010 tion, note-taking, and photography continues by BSO cellists Blaise Déjardin, Adam Esben- to increase, there have also been increased sen, Mihail Jojatu, and Alexandre Lecarme, expressions of concern from concertgoers performs as part of the Hammond Real Estate and musicians who find themselves distracted Performing Arts Series on Sunday, April 3, not only by the illuminated screens on these at 3 p.m. in Boston’s Old South Church, 645 devices, but also by the physical movements Boylston Street, and on Sunday, April 10, at that accompany their use. For this reason, 3 p.m., at South Shore Conservatory, One and as a courtesy both to those on stage and Conservatory Drive, Hingham. The program those around you, we respectfully request includes music featured on the BCQ’s just- that all such electronic devices be completely released album “The Latin Project.” Admission turned off and kept from view while BSO per- to both concerts is free; however, reservations formances are in progress. In addition, please are recommended and can be made by call- also keep in mind that taking pictures of the ing (781) 861-8100, ext. 1102. orchestra—whether photographs or videos— BSO assistant principal viola Cathy Basrak is is prohibited during concerts. Thank you very one of the participants in the “First Monday much for your cooperation. at Jordan Hall” chamber concert on April 4, at 7:30 p.m. in New England Conservatory’s Comings and Goings... Jordan Hall, performing in Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor. The program also Please note that latecomers will be seated by includes works by Beethoven, Debussy, and the patron service staff during the first con- Schubert. Admission is free. Visit necmusic.edu venient pause in the program. In addition, for further information. please also note that patrons who leave the auditorium during the performance will not BSO violinist Julianne Lee is part of the cham- be allowed to reenter until the next convenient ber ensemble Mistral, performing its season- pause in the program, so as not to disturb the ending program entitled “Sense & Sensibility” performers or other audience members while on Saturday, April 9, at 5 p.m. at St. Paul’s the music is in progress. We thank you for Episcopal Church in Brookline and on Sunday, your cooperation in this matter. April 10, at 5 p.m. at West Parish Church in Andover, under artistic director Julie Scolnik. The program includes works by Horatio Parker, Friedrich Kuhlau, and Schumann. Tickets are $30 (discounts for students and seniors). For further information, visit mistralmusic.org or call (978) 747-6222.

week 20 bso news 13 on display in symphony hall This season’s BSO Archives exhibit once again displays the wide variety of holdings in the Boston Symphony Archives. Much of this year’s exhibit was inspired by the series of Shostakovich recordings currently being made by Andris Nelsons and the BSO in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon. highlights of this year’s exhibit include, on the orchestra level of symphony hall: • a display case in the Brooke Corridor documenting the commercial recording history of the BSO • two displays cases in the Brooke Corridor focusing on historic BSO performances of Shostakovich’s music, and spotlighting the visit to America by a delegation of Soviet composers led by Shostakovich in November 1959, including a visit to Symphony Hall • two display cases in the Huntington Avenue corridor focusing on BSO members of Russian and Eastern European descent, and the BSO’s historic 1956 tour to the Soviet Union, the first visit by an American orchestra to Russia exhibits on the first-balcony level of symphony hall include: • a display case in the first-balcony corridor, audience-right, devoted to the appointment of Serge Koussevitzky as conductor of the BSO • a display case, also in the first-balcony corridor, audience-right, spotlighting the Tanglewood Music Center, which was founded by Koussevitzky (as the Berkshire Music Center) in 1940 and celebrated its 75th anniversary this past summer • a display case in the first-balcony corridor, audience-left, marking the 80th birthday this past September of BSO Music Director Laureate Seiji Ozawa • three exhibit cases in the Cabot-Cahners Room highlighting collections of memorabilia—the Paul Cherkassky, Albert Sand, and Josef Zimbler collections— originally belonging to BSO members of Russian or Eastern European origin

TOP OF PAGE, LEFT TO RIGHT: 78rpm label for one of the BSO’s recordings from its very first commercial session in 1917, the Prelude to Act III of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” with Karl Muck conducting November 1959 photo of (from left) Russian-born BSO violinists Vladimir Resnikoff and Victor Manusevitch with Dmitri Shostakovich at Symphony Hall (photo by Ed Fitzgerald) BSO manager Thomas D. Perry’s telegram of June 7, 1956, informing Charles Munch that the BSO has accepted the USSR’s invitation to perform in Leningrad and Moscow

week 20 on display 15 ac Borggreve Marco

Andris Nelsons

In 2015-16, his second season as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in thirteen wide-ranging programs, three of them being repeated at Carnegie Hall in New York. This past August, Maestro Nelsons’ contract as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was extended through the 2021-22 season. In 2017 he becomes Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhaus- orchester Leipzig, in which capacity he will also bring the BSO and GWO together for a unique multi-dimensional alliance exploring historic connections between the two. Highlights of this season’s BSO programs include concert performances of Strauss’s Elektra; three weeks marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare; new works by Hans Abrahamsen and George Tsontakis; and the continuation of the orchestra’s multi-year Shostakovich recordings project in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, “Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow,” to be drawn from live performances at Symphony Hall of Shostakovich’s symphonies 5 through 10, the Passacaglia from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and selections from Shostakovich’s incidental music to Hamlet and King Lear, all composed during the period the composer labored under the life-threaten- ing shadow of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Following last summer’s Tanglewood season, Andris Nelsons and the BSO undertook a twelve-concert, eight-city tour to major European capitals, including Berlin, Cologne, London, Milan, and Paris, as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg festivals. An eight-city tour to Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg is scheduled for May 2016.

The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2011 with Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. He made his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, leading both the BSO and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as part of Tanglewood’s 75th Anniversary Gala (a concert available on DVD and Blu-ray, and telecast nationwide on PBS). His first compact disc with the BSO—live recordings of Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2—

16 was released in November 2014 on BSO Classics. Released by Deutsche Grammophon in July 2015, their first Shostakovich disc—the Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk—won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

From 2008 to 2015, Andris Nelsons was critically acclaimed as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In the next few seasons, he continues his collaborations with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He is a regular guest at the Royal Opera House, Vienna State Opera, and Metropolitan Opera, and in summer 2016 returns to the Bayreuth Festival for a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. He was principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, from 2006 to 2009 and music director of the Latvian National Opera from 2003 to 2007. Mr. Nelsons is the subject of a 2013 DVD from Orfeo, a documentary film entitled “Andris Nelsons: Genius on Fire.” For more information about Andris Nelsons, please visit andrisnelsons.com and bso.org. ac Borggreve Marco

week 20 andris nelsons 17 Boston Symphony Orchestra 2015–2016

andris nelsons bernard haitink seiji ozawa thomas wilkins Ray and Maria Stata LaCroix Family Fund Music Director Laureate Germeshausen Youth and Music Director Conductor Emeritus Family Concerts Conductor endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity

first violins Xin Ding* Cathy Basrak Blaise Déjardin* Donald C. and Ruth Brooks Assistant Principal Malcolm Lowe Heath chair, endowed Anne Stoneman chair, endowed Oliver Aldort* Concertmaster in perpetuity in perpetuity Charles Munch chair, endowed in perpetuity Glen Cherry* Wesley Collins basses Ronald G. and Ronni J. Casty Lois and Harlan Anderson chair, Edwin Barker Tamara Smirnova chair endowed in perpetuity Principal Associate Concertmaster Harold D. Hodgkinson chair, Helen Horner McIntyre chair, Yuncong Zhang* Robert Barnes endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity Michael Zaretsky Lawrence Wolfe Alexander Velinzon second violins Mark Ludwig* Assistant Principal Associate Concertmaster Haldan Martinson Maria Nistazos Stata chair, Robert L. Beal, Enid L., and Rachel Fagerburg* Principal endowed in perpetuity Bruce A. Beal chair, endowed Carl Schoenhof Family chair, in perpetuity Kazuko Matsusaka* endowed in perpetuity Benjamin Levy Elita Kang Rebecca Gitter* Leith Family chair, endowed Julianne Lee in perpetuity Assistant Concertmaster Assistant Principal Daniel Getz* Edward and Bertha C. Rose chair, Charlotte and Irving W. Rabb Dennis Roy endowed in perpetuity chair, endowed in perpetuity cellos Joseph Hearne Bo Youp Hwang Sheila Fiekowsky John and DorothyWilson chair, Jules Eskin James Orleans* Shirley and J. Richard Fennell Principal endowed in perpetuity Todd Seeber* chair, endowed in perpetuity Philip R. Allen chair, endowed in Lucia Lin Eleanor L. and Levin H. Campbell Nicole Monahan perpetuity Dorothy Q. and David B. Arnold, chair, endowed in perpetuity David H. and Edith C. Howie Martha Babcock Jr., chair, endowed in perpetuity John Stovall* chair, endowed in perpetuity Associate Principal Ikuko Mizuno Ronan Lefkowitz Vernon and Marion Alden chair, Thomas Van Dyck* Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro chair, endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity Vyacheslav Uritsky* Sato Knudsen flutes Jennie Shames* Nancy Bracken* Mischa Nieland chair, endowed Stephanie Morris Marryott and in perpetuity Elizabeth Rowe Franklin J. Marryott chair Aza Raykhtsaum* Principal Mihail Jojatu Walter Piston chair, endowed Valeria Vilker Kuchment* Bonnie Bewick* Sandra and David Bakalar chair in perpetuity Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser James Cooke* chair Owen Young* Clint Foreman Victor Romanul* John F. Cogan, Jr., and Mary L. Myra and Robert Kraft chair, Tatiana Dimitriades* Bessie Pappas chair Cornille chair, endowed endowed in perpetuity Mary B. Saltonstall chair, in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity Catherine French* Elizabeth Ostling § Mickey Katz* Associate Principal Si-Jing Huang* Jason Horowitz* Stephen and DorothyWeber Marian Gray Lewis chair, Kristin and Roger Servison chair Ala Jojatu* chair, endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity Wendy Putnam* Alexandre Lecarme* Robert Bradford Newman chair, Nancy and Richard Lubin chair endowed in perpetuity violas Steven Ansell Adam Esbensen* Principal Richard C. and Ellen E. Paine Charles S. Dana chair, endowed chair, endowed in perpetuity in perpetuity

18 photos by Michael J. Lutch piccolo Suzanne Nelsen Michael Martin harp John D. and Vera M. MacDonald Ford H. Cooper chair, endowed Cynthia Meyers chair in perpetuity Jessica Zhou Evelyn and C. Charles Marran Nicholas and Thalia Zervas chair, endowed in perpetuity Richard Ranti chair, endowed in perpetuity by Associate Principal trombones Sophia and Bernard Gordon Diana Osgood Tottenham/ oboes Hamilton Osgood chair, Toby Oft endowed in perpetuity Principal voice and chorus John Ferrillo J.P. and Mary B. Barger chair, Principal endowed in perpetuity John Oliver Mildred B. Remis chair, contrabassoon Tanglewood Festival Chorus endowed in perpetuity Stephen Lange Founder and Conductor Gregg Henegar Laureate Mark McEwen Helen Rand Thayer chair Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky James and Tina Collias chair bass trombone chair, endowed in perpetuity Keisuke Wakao horns James Markey Assistant Principal John Moors Cabot chair, librarians Farla and Harvey Chet James Sommerville endowed in perpetuity Krentzman chair, endowed Principal D. Wilson Ochoa in perpetuity Helen Sagoff Slosberg/ tuba Principal Edna S. Kalman chair, endowed Lia and William Poorvu chair, in perpetuity Mike Roylance endowed in perpetuity english horn Principal Richard Sebring John Perkel Robert Sheena Associate Principal Margaret and William C. Beranek chair, endowed Margaret Andersen Congleton Rousseau chair, endowed in perpetuity chair, endowed in perpetuity in perpetuity assistant conductors Rachel Childers clarinets John P. II and Nancy S. Eustis timpani Moritz Gnann chair, endowed in perpetuity William R. Hudgins Timothy Genis Ken-David Masur Principal Michael Winter Sylvia ShippenWells chair, Anna E. Finnerty chair, Ann S.M. Banks chair, Elizabeth B. Storer chair, endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity endowed in perpetuity Michael Wayne Jason Snider percussion personnel managers Thomas Martin Jonathan Menkis § J. William Hudgins Associate Principal & Jean-Noël and Mona N. Tariot Peter and Anne Brooke chair, Lynn G. Larsen E-ﬂat clarinet chair endowed in perpetuity Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Bruce M. Creditor Daniel Bauch Davis chair, endowed Assistant Personnel Manager Assistant Timpanist in perpetuity trumpets Mr. and Mrs. Edward H. Linde Thomas Rolfs chair stage manager bass clarinet Principal Roger Louis Voisin chair, Kyle Brightwell John Demick Craig Nordstrom endowed in perpetuity Peter Andrew Lurie chair, endowed in perpetuity Benjamin Wright bassoons Matthew McKay Thomas Siders Richard Svoboda Associate Principal Principal Kathryn H. and Edward M. * participating in a system Edward A. Taft chair, endowed Lupean chair of rotated seating in perpetuity § on sabbatical leave

week 20 boston symphony orchestra 19

Resonance by Gerald Elias

Former BSO violinist Gerald Elias continues to play regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood each summer, and occasionally with the BSO at Symphony Hall and on tour. Numerous works on this season’s BSO schedule are among those he played as a young musician in youth orchestras—prompting these thoughts on the enormous benefits gained by young musicians from their early exposure performing great music. This April he will perform with the Long Island Youth Orchestra, of which he was once concertmaster, for the first time in forty years.

Any parent will tell you. There’s no experience comparable to witnessing the birth of your firstborn. It’s life-changing. It’s profound. And it only happens once. As a proud parent myself, the only thing that ever came close (other than the birth of our second-born) was the first time I played the Schubert String Quintet. Granted, the more you hear a great symphony, concerto, or quartet, the more you can appreciate its subtleties, its creative structure, its motivic genius. And, yes, you can compare interpretations and decide which was memorable, which was so-so, and which was... I forgot who conducted it. But for sheer emotional impact, the sense of adventure and journey, the thrill of the unexpected—think the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth!—there literally is nothing like a first hearing. After that, one may try to recapture the sensation of breathtaking surprise, but you only choke on your popcorn the first time you watch Psycho.

As an Oberlin student I first heard the Brahms F minor piano quintet on a recording with Rudolf Serkin and the Budapest String Quartet. I was so excited by the unexpected ending, I listened to that LP so often that the needle scratches ultimately consigned it to the

The author (left) at seven, in 1960 in the National Music Camp junior orchestra, Interlochen, Michigan

week 20 resonance 21 dustbin. Two years later, as a Tanglewood Fellow,Ihad the wonderful opportunity to perform the quintet with no less than André Watts as our coach, and was a bit startled to realize that it could convincingly be played a different way. But nothing ever matched that first time I heard it at Oberlin.

Speaking of Brahms, his Second Symphony is among a dozen compositions on this season’s BSO schedule that are relevant to this essay. Thinking about that one work elicits a treasure trove of memories: the romantically impassioned Colin Davis Brahms Second of 1980, the classically elegant Kurt Masur Brahms Second of 1985. And then there was the Bernard Haitink performance of September 6, 2001, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. To this day, those who participated in it give each other a knowing look and speak rever- ently about that performance as the Brahms Second. I could ramble on about other memories evoked by this year’s programming here: Charles Dutoit’s Petrushka, Neville Marriner’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Leonard Bernstein’s 1979 Shostakovich Fifth at Tanglewood, to which even the Russians in the orchestra gave their coveted stamp of approval. (And a 10 from the Russian judges!) Yet the performances of these works—and many more—that indelibly imprinted classical music profoundly into my gray matter were not with the BSO, but with the Long Island Youth Orchestra, the Young Artist Chamber Symphony, and the BUTI orchestra at Tanglewood, when I was a mere strap of a lad in high school.

22 ihe .Lutch J. Michael

The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras with Federico Cortese conducting on October 18, 2015, at Symphony Hall

I mention the Long Island Youth Orchestra first because that’s where I first encountered much of this repertoire. Though its music director, Martin Dreiwitz, was a Juilliard-trained clarinetist, his “day job” was as a travel agent, a profession at which he was unexcelled. Like Moses, for forty years he led the orchestra on summer tours to every part of the globe, from Britain to Brisbane, where we often stayed with host families, in hostels, and occasionally in a real hotel. On our first European tour in the late ’60s, in Aalborg, Denmark, I performed Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with violist Judy Geist, now a long- standing member of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Beyond being great fun and adventure, the tours gave us the opportunity to perform repertoire multiple times—a rarity for student ensembles—allowing the music to penetrate deeply into our still malleable, unjaded brains. They also afforded a platform for young people to work together inti- mately to create something incredibly worthwhile and at the same time forge friendships that would last a lifetime.

The LIYO provided my first exposure to the Mahler First, Brahms Second, Schumann Rhenish Symphony, Shostakovich Fifth, Oberon Overture, Alexander Nevsky, and The Moldau, all on this year’s BSO schedule. It also gave me my first Berlioz Symphonie fan- tastique, Dvoˇrák New World, Hindemith Mathis der Maler and Symphonic Metamorphosis, Ives’s Third Symphony... The list goes on and on. The performances might not have matched a professional orchestra’s expertise—though many LIYO members have since become musicians in major orchestras—but the excitement of first blush was inimitable. Discounting the occasional glitch—as in one particular Brahms Third when, in the last- movement coda, half the orchestra diverged from the other and the music petered out into apologetic silence—more often than not the concerts were unabashed successes. We felt the triumph of the Shostakovich Fifth, the menace in Nevsky of the Teutonic Knights in “The Battle on the Ice,” the awe of the Cologne Cathedral in the Rhenish so magically evoked by Schumann in the “extra” movement with its somber, Bach-like brass chorale. As adults we search to recapture that feeling of wide-eyed, impetuous innocence;

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ahlRodgers Rachel

The Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra on stage at Seiji Ozawa Hall, July 6, 2014

and though we learn to appreciate beauty in other ways, our responses as we age gradu- ally lean toward the cerebral, the self-conscious, the staid.

The Young Artist Chamber Orchestra, conducted by violinist Salvatore Signorelli, was a smaller ensemble focusing on more agile repertoire. Maybe that was because unlike the LIYO, which rehearsed Saturday mornings, it was more difficult to recruit a full orchestra for weeknight rehearsals. Be that as it may, my first entries into Schubert’s Fifth, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, along with the likes of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Beethoven’s First, were revela- tory for the clarity of their artistic vision, exacting precision, and sense of style.

I performed Stravinsky’s Petrushka for the first time as a BUTI student at Tanglewood, with Jaimie Yannatos conducting. At one rehearsal one of the young ladies in the violin section—during the little music-box waltz with the flute solo—suddenly stopped playing, set her violin on her seat, stood up, placed the tip of her index finger on top of her head, and danced an impromptu little music-box waltz, spinning in circles. Maestro Yannatos was not amused, but it demonstrated the impression music can make on the impressionable.

And the point of all this? To suggest that the benefits of early immersion in the symphonic repertoire are incalculable—and not just for the young musician, but also for you, the listener. All of the violinists you see onstage have polished off every concerto in the book, but when will they ever perform them? Most young violinists auditioning for major orchestras are budding virtuosos, but I contend it’s those who’ve had a strong background in orchestral playing who bring the most to the table. They’ve learned the ins and outs of what it means to be an orchestral musician: how to listen, what to listen for, and how to follow a conductor and section leader while at the same time exhibiting their own artistic personality. They’ve learned orchestral techniques that are quite distinct from solo playing. They’ve become familiar with the curious process of socialization—unlike

week 20 resonance 25 26 iayScott Hilary

The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot conducting on July 13, 2015, in Seiji Ozawa Hall

any other work group in the world—that takes place within an orchestra. These learned experiences enable the young musician to hit the ground running and contribute to the excellence of the ensemble.

Further, a young musician who has “gone through” the standard repertoire is saved from having to learn it on the fly immediately after being thrown into the brave new world of the professional orchestra. If you take the BSO’s schedule of some thirty subscription weeks and multiply that by three (the average number of compositions on a program), a musician must perform nearly a hundred compositions between October and May! And that doesn’t include Pops or educational concerts. This is a tall order even for veter- an players. For a new player lacking prior orchestral experience, learning three new pieces every week can be mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. Think of it as a second language. If you spent a few years in Italy in your youth, immersed in Italian, your comfort level speaking it the rest of your life would be in the bag. If, on the other hand, you only took high-school Italian twice a week for an hour, and then as an adult were suddenly called upon to speak it fluently... You fill in the rest.

As a kid in New York I was lucky to have had hands-on experience with so much great music. Here in Boston we’re no less fortunate to have some of the very finest youth orchestras anywhere. As they tackle the challenges of Mozart and Brahms for the first time, their skill is enviable, their enthusiasm palpable. On a very real level, the future of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and its audiences, is in their hands. gerald elias, former violinist with the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, performs with the BSO at Tanglewood and is music director of Vivaldi by Candlelight in Salt Lake City. Elias is also author of the award-winning “Daniel Jacobus” mystery series set in the dark corners of the classical music world. His essays and short fiction have graced many prestigious publications. For more information, visit geraldelias.com.

week 20 resonance 27 andris nelsons, ray and maria stata music director bernard haitink, lacroix family fund conductor emeritus seiji ozawa, music director laureate Boston Symphony Orchestra 135th season, 2015–2016

Thursday, March 17, 8pm Saturday, March 19, 8pm

stéphane denève conducting

higdon “blue cathedral” (2000)

williams violin concerto (1976/1998) Moderato Slowly (In peaceful contemplation) Broadly (Maestoso)—Quickly gil shaham

{intermission}

saint-saëns symphony no. 3 in c minor, “organ symphony” Adagio—Allegro moderato—Poco adagio Allegro moderato—Presto—Maestoso—Allegro james david christie, organ

thursday evening’s performance of saint-saëns’s “organ symphony” is supported by a gift from prof. ernest cravalho and dr. ruth tuomala.

bank of america and emc corporation are proud to sponsor the bso’s 2015-16 season.

These concerts will end about 9:55. Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe performs on a Stradivarius violin, known as the “Lafont,” generously donated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the O’Block Family. Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall. The BSO’s Steinway & Sons pianos were purchased through a generous gift from Gabriella and Leo Beranek. Special thanks to The Fairmont Copley Plaza and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation. Broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are heard on 99.5 WCRB. In consideration of the performers and those around you, please turn off all electronic equipment during the concert, including tablets, cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms, messaging devices of any kind, anything that emits an audible signal, and anything that glows. Thank you for your cooperation. Please note that the use of audio or video recording devices, or taking pictures of the orchestra—whether photographs or videos—is prohibited during concerts.

28 andris nelsons, ray and maria stata music director bernard haitink, lacroix family fund conductor emeritus seiji ozawa, music director laureate Boston Symphony Orchestra 135th season, 2015–2016

Friday, March 18, 8pm (“Casual Friday” concert, including introductory comments from the stage by BSO violinist Wendy Putnam) stéphane denève conducting williams violin concerto (1976/1998) Moderato Slowly (In peaceful contemplation) Broadly (Maestoso)—Quickly gil shaham saint-saëns symphony no. 3 in c minor, “organ symphony” Adagio—Allegro moderato—Poco adagio Allegro moderato—Presto—Maestoso—Allegro james david christie, organ

Please note that there is no intermission in this concert. friday evening’s appearance by gil shaham is supported by the helen and josef zimbler fund. bank of america and emc corporation are proud to sponsor the bso’s 2015-16 season.

This concert will end about 9:25. Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe performs on a Stradivarius violin, known as the “Lafont,” generously donated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the O’Block Family. Steinway & Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Symphony Hall. The BSO’s Steinway & Sons pianos were purchased through a generous gift from Gabriella and Leo Beranek. Special thanks to The Fairmont Copley Plaza and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation. Broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are heard on 99.5 WCRB. In consideration of the performers and those around you, please turn off all electronic equipment during the concert, including tablets, cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms, messaging devices of any kind, anything that emits an audible signal, and anything that glows. Thank you for your cooperation. Please note that the use of audio or video recording devices, or taking pictures of the orchestra—whether photographs or videos—is prohibited during concerts.

“casual friday” program 29 The Program in Brief...

One of the most frequently performed American composers of today, Jennifer Higdon wrote her orchestrally vivid blue cathedral on commission from her alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, to mark its 75th anniversary. It was premiered by the Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra under the baton of former BSO assistant conductor Robert Spano in May 2000, and has become one of the most frequently performed American concert works in the world. These are the first BSO performances at Symphony Hall; the orchestra performed it at Tanglewood in 2010. Higdon likens the work to a “journey through a glass cathedral in the sky,” and wrote it in part as a memorial tribute to her brother, a clarinetist, which instrument is featured as a soloist along with flute, her own instrument.

The great film composer John Williams began his Violin Concerto in 1974 and completed it in 1976, but it wasn’t premiered until 1981. Most of the composer’s concertos and other concert music were written for specific soloists, ensembles, or occasions, but in this case the piece was suggested by the composer’s wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. Williams wrote it while fulfilling assignments for such film scores as Jaws and Star Wars. In the late 1990s the violinist Gil Shaham added the piece to his repertoire, performing it at Tanglewood and recording it for CD with the BSO under Williams’s direction. This substantial three-movement work is very much in the tradition of such big 20th-century concertos as Bartók’s and Prokofiev’s, and features both expressively lyrical and virtuosic writing for the instrument.

As a child in the 1840s, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was considered an incredible musical prodigy—rivaling Mozart himself. Unlike Mozart, Saint-Saëns lived to a ripe old age, continuing to compose even as the Romantic era of Brahms and Wagner gave way to the modern one of Debussy and Stravinsky. He was a brilliant pianist and extraordinarily prolific composer, as well as (one reads about these kinds of people) an accomplished amateur naturalist and the author of quite a few books on various subjects. He wrote his Symphony No. 3—his last—on commission from London’s Philharmonic Society in 1886 and conducted its premiere in May of that year. The symphony is unusual in form, being ostensibly in two movements, but with each having several contrasting sections. The presence of the organ, which thrillingly heralds the famous Maestoso section in the second movement, lends this fantasia-like piece an extraordinary new color, surprising in a symphony of any era.

Robert Kirzinger

30 .HnyFair Henry J.

Jennifer Higdon “blue cathedral” (2000)

JENNIFER HIGDON was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 31, 1962, and lives in Philadelphia. She wrote “blue cathedral” on commission from the Curtis Institute of Music for its 75th anniversary, and it was premiered there by the Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano’s direction on May 1, 2000. The only BSO performance of “blue cathedral” prior to this week took place at Tanglewood on August 22, 2010, with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting. (The orchestra also performed her “Loco” at Tanglewood, on July 10, 2011, under Miguel Harth-Bedoya.)

THE SCORE OF “BLUE CATHEDRAL” calls for two flutes (second doubling piccolo), oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones and bass trombone, tuba, three percussion (I: crotales, marimba, tam-tam; II: vibraphone, glockenspiel, bell tree, sizzle cymbal, suspended cymbal; III: chimes, small and large triangles, bass drum, large tom-tom, tam-tam), timpani, harp, piano and celesta, and strings, plus crystal glasses and numerous Chinese bells. The duration of the piece is about thirteen minutes.

A major figure in contemporary classical music, Jennifer Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and a 2009 Grammy Award for her Percussion Concerto. Her music is performed several hundred times a year; blue cathedral in particular is one of America’s most-performed contemporary orchestral works, with more than 600 performances worldwide since its premiere in 2000. Her works have been recorded on more than four dozen CDs. Her recent opera Cold Mountain, based on Charles Frazier’s bestselling novel, was co-commissioned by Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia. It was premiered at Santa Fe Opera in August 2015 and produced by Opera Philadelphia this past February as part of that company’s American Repertoire Program. Cold Mountain will travel to Minnesota Opera and North Carolina Opera in the near future. Higdon holds the Rock Chair in Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press.

week 20 program notes 31 Jennifer Higdon on “blue cathedral”

Blue... like the sky. Where all possibilities soar. Cathedrals... a place of thought, growth, spiritual expression... serving as a symbolic doorway into and out of this world. Blue represents all potential and the progression of journeys. Cathedrals represent a place of beginnings, endings, solitude, fellowship, contemplation, knowledge, and growth. As I was writing this piece, I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky. Because the walls would be transparent, I saw the image of clouds and blueness permeating from the outside of this church. In my mind’s eye the listener would enter from the back of the sanctuary, floating along the corridor amongst giant crystal pillars, moving in a contemplative stance. The stained glass windows’ figures would start moving with song, singing a heavenly music. The listener would float down the aisle, slowly moving upward at first and then progressing at a quicker pace, rising towards an immense ceiling which would open to the sky... As this journey progressed, the speed of the traveler would increase, rushing forward and upward. I wanted to create the sensation of contemplation and quiet peace at the beginning, moving towards the feeling of cele- bration and ecstatic expansion of the soul, all the while singing along with that heavenly music.

These were my thoughts when the Curtis Institute of Music commissioned me to write a work to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Curtis is a house of knowledge—a place to reach towards that beautiful expression of the soul which comes through music. I began writing this piece at a unique juncture in my life and found myself pondering the question of what makes a life. The recent loss of my younger brother, Andrew Blue, made me reflect on the amazing journeys that we all make in our lives, crossing paths with so many individuals singularly and collectively, learning and growing each step of the way.

This piece represents the expression of the individual and the group... our inner travels and the places our souls carry us, the lessons we learn, and the growth we experience. In tribute to my brother, I feature solos for the clarinet (the instrument he played) and the flute (the instrument I play). Because I am the older sibling, it is the flute that appears first in this dialogue. At the end of the work, the two instruments continue their dialogue, but it is the flute that drops out and the clarinet that continues on in the upward progressing journey. This is a story that commemorates living and passing through places of knowledge and of sharing and of that song called life.

This work was commissioned and premiered in 2000 by the Curtis Institute of Music.

Jennifer Higdon

32 Born in Brooklyn, Jennifer Higdon grew up mostly in the south, in Atlanta and Tennessee. She taught herself to play the flute, and ultimately enrolled at Bowling Green University as a performance major. Her flute teacher, Judith Bentley, encouraged her to compose, beginning with her own instrument, but writing music soon “became an obsession.” It was also at Bowling Green that she studied conducting with Robert Spano. Higdon then moved to Philadelphia to attend the Curtis Institute for two years, then the University of Pennsylvania for two graduate degrees.

Higdon’s sense of orchestration stems from her experience as an orchestral performer and conductor, when she was able to hear the details of instrumental color, idiom, and balance from within the ensemble as well as from the podium. Her career received an enormous boost when the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned her Concerto for Orchestra for its centennial, and premiered the piece in 2002 under Wolfgang Sawallisch. She has also received commissions from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore, Indianapolis, and National symphony orchestras, among many others.

Higdon’s treatment of the orchestra is reminiscent of such 20th-century American composers as William Schuman and David Diamond, but, interestingly, she came to this repertoire relatively late and attributes a good part of her wind-and-percussion palette to her marching-band past. To marching band and rock music she traces part of the rhyth- mic drive of much of her music. Her own program note for the scintillating, atmospheric blue cathedral is printed on the opposite page.

Robert Kirzinger

Composer and annotator robert kirzinger is Assistant Director of Program Publications of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

week 20 program notes 33

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John Williams Violin Concerto (1976/1998)

JOHN TOWNSHEND WILLIAMS was born in New York City on February 8, 1932, and lives in Los Angeles, California. He began his Violin Concerto in 1974 and completed the orchestration in 1976; he has slightly revised it since that time. The score is dedicated to his late wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. The concerto’s first performance was given by soloist Mark Peskanov with Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in St. Louis in January 1981. Prior to this week’s BSO performances, the orchestra has only performed the piece on one occasion, at Tangle- wood with Gil Shaham as soloist and the composer conducting on July 25, 1998.

IN ADDITION TO THE SOLO VIOLIN, the score of the Violin Concerto calls for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons (second doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, two tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion (vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, chimes, suspended cymbal, small triangle, triangle, snare drum, and bass drum), harp, and strings. The duration of the piece is about thirty minutes.

John Williams is the composer of what many consider the greatest body of film music in history; this aspect of his career needs little introduction. Fans of the five-time Academy Award-winner’s soundtracks for Jaws, Star Wars, Schindler’s List, and Memoirs of a Geisha may not be aware of his stint conducting and arranging for service bands during his Air Force service, his composition studies with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco at UCLA, or his piano studies with the legendary Rosina Lhévinne at Juilliard. His early professional work was as a studio and jazz pianist and composer for television. He won two Emmys while in his thirties; his first Oscar was for his adapted soundtrack for Fiddler on the Roof (1971). From their beginnings in the 1970s, his longtime collaborations with the directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have become among the most celebrated of such relationships in Hollywood lore, leading to four of his five Oscars and some of the most recognizable tunes on the planet. This year he received his fiftieth Academy Award nomination, once again for a Star Wars film.

Film music, at least in the classic sense, is a collaboration-intensive pursuit, requiring great

week 20 program notes 35 Program page for the only previous BSO performance of John Williams’s Violin Concerto, on July 25, 1998, at Tanglewood, with soloist Gil Shaham under the composer’s direction (BSO Archives)

36 trust between director and composer and the latter’s close understanding of what and how his music envelops, underlines, and enhances. The preexisting story, images, and mood are there to trigger the imagination, and in Williams’s scores the music goes further, becomes virtually a character in itself. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that most of his concert music similarly draws on the inspiration of collaboration and occasion. His symphonic poems Tributes: for Seiji and Soundings were both inspired by concert hall architecture—the former, celebrating Seiji Ozawa’s 25th anniversary as music director of the BSO, by the acoustic qualities of Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the latter, written to inaugurate the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, responding to that hall’s sound as well as to Frank Gehry’s majestic design. His Air and Simple Gifts, a chamber work written for Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony, employs a familiar Shaker tune to evoke American optimism.

Most of Williams’s major concert works are concertos, taking their cue from his interac- tions with many great musicians with whom he has worked as composer and conductor. Yo-Yo Ma was the recipient of the composer’s Cello Concerto, commissioned by the Boston Symphony for the opening of Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, as well as the cello-and- orchestra work Heartwood and the Three Pieces for Solo Cello. Other concertos include those for Dale Clevenger, principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Five Sacred Trees for Judith LeClair, principal bassoon of the New York Philharmonic (on the occasion of that orchestra’s 150th anniversary), and half a dozen more. Because of Williams’s rela- tionship to the BSO and Boston Pops, it follows that many of his concerted works have originated with BSO players. His Concerto for Tuba was written in 1985 for former BSO member Chester Schmitz and the Boston Pops for the Pops’ centennial season. More recently he has written concertos for BSO assistant principal violist/Boston Pops principal violist Cathy Basrak and for BSO assistant principal oboist/Pops principal oboist Keisuke Wakao. In 2009 he composed a gift for retiring BSO principal harp Ann Hobson Pilot, On Willows and Birches, Concerto for Harp. Gil Shaham and John Williams have worked together as violinist and conductor on many occasions. Their performance of the Violin Concerto at Tanglewood in 1998 was a trigger for Williams to write the violin-and-orchestra work TreeSong for Shaham in 2000.

The Violin Concerto is an older work, begun in 1974 at the suggestion of the composer’s then-wife, the actress Barbara Ruick, who died suddenly and unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage in the spring of that year. Williams had no immediate prospects for a performance of such a piece, and in any case his film-scoring slate was rather full: The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, both of which featured Williams soundtracks, were released in 1974, with Jaws appearing the following year. (The Star Wars soundtrack was recorded in March 1977.) After the orchestration of the concerto was completed in October 1976, several years passed—a stretch that saw Williams take over from Arthur Fiedler as conductor of the Boston Pops in 1980—before the piece was premiered by the Russian- born American violinist Mark Peskanov in Saint Louis.

The Violin Concerto naturally features Williams’s special mastery of the orchestra, but the musical language is more discursive than a film score could be. In writing about the piece,

week 20 program notes 37

iayScott Hilary

Gil Shaham and John Williams performing together during “Film Night at Tanglewood” on August 20, 2011, with the Boston Pops Orchestra

Williams acknowledges predecessors from the great 20th-century concerto repertoire— Bartók, Berg, Walton, Stravinsky—and his aim to write a substantial piece that would honor that heritage. “I set to work laying out my concerto in three movements, each with expansive themes and featuring virtuosic passage work used both for effective contrast and display. The pattern of movements is fast, slow, fast with a cadenza at the end of the first movement. Although contemporary in style and technique, I think of the piece as within the Romantic tradition.”

The first movement begins with the solo violin, very nearly without accompaniment, pre- senting the chromatically lyrical main theme. This theme, taken up by the orchestra, also serves as the background for the violin’s chipper second theme, and the working-out of these ideas in alternation drives the movement to the big cadenza. The second movement features a wonderfully elegiac and songful, long-drawn-out melody for the soloist with simple orchestral accompaniment. A fleet, sprightly middle section staves off the melan- cholic spell for a time; when the soulful melody returns, it’s reintroduced in the flute, with the solo violin in contemplative counterpoint. The finale, opening with bell-like orchestral splashes, has a prevailingly scherzo-like, fast, light humor, but with episodes of more restrained music referring back to the first and second movements.

Robert Kirzinger

week 20 program notes 39

Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 78 (“Organ Symphony”)

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS was born in Paris, France, on October 9, 1835, and died in Algiers on December 16, 1921. He composed his Symphony No. 3 in Paris and in Germany early in 1886, conducting the ﬁrst performance on May 19, 1886, in St. James’s Hall, London, in a concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He led the ﬁrst Paris performance on January 9, 1887, at a concert of the Société des Concerts.

SAINT-SAËNS’S SYMPHONY NO. 3 is scored for three ﬂutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, organ, piano four-hands, and strings. The pianists at these performances are Vytas Baksys and Deborah DeWolf Emery.

Although widely known as Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony, and although the composer sometimes played the organ part himself, he did not in the least intend the work to be an organ concerto. The organ is in any case silent during the greater part of the work; it is merely a bold addition to what in 1886 would have been regarded as a large symphony orchestra, like the occasional appearance of the piano in the second movement, adding an extra—and always startling—color to the orchestral palette.

Equally bold is Saint-Saëns’s division of the symphony into two movements rather than the traditional four, even though the outlines of slow movement and scherzo are easily recognized in their proper place. This unusual layout is shared with the composer’s Fourth Piano Concerto, which he composed shortly before, and he was sufﬁciently taken with the plan to adopt it on a grand symphonic scale too. The early critics were puzzled by this, and also by the unusual orchestration. Yet no one today regards the symphony as a particularly puzzling work; indeed it is (or at least has been) one of the most frequently recorded and performed of all symphonies.

In the age of Haydn and Beethoven there were relatively few French symphonies composed; in the following period Berlioz’s symphonies are sui generis, beyond imitation or

week 20 program notes 41 Program page for the first Boston Symphony performances of Saint-Saëns’s “Organ Symphony” on February 15 and 16, 1901, with Wilhelm Gericke conducting (BSO Archives)

42 the notion of a “school.” But in the 1850s the younger French composers—Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet—all wrote symphonies of striking freshness, and after 1870, when the political humiliation of Prussian victory spurred the French to take up arms in a new cultural conflict, the French strove magnificently to build a strong non-operatic repertoire, ironically by looking to German models, above all Beethoven, for inspiration. One composer after another set his hand to the task of writing symphonies: Bizet in 1871, Messager in 1877, Debussy in 1880, Fauré in 1884, Lalo in 1885, d’Indy in 1886, Franck in 1887. Saint-Saëns was the most energetic of all the French composers calling for cultural renewal, so it was not surprising that he should compose a symphony in 1886 as part of this national effort. He had been writing prodigious quantities of music in every genre for the previous thirty years, and although he had already written five symphonies, the last one dated back to 1859. Only two of those five were acknowledged, which gives the present symphony its number “3.”

week 20 program notes 43

Saint-Saëns in the Church of St. Sulpice, Paris

It was commissioned by Francesco Berger, secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, when Saint-Saëns was on a visit to London toward the end of 1885. He then went on tour in Germany and faced a ﬁfteen-gun broadside of hostility everywhere he went because of his views on Wagner. These seem eminently reasonable today, but at the time, with Wagner recently dead and Germany in the grip of pan-Germanic fever combined with Wagnermania, Saint-Saëns represented an unacceptable heresy—thinking that Wagner’s music was good up to a certain point, but was not a good model for younger composers: it diminished the great tradition of German music from Bach to Mendelssohn. For Saint- Saëns the supreme model was always Mozart. These views had appeared in a recent book, Harmonie et mélodie, mercilessly attacked in the German press to the point where many cities refused to welcome him.

Saint-Saëns himself took a light view of the situation, expressing his undying faith in the natural musicality of the Germans, and composing, of all things, the frivolous spoof, the Carnival of the Animals, today one of his best-known works. The symphony also took shape on this tour, with its unmistakable homage to the giants of the German symphony, Beethoven and Schubert. On his return to Paris he played it through to Liszt, who had done more than anyone to further Saint-Saëns’s career in its early stages and had mounted Samson et Dalila in Weimar when no one in Paris would consider it. Liszt, alas, was very weak and had only a few months to live, so that the symphony’s dedication, when it was published, was not “à Franz Liszt,” as Saint-Saëns had intended, but “à la mémoire de Franz Liszt.”

The ﬁrst performance took place in London that May (1886). In the ﬁrst half of the concert Saint-Saëns played Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with Arthur Sullivan conducting. When the symphony was heard in Paris a few months later, Gounod emerged from the concert saying “Voilà le Beethoven français!”

week 20 program notes 45

The Adagio introduction could be from a tone poem by Liszt, with its broken phrases and plaintive sighs from oboe, English horn, and bassoon. But the Allegro arrives immediately, strongly suggestive of Schubert’s Unfinished and giving gradual shape to the broken woodwind phrases. The strings’ restless accompanying ﬁgure, (a), is in fact an important theme that will recur in many guises:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

The second of these acts as a subsidiary theme in a sonata process that is shorter than usual since the slow “movement” has been folded into the first movement. The organ is heard for the first time, laying down soft chords in D-flat major as background to a rich

week 20 program notes 47 cantabile theme in the strings. The second statement of this theme calls on the unlikely grouping of clarinet, two horns, and two trombones spread across three octaves. The double basses, pizzicato, throw in a memory of (b) before a reprise of the main tune and a warm, serene close.

The second movement begins with a scherzo, now back in C minor, and still dark in color. Example (c) soon appears as a subsidiary idea. The equivalent of a Trio section is a brilliant Presto in the major key to which the piano contributes an extraordinary series of both-hand scales, as if Saint-Saëns were still thinking of the scale-plagued pianists in his Carnival of the Animals. This eventually gives way to the ﬁnale proper (Maestoso), herald- ed by a huge C major chord on the organ and a new version of the main theme now taking on the character of a chorale, (d). The pianist is joined by a partner, the duet tinkling in the upper register with a sonority Saint-Saëns learned from Berlioz’s Lélio. He had written the piano reduction of this work when he was nineteen and absorbed several ideas from it.

The splendid close leaves the impression of a grandiose and triumphant symphony, although many of the earlier pages suggest a more questioning and searching character. Saint-Saëns knew that most of his numberless compositions had little future to look forward to, but this was a work he had put his heart into, and which he deeply loved. “I have given it all that I had to give. What I have done I shall never do again.”

Hugh Macdonald hugh macdonald was for many years Avis Blewett Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. A frequent guest annotator for the BSO, he has written extensively on music from Mozart to Shostakovich and is currently writing a book on the operas of Saint-Saëns. His most recent books are “Bizet” (Oxford University Press) and “Music in 1853” (University of Rochester Press).

THEFIRSTAMERICANPERFORMANCE of Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 was led by Theodore Thomas on February 19, 1887, about five weeks after the Paris premiere, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

THEFIRSTBOSTONSYMPHONYORCHESTRAPERFORMANCES of Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 (which were also the first in Boston) were led by Wilhelm Gericke on February 15 and 16, 1901 (with a further performance that February 23 in New York), subsequent BSO performances being given by Karl Muck, Henri Rabaud, Pierre Monteux, Serge Koussevitzky (including two 1938 performances with Nadia Boulanger as organist), Richard Burgin, Charles Munch (on numerous occasions between 1946 and 1966 with E. Power Biggs and Berj Zamkochian, also recording it famously with the BSO and Zamkochian for RCA in April 1959), Seiji Ozawa (in October/November 1975 with Anthony Newman, in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.), Leonard Slatkin (at Tanglewood in July 1985 with John Finney), Pascal Verrot (at Tanglewood on July 20, 1990, with James David Christie), Ozawa again (in February 1995, also with James David Christie), James Levine (Opening Night and the first subscription program in September/October 2005, with Simon Preston), Charles Dutoit (in February 2008, again with James David Christie), Christoph Eschenbach (the most recent subscription performances, in March 2013 with Olivier Latry), and Stéphane Denève (the most recent Tanglewood performance, on July 10, 2015, with Cameron Carpenter).

week 20 program notes 49

To Read and Hear More...

The quickest and best source of information on Jennifer Higdon and her work is her website, jenniferhigdon.com, which includes a work-list, biography, list of upcoming performances, reviews, and discography. Her scores are also available for purchase through the site. Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recorded blue cathedral along with works by Christopher Theofanidis, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber for the ASO’s “Rainbow Body” CD (Telarc). blue cathedral was also recorded by the Bowling Green University Philharmonia in a performance led by Emily Freeman Brown (Albany). Higdon’s large and growing discography also includes Hilary Hahn’s performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko (Deutsche Grammophon, paired with Hahn’s recording of the Tchaikovsky concerto). Higdon’s Grammy-winning Percussion Concerto was recorded by soloist Colin Currie with the London Philharmonic conducted by Marin Alsop, on a disc with works by James MacMillan and Thomas Adès (on the LPO’s own label). A two-disc recording of the Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere production of her opera Cold Mountain will be released in April 2016 (PentaTone).

The article on John Williams in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is by Christopher Palmer and Martin Marks. The John Williams Wikipedia page is also a good source of information on the composer’s career. There is also the website johnwilliams.org, which doesn’t yet have recording and works information but does have a bio and other information. A fan site for the curious may be found at jwfan.com. John Williams conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra and soloist Gil Shaham at Symphony Hall in a

week 20 read and hear more 51 recording of his Violin Concerto, TreeSong for violin and orchestra, and concert music from the Schindler’s List soundtrack (Deutsche Grammophon). In addition to recordings of his film scores and many recordings with the Boston Pops as composer and conductor, much of Williams’s music for the concert hall has been made available on compact disc. Among other discs are Yo-Yo Ma’s recording of the Cello Concerto and other works with Williams leading the Los Angeles Recording Arts Orchestra (Sony), and Judith LeClair performing his bassoon concerto Five Sacred Trees with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (also Sony). The composer’s Oboe Concerto—written for BSO oboist Keisuke Wakao—was issued as a digital download featuring Wakao with the Boston Pops under Williams’s direction. Also available digitally is former BSO principal harp Ann Hobson Pilot’s performance of Williams’s concerto written for her, On Willows and Birches, with the BSO conducted by Shi-Yeon Sung. Both can be purchased and downloaded at bso.org and Google Play.

Robert Kirzinger

Camille Saint-Saëns and his World is a collection of essays, articles, and documents edited by Jann Passler (Princeton University paperback, in the Bard Music Festival series). Camille Saint-Saëns: On Music and Musicians is a collection of the composer’s writings translated and edited by Roger Nichols (Oxford University Press). The fullest English- language account of the composer’s life and music is Stephen Studd’s Saint-Saëns: A Critical Biography (Fairleigh Dickinson). Worth seeking out are Saint-Saëns and his Circle by James Harding (Humanities) and French Piano Music by the great French pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), whose observations on Saint-Saëns’s music retain their inter- est (Da Capo).

Charles Munch’s famous Boston Symphony recording of the Organ Symphony from 1959 with Berj Zamkochian was already considered sonically spectacular at the time of its initial LP release and has virtually never been out of the catalog, including multiple CD reissues (RCA). Other recordings include Charles Dutoit’s with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and organist Peter Hurford (Decca), James Levine’s with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Preston (Deutsche Grammophon), François-Xavier Roth’s with the Orchestre Les Siècles and Daniel Roth (Actes Sud), Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s with the Orchestre Métropolitaine du Grand Montréal and Philippe Bélanger (ATMA Classique), Christoph Eschenbach’s with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Olivier Latry (Ondine), Leonard Bern- stein’s with the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Raver (Sony), Paul Paray’s with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Marcel Dupré (Mercury Living Presence), and Yan Pascal Tortelier’s with the Ulster Orchestra and Gillian Weir (Chandos). Arturo Toscanini’s 1952 NBC Symphony broadcast remains powerful and instructive despite dated monaural sound (originally RCA).

Marc Mandel

week 20 read and hear more 53

Guest Artists

Stéphane Denève

Stéphane Denève is chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as chief conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire (CffOR). Recognized internationally for the exceptional quality of his performances and programming, Mr. Denève regularly appears at major concert venues with the world’s leading orchestras and soloists. He has a special affinity for the music of his native France and is a passionate advocate for new music. Recent engagements in Europe and Asia have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de France, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Swedish Radio Symphony. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he is a frequent guest both in Boston and at Tanglewood, where he conducts both the BSO and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. He also appears regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. He made his New York Philhar- monic debut in 2015. Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading solo artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Gil Shaham, Piotr Anderszewski, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, and Natalie Dessay. In the field of opera, he has led productions at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne

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Festival, La Scala, Saito Kinen Festival, Gran Teatro de Liceu, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, and at the Opéra National de Paris. As a recording artist, he has won critical acclaim for his recordings of works by Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Guillaume Connesson. A two-time winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’année, he was short- listed in 2012 for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year Award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. A graduate of and prizewinner at the Paris Conservatoire, Stéphane Denève worked closely in his early career with Sir Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. Committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners, he works regularly with young people in the programs of the Tangle- wood Music Center and the New World Symphony. For further information, please visit stephanedeneve.com. Stéphane Denève made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in April 2011 and his Tanglewood debut in August 2012. His most recent subscription appearances with the BSO were in February 2015, when he led a program of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Milhaud, and Poulenc. At Tanglewood last summer he led a program of Barber, Poulenc, and Saint-Saëns with the BSO in August and music of John Williams with the TMC Orchestra in the Tanglewood on Parade gala concert in August.

Gil Shaham

Violinist Gil Shaham is sought worldwide for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and at the most prestigious festivals. Highlights of his 2015-16 season include Korngold’s concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and John Williams’s concerto with Stéphane Denève and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he previously recorded the work under the composer’s direction. He performs Bach with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; Brahms with the Orchestre de Paris; Tchaikovsky with the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo and the New World, Sioux City, and Nashville symphonies; and Mendelssohn during a Montreal Symphony residency and on a European tour with the Singapore Symphony. His exploration of concertos of the 1930s enters an eighth season with performances of Bartók’s Second with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Kimmel

week 20 guest artists 57 Center; Barber with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and Prokofiev’s Second on an extensive North American tour with The Knights to celebrate the release of volume two of “1930s Violin Concertos.” Issued on the violinist’s own Canary Classics label, which he founded in 2004, this pairs his recordings of Prokofiev with The Knights and of Bartók with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony. In addition to touring European capitals with the Sejong Soloists and a residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr. Shaham performs Bach’s complete unaccompanied sonatas and partitas at London’s Wigmore Hall and key North American venues, in a multi- media collaboration with photographer/video artist David Michalek. Mr. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, and has won multiple Grammy Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. His recent Canary Classics recordings include “1930s Violin Concertos” (Vol. 1), Haydn violin concertos and Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Sejong Soloists, “Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works,” and Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at age seven and was granted annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. That same year he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellermann at Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he worked with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University. Gil Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher

58 Career Grant in 1990; in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. He plays the 1699 Countess Polignac Stradivarius, and lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children. Gil Shaham made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in August 1993 at Tanglewood and his subscription series debut in October 1997. His most recent subscription performances were in November 2012 as soloist in Britten’s Violin Concerto, a performance subsequently released on Canary Classics. He has since appeared twice with the orchestra at Tanglewood, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in August 2013 and the Barber Violin Concerto in August 2014.

James David Christie

Internationally acclaimed organist James David Christie has performed throughout the world in solo concerts and with major symphony and period-instrument orchestras. He has been organist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra regularly since 1978, and has performed and recorded with the major orchestras of London, Dublin, Stuttgart, Koblenz, Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Winnipeg, and many others. He has made more than sixty tours of Europe and performs often in Russia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Iceland. In 1979 Mr. Christie became the first American to win first prize in the Bruges International Organ Competition, and the first person in the history of the competition to win both the first prize and the Prize of the Audience. He has served on international organ competition juries throughout the world, and his students have been competition prizewinners. His awards include an honorary doctorate from the New England School of Law for his outstanding contributions to the musical life of Boston, and the New England Conservatory’s Outstanding Alumni Award. He is music director of Ensemble Abendmusik, a Boston-based period instrument orchestra and chorus specializing in sacred music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Mr. Christie has recorded for Decca, Philips, Nonesuch, JAV, Northeastern, Arabesque, Denon, RCA, Dorian, Naxos, Bridge, GM, and CPO; his solo recordings have won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Magazine d’Orgue: Coup de Coeur. Currently on the faculties of the College of the Holy Cross, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Wellesley College, he previously held positions at the Boston

week 20 guest artists 59

Conservatory, Harvard University, M.I.T., and Boston University, and served as visiting Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatory, exchanging his Oberlin position with Notre Dame Cathedral organist Olivier Latry. Mr. Christie was recently the featured artist and teacher for the Académie “Dom Bedos” in Bordeaux and gave master classes at the Château de Versailles and at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. This past season he performed concerts in Canada, Germany, Italy, Estonia, and Japan. Mr. Christie recently recorded four CDs of Pachelbel’s organ works on three historic organs in Thuringia, Germany. He performed the opening gala concert of the 2014 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists at Boston’s Symphony Hall and an evening of organ concertos with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and gave a solo concert and master classes at the 2015 Royal College of Canadian Organists National Convention. Summer 2015 activities included a concert at Tanglewood with BSO members for the National Convention of the Organ Historical Society; a performance with orchestra and a solo concert in Fort Collins, CO; a concert and master class for the Region V AGO Regional Convention in Indianapolis; teaching at the McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal; concerts and master classes in Germany, France, and Russia; and serving on the Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition jury in Moscow. The Oberlin Conservatory awarded James David Christie its 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award. His previous Boston Symphony appearances have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Seiji Ozawa and James Levine, Janáˇcek’s Glagolitic Mass led by Simon Rattle, Berlioz’s Te Deum (including last month’s performances led by Charles Dutoit), and Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony (at Tanglewood in 1990, at Symphony Hall in 1995, and more recently at Symphony Hall in 2008).

week 20 guest artists 61 The Great Benefactors

In the building of his new symphony for Boston, the BSO’s founder and first benefactor, Henry Lee Higginson, knew that ticket revenues could never fully cover the costs of running a great orchestra. From 1881 to 1918 Higginson covered the orchestra’s annual deficits with personal contributions that exceeded $1 million. The Boston Symphony Orchestra now honors each of the following generous donors whose cumulative giving to the BSO is $1 million or more with the designation of Great Benefactor. For more information, please contact Bart Reidy, Director of Development, at 617-638-9469 or [email protected].

ten million and above Julian Cohen ‡ • Fidelity Investments • Linde Family Foundation • Maria and Ray Stata • Anonymous

seven and one half million Mr. and Mrs. George D. Behrakis • John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille

five million Alli and Bill Achtmeyer • Bank of America • Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser • Cynthia and Oliver Curme/The Lost & Foundation, Inc. • Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky • EMC Corporation • Germeshausen Foundation • Sally ‡ and Michael Gordon • Barbara and Amos Hostetter • Ted and Debbie Kelly • NEC Corporation • Megan and Robert O’Block • UBS • Stephen and Dorothy Weber

two and one half million Mary and J.P. Barger • Gabriella and Leo Beranek • Roberta and George ‡ Berry • Peter and Anne Brooke • Eleanor L. and Levin H. Campbell • Chiles Foundation • Mara E. Dole ‡ • Fairmont Copley Plaza and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts • Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick ‡ • Susan Morse Hilles ‡ • Dorothy and Charlie Jenkins • Stephen B. Kay and Lisbeth L. Tarlow/The Aquidneck Foundation • The Kresge Foundation • Lizbeth and George Krupp • Liberty Mutual Foundation, Inc. • Massachusetts Cultural Council • Kate and Al ‡ Merck • Cecile Higginson Murphy • National Endowment for the Arts • William and Lia Poorvu • John S. and Cynthia Reed • Carol and Joe Reich • Kristin and Roger Servison • Miriam Shaw Fund • State Street Corporation and State Street Foundation • Thomas G. Stemberg ‡ • Miriam and Sidney Stoneman ‡ • Elizabeth B. Storer ‡ • Caroline and James Taylor • Samantha and John Williams • Anonymous (3)

62 one million Helaine B. Allen • American Airlines • Lois and Harlan Anderson • Mariann Berg (Hundahl) Appley • Arbella Insurance Foundation and Arbella Insurance Group • Dorothy and David B. ‡ Arnold, Jr. • AT&T • William I. Bernell ‡ • BNY Mellon • The Boston Foundation • Lorraine D. and Alan S. ‡ Bressler • Jan Brett and Joseph Hearne • Gregory E. Bulger Foundation/Gregory Bulger and Richard Dix • Ronald G. and Ronni J. Casty • Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation • Mr. and Mrs. William H. Congleton ‡ • William F. Connell ‡ and Family • Country Curtains • Diddy and John Cullinane • Edith L. and Lewis S. ‡ Dabney • Elisabeth K. and Stanton W. Davis ‡ • Mary Deland R. de Beaumont ‡ • Delta Air Lines • Bob and Happy Doran • Alan and Lisa Dynner and Akiko ‡ Dynner • Deborah and Philip Edmundson • William and Deborah Elfers • Elizabeth B. Ely ‡ • Nancy S. and John P. Eustis II ‡ • Shirley and Richard ‡ Fennell • Anna E. Finnerty ‡ • Fromm Music Foundation • The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation • Marie L. Gillet ‡ • Sophia and Bernard Gordon • Mrs. Donald C. Heath ‡ • Francis Lee Higginson ‡ • Major Henry Lee Higginson ‡ • Edith C. Howie ‡ • John Hancock Financial • Muriel E. and Richard L. ‡ Kaye • Nancy D. and George H. ‡ Kidder • Kingsbury Road Charitable Foundation • Audrey Noreen Koller ‡ • Farla and Harvey Chet Krentzman ‡ • Barbara and Bill Leith ‡ • Nancy and Richard Lubin • Vera M. and John D. MacDonald ‡ • Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation • Carmine A. and Beth V. Martignetti • Commonwealth of Massachusetts • The McGrath Family • The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation • Henrietta N. Meyer ‡ • Mr. and Mrs. Nathan R. Miller ‡ • Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone • Richard P. and Claire W. Morse Foundation • William Inglis Morse Trust • Mary S. Newman • Mrs. Mischa Nieland ‡ and Dr. Michael L. Nieland • Mr. ‡ and Mrs. Norio Ohga • P&G Gillette • The Claudia and Steven Perles Family Foundation • Polly and Dan ‡ Pierce • Mary G. and Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. ‡ • Susan and Dan ‡ Rothenberg • Carole and Edward I. Rudman • Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation • Wilhemina C. (Hannaford) Sandwen ‡ • Hannah H. ‡ and Dr. Raymond Schneider • Carl Schoenhof Family • Ruth ‡ and Carl J. Shapiro • Marian Skinner ‡ • Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation/Richard A. and Susan F. Smith • Sony Corporation of America • Dr. Nathan B. and Anne P. Talbot ‡ • Diana O. Tottenham • The Wallace Foundation • Edwin S. Webster Foundation • Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner • The Helen F. Whitaker Fund • Helen and Josef Zimbler ‡ • Brooks and Linda Zug • Anonymous (7)

‡ Deceased

week 20 the great benefactors 63

Administration

Mark Volpe, Eunice and Julian Cohen Managing Director, endowed in perpetuity Anthony Fogg, Artistic Administrator and Director of Tanglewood Marion Gardner-Saxe, Director of Human Resources Ellen Highstein, Edward H. Linde Tanglewood Music Center Director, endowed by Alan S. Bressler and Edward I. Rudman Bernadette M. Horgan, Director of Public Relations Thomas D. May, Chief Financial Ofﬁcer Kim Noltemy, Chief Operating and Communications Ofﬁcer Bart Reidy, Director of Development Ray F. Wellbaum, Orchestra Manager administrative staff/artistic

Bridget P. Carr, Senior Archivist • Kristie Chan, Assistant to the Artistic Administrator • Julie Giattina Moerschel, Executive Assistant to the Managing Director • Vincenzo Natale, Chauffeur/Valet • Sarah Radcliffe-Marrs, Manager of Artists Services • Eric Valliere, Assistant Artistic Administrator administrative staff/production Christopher W. Ruigomez, Director of Concert Operations and Assistant Director of Tanglewood Kristie Chan, Chorus and Orchestra Management Assistant • H.R. Costa, Technical Director • Erik Johnson, Chorus Manager • Tuaha Khan, Stage Technician • Jake Moerschel, Technical Supervisor/Assistant Stage Manager • Leah Monder, Operations Manager • John Morin, Stage Technician • Mark C. Rawson, Stage Technician • Emily W. Siders, Concert Operations Administrator • Nick Squire, Recording Engineer • Andrew Tremblay, Assistant to the Orchestra Personnel Manager/ Audition Coordinator boston pops Dennis Alves, Director of Artistic Planning Wei Jing Saw, Assistant Manager of Artistic Administration • Amanda Severin, Manager of Artistic Planning and Services business office

Sarah J. Harrington, Director of Planning and Budgeting • Mia Schultz, Director of Investment Operations and Compliance • Natasa Vucetic, Controller Sophia Bennett, Staff Accountant • Angelina Collins, Accounting Manager • Karen Guy, Accounts Payable Supervisor • Minnie Kwon, Payroll Associate • Evan Mehler, Budget Manager • Robin Moxley, Payroll Supervisor • Nia Patterson, Senior Accounts Payable Assistant • Mario Rossi, Staff Accountant • Lucy Song, Accounts Payable Assistant • Teresa Wang, Staff Accountant • Maggie Zhong, Senior Endowment Accountant

week 20 administration 65 66 development

Susan Grosel, Director of Annual Funds and Donor Relations • Nina Jung, Director of Board, Donor, and Volunteer Engagement • Ryan Losey, Director of Foundation and Government Relations • John C. MacRae, Director of Principal and Major Gifts • Jill Ng, Director of Planned Giving and Senior Major Gifts Officer • Richard Subrizio, Director of Development Communications • Mary E. Thomson, Director of Corporate Initiatives • Jennifer Roosa Williams, Director of Development Research and Information Systems Kyla Ainsworth, Donor Acknowledgment and Research Coordinator • Leslie Antoniel, Leadership Gifts Officer • Erin Asbury, Manager of Volunteer Services • Stephanie Baker, Assistant Director, Campaign Planning and Administration • Nadine Biss, Assistant Manager, Development Communications • Diane Cataudella, Associate Director, Donor Relations • Caitlin Charnley, Donor Ticketing Associate • Allison Cooley, Major Gifts Officer • Emily Diaz, Assistant Manager, Gift Processing • Emily Fritz-Endres, Executive Assistant to the Director of Development • Barbara Hanson, Senior Leadership Gifts Officer • James Jackson, Assistant Director, Telephone Outreach • Jennifer Johnston, Graphic Designer/Print Production Manager • Laine Kyllonen, Assistant Manager, Donor Relations • Katherine Laveway, Major Gifts Coordinator • Andrew Leeson, Manager, Direct Fundraising and Friends Program • Anne McGuire, Assistant Manager, Corporate Initiatives and Research • Suzanne Page, Major Gifts Officer • Mark Paskind, Assistant Manager of Planned Giving • Kathleen Pendleton, Assistant Manager, Development Events and Volunteer Services • Johanna Pittman, Grant Writer • Maggie Rascoe, Annual Funds Coordinator • Emily Reynolds, Assistant Director, Development Information Systems • Francis Rogers, Major Gifts Officer • Drew Schweppe, Major Gifts Coordinator • Alexandria Sieja, Assistant Director, Development Events • Yong-Hee Silver, Senior Major Gifts Officer • Szeman Tse, Assistant Director, Development Research education and community engagement Jessica Schmidt, Helaine B. Allen Director of Education and Community Engagement Claire Carr, Senior Manager of Education and Community Engagement • Emilio Gonzalez, Manager of Education and Community Engagement • Elizabeth Mullins, Assistant Manager of Education and Community Engagement • Darlene White, Manager of Berkshire Education and Community Engagement facilities Robert Barnes, Director of Facilities symphony hall operations Peter J. Rossi, Symphony Hall Facilities Manager Charles F. Cassell, Jr., Facilities Compliance and Training Coordinator • Alana Forbes, Facilities Coordinator • Shawn Wilder, Mailroom Clerk maintenance services Jim Boudreau, Lead Electrician • Thomas Davenport, Carpenter • Michael Frazier, Carpenter • Steven Harper, HVAC Technician • Sandra Lemerise, Painter • Adam Twiss, Electrician environmental services Landel Milton, Lead Custodian • Rudolph Lewis, Assistant Lead Custodian • Desmond Boland, Custodian • Julien Buckmire, Custodian/Set-up Coordinator • Claudia Ramirez Calmo, Custodian • Errol Smart, Custodian • Gaho Boniface Wahi, Custodian tanglewood operations Robert Lahart, Director of Tanglewood Facilities Bruce Peeples, Grounds Supervisor • Peter Socha, Buildings Supervisor • Fallyn Girard, Tanglewood Facilities Coordinator • Stephen Curley, Crew • Richard Drumm, Mechanic • Maurice Garofoli, Electrician • Bruce Huber, Assistant Carpenter/Roofer human resources

Heather Mullin, Human Resources Manager • Susan Olson, Human Resources Recruiter • Kathleen Sambuco, Associate Director of Human Resources

week 20 administration 67 information technology Timothy James, Director of Information Technology Andrew Cordero, IT Asset Manager • Ana Costagliola, Database Business Analyst • Isa Cuba, Infrastructure Engineer • Stella Easland, Telephone Systems Coordinator • Michael Finlan, Telephone Systems Manager • Karol Krajewski, Infrastructure Systems Manager • Brian Van Sickle, User Support Specialist • Richard Yung, IT Services Manager public relations

Samuel Brewer, Senior Publicist • Alyssa Kim, Senior Publicist • Taryn Lott, Assistant Director of Public Relations publications Marc Mandel, Director of Program Publications Robert Kirzinger, Assistant Director of Program Publications—Editorial • Eleanor Hayes McGourty, Assistant Director of Program Publications—Production and Advertising sales, subscription, and marketing

Helen N.H. Brady, Director of Group Sales • Alyson Bristol, Director of Corporate Partnerships • Sid Guidicianne, Front of House Manager • Roberta Kennedy, Buyer for Symphony Hall and Tanglewood • Sarah L. Manoog, Director of Marketing • Michael Miller, Director of Ticketing Amy Aldrich, Associate Director of Subscriptions and Patron Services • Christopher Barberesi, Assistant Manager, Corporate Partnerships • Gretchen Borzi, Associate Director of Marketing • Lenore Camassar, Associate Manager, SymphonyCharge • Megan Cokely, Group Sales Manager • Susan Coombs, SymphonyCharge Coordinator • Jonathan Doyle, Graphic Designer • Paul Ginocchio, Manager, Symphony Shop and Tanglewood Glass House • Leslie Kwan, Associate Director of Marketing Promotions and Events • George Lovejoy, SymphonyCharge Representative • Mary Ludwig, Manager, Corporate Sponsor Relations • Ronnie McKinley, Ticket Exchange Coordinator • Michelle Meacham, Subscriptions Representative • Michael Moore, Associate Director of Internet Marketing and Digital Analytics • Laurence E. Oberwager, Director of Tanglewood Business Partners • Meaghan O’Rourke, Internet Marketing and Social Media Manager • Greg Ragnio, Subscriptions Representative • Doreen Reis, Advertising Manager • Laura Schneider, Internet Marketing Manager and Front End Lead • Robert Sistare, Senior Subscriptions Representative • Richard Sizensky, Access Coordinator • Kevin Toler, Art Director • Himanshu Vakil, Associate Director of Internet and Security Technologies • Claudia Veitch, Director, BSO Business Partners • Thomas Vigna, Group Sales and Marketing Associate • Amanda Warren, Graphic Designer • David Chandler Winn, Tessitura Liaison and Associate Director of Tanglewood Ticketing box ofﬁce Jason Lyon, Symphony Hall Box Office Manager • Nicholas Vincent, Assistant Manager

Jane Esterquest, Box Office Administrator • Arthur Ryan, Box Office Representative event services James Gribaudo, Function Manager • Kyle Ronayne, Director of Event Administration • Luciano Silva, Manager of Venue Rentals and Event Administration tanglewood music center

Karen Leopardi, Associate Director for Faculty and Guest Artists • Michael Nock, Associate Director for Student Affairs • Bridget Sawyer-Revels, Office Coordinator • Gary Wallen, Associate Director for Production and Scheduling

week 20 administration 69

Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers executive committee Chair, Martin Levine Vice-Chair, Boston, Gerald L. Dreher Vice-Chair, Tanglewood, Alexandra Warshaw Secretary, Susan Price Co-Chairs, Boston Suzanne Baum • Mary Gregorio • Trish Lavoie Co-Chairs, Tanglewood Judith Benjamin • Bob Braun • David Galpern Liaisons, Tanglewood Glass Houses, Stanley Feld • Ushers, Carolyn Ivory boston project leads 2015-16

Café Flowers, Stephanie Henry and Kevin Montague • Chamber Music Series, Rita Richmond and Christine Watson • Computer and Office Support, Helen Adelman • Flower Decorating, Linda Clarke • Guide’s Guide, Audley H. Fuller and Renee Voltmann • Instrument Playground, Melissa Riesgo • Mailings, George Mellman • Membership Table/Hall Greeters, Sabrina Ellis • Newsletter, Richard Pokorny • Recruitment, Retention, Reward, Rosemary Noren • Symphony Shop, Karen Brown • Tour Guides, Cathy Mazza

week 20 administration 71 Next Program…

Thursday, March 24, 8pm Friday, March 25, 1:30pm Saturday, March 26, 8pm

andris nelsons conducting

kancheli “dixi,” for mixed chorus and orchestra (2009; american premiere) tanglewood festival chorus, betsy burleigh, guest chorus conductor

rachmaninoff rhapsody on a theme of paganini, opus 43 nikolai lugansky, piano

{intermission}

shostakovich symphony no. 8 in c minor, opus 65 Adagio Allegretto Allegro non troppo— Largo— Allegretto

Continuing the BSO’s survey of the Stalin-era works of Dmitri Shostakovich, Andris Nelsons leads the composer’s wartime Eighth Symphony. Less well received than the ostensibly patriotic Seventh (the Leningrad), the Eighth is now considered one of his most important achievements. Written only a decade earlier, Rachmaninoff’s perennially popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, here played by the Russian virtuoso Nikolai Lugansky, is a tour de force of compositional craft. Georgian- born Giya Kancheli, one of the world’s most esteemed living composers, remained primarily in Tbilisi until 1990 but has developed a significant worldwide reputation. Although influenced by Shostakovich, he developed a personal style that draws strongly on the music of the Christian Orthodox church. Dixi (2009) is a 22-minute work for chorus and orchestra setting fragments of Latin text.

Single tickets for all Boston Symphony concerts throughout the season are available online at bso.org, by calling Symphony Charge at (617) 266-1200 or toll-free at (888) 266-1200, or at the Symphony Hall box office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturday from 12 noon to 6 p.m.). Please note that there is a $6.50 handling fee for each ticket ordered by phone or online.

72 Coming Concerts… friday previews and rehearsal talks: The BSO offers half-hour talks prior to all of the BSO’s Friday-afternoon subscription concerts and Thursday-morning Open Rehearsals. Free to all ticket holders, the Friday Previews take place from 12:15-12:45 p.m. and the Open Rehearsal Talks from 9:30-10 a.m. in Symphony Hall.

Thursday ‘B’ March 24, 8-10:20 Thursday ‘D’ April 7, 8-10:05 Friday ‘A’ March 25, 1:30-3:50 Friday ‘B’ April 8, 1:30-3:35 Saturday ‘B’ March 26, 8-10:20 Saturday ‘A’ April 9, 8-10:05 ANDRISNELSONS, conductor Tuesday ‘B’ April 12, 8-10:05 NIKOLAILUGANSKY, piano ANDRISNELSONS, conductor TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS, MALCOLMLOWE, violin BETSYBURLEIGH, guest chorus conductor STEVENANSELL, viola KANCHELI Dixi, for chorus and orchestra MOZART Sinfonia concertante for violin (American premiere) and viola, K.364 RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of BRUCKNER Symphony No. 3 (1889 version) Paganini SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8 Thursday ‘A’ April 14, 8-9:40 Friday ‘A’ April 15, 1:30-3:10 Tuesday ‘C’ March 29, 8-10:20 Saturday ‘A’ April 16, 8-9:40 ANDRISNELSONS, conductor Tuesday ‘C’ April 17, 8-9:40 TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS, ANDRISNELSONS, conductor BETSYBURLEIGH, guest chorus conductor MAHLER Symphony No. 9 SHOSTAKOVICH Suite from Incidental music to Hamlet KANCHELI Dixi, for chorus and orchestra Thursday ‘C’ April 21, 8-9:45 SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8 Friday ‘B’ April 22, 1:30-3:15 Saturday ‘B’ April 23, 8-9:45 ANDRISNELSONS, conductor Thursday, March 31, 10:30am (Open Rehearsal) KRISTINEOPOLAIS, soprano Thursday ‘C’ March 31, 8-10:05 Friday Evening April 1, 8-10:05 DUTILLEUX Métaboles Saturday ‘B’ April 2, 8-10:05 RACHMANINOFF Zdes’ khorosho (How fair Tuesday ‘C’ April 5, 8-10:05 this place) TCHAIKOVSKY Letter Scene from Eugene BERNARDHAITINK, conductor Onegin MURRAY PERAHIA, piano DEBUSSY La Mer BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 RAVEL La Valse MAHLER Symphony No. 1

Programs and artists subject to change.

week 20 coming concerts 73 Symphony Hall Exit Plan

74 Symphony Hall Information

For Symphony Hall concert and ticket information, call (617) 266-1492. For Boston Symphony concert program information, call “C-O-N-C-E-R-T” (266-2378). The Boston Symphony Orchestra performs ten months a year, in Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood. For information about any of the orchestra’s activities, please call Symphony Hall, visit bso.org, or write to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. The BSO’s web site (bso.org) provides information on all of the orchestra’s activities at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood, and is updated regularly. In addition, tickets for BSO concerts can be purchased online through a secure credit card transaction. The Eunice S. and Julian Cohen Wing, adjacent to Symphony Hall on Huntington Avenue, may be entered by the Symphony Hall West Entrance on Huntington Avenue. In the event of a building emergency, patrons will be notified by an announcement from the stage. Should the building need to be evacuated, please exit via the nearest door (see map on opposite page), or according to instructions. For Symphony Hall rental information, call (617) 638-9241, or write the Director of Event Administration, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 02115. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (12 noon until 6 p.m. on Saturday), until 8:30 p.m. on concert evenings, and for a half-hour past starting time for other events. In addition, the box office opens at least two hours prior to most Sunday performances. Single tickets for all Boston Symphony subscription concerts are available at the box office. To purchase BSO Tickets: American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club, Discover, a personal check, and cash are accepted at the box office. To charge tickets instantly on a major credit card, call “SymphonyCharge” at (617) 266-1200, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (12 noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday). Outside the 617 area code, phone 1-888-266-1200. As noted above, tickets can also be purchased online. There is a handling fee of $6.50 for each ticket ordered by phone or online. Group Sales: Groups may take advantage of advance ticket sales. For BSO concerts at Symphony Hall, groups of twenty-five or more may reserve tickets by telephone and take advantage of ticket discounts and flexible payment options. To place an order, or for more information, call Group Sales at (617) 638-9345 or (800) 933-4255, or e-mail [email protected]. For patrons with disabilities, elevator access to Symphony Hall is available at both the Massachusetts Avenue and Cohen Wing entrances. An access service center, large print programs, and accessible restrooms are available inside the Cohen Wing. For more information, call the Access Services Administrator line at (617) 638-9431 or TDD/TTY (617) 638-9289. In consideration of our patrons and artists, children age four or younger will not be admitted to Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts. Please note that no food or beverage (except water) is permitted in the Symphony Hall auditorium. Patrons who bring bags to Symphony Hall are subject to mandatory inspections before entering the building. Those arriving late or returning to their seats will be seated by the patron service staff only during a convenient pause in the program. Those who need to leave before the end of the concert are asked to do so between program pieces in order not to disturb other patrons.

Each ticket purchased from the Boston Symphony Orchestra constitutes a license from the BSO to the pur- chaser. The purchase price of a ticket is printed on its face. No ticket may be transferred or resold for any price above its face value. By accepting a ticket, you are agreeing to the terms of this license. If these terms are not acceptable, please promptly contact the Box Ofﬁce at (617) 266-1200 or [email protected] in order to arrange for the return of the ticket(s).

week 20 symphony hall information 75 Ticket Resale: If you are unable to attend a Boston Symphony concert for which you hold a subscription ticket, you may make your ticket available for resale by calling (617) 266-1492 during business hours, or (617) 638-9426 up to one hour before the concert. This helps bring needed revenue to the orchestra and makes your seat available to someone who wants to attend the concert. A mailed receipt will acknowledge your tax-deductible contribution. Rush Seats: There are a limited number of Rush Seats available for Boston Symphony subscription concerts on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and on Friday afternoons. The low price of these seats is assured through the Morse Rush Seat Fund. Rush Tickets are sold at $9 each, one to a customer, at the Symphony Hall box office on Fridays as of 10 a.m. for afternoon concerts, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays as of 5 p.m. for evening concerts. Please note that there are no Rush Tickets available for Friday and Saturday evenings. Please note that smoking is not permitted anywhere in Symphony Hall. Camera and recording equipment may not be brought into Symphony Hall during concerts. Lost and found is located at the security desk at the stage door to Symphony Hall on St. Stephen Street. First aid facilities for both men and women are available. On-call physicians attending concerts should leave their names and seat locations at the Cohen Wing entrance on Huntington Avenue. Parking: The Prudential Center Garage and Copley Place Parking on Huntington Avenue offer discounted parking to any BSO patron with a ticket stub for evening performances. Limited street parking is available. As a special benefit, guaranteed pre-paid parking near Symphony Hall is available to subscribers who attend evening concerts. For more information, call the Subscription Office at (617) 266-7575. Elevators are located outside the O’Block/Kay and Cabot-Cahners rooms on the Massachusetts Avenue side of Symphony Hall, and in the Cohen Wing. Ladies’ rooms are located on both main corridors of the orchestra level, as well as at both ends of the first balcony, audience-left, and in the Cohen Wing. Men’s rooms are located on the orchestra level, audience-right, outside the O’Block/Kay Room near the elevator; on the first-balcony level, also audience-right near the elevator, outside the Cabot-Cahners Room; and in the Cohen Wing. Coatrooms are located on the orchestra and first-balcony levels, audience-left, outside the O’Block/Kay and Cabot-Cahners rooms, and in the Cohen Wing. Please note that the BSO is not responsible for personal apparel or other property of patrons. Lounges and Bar Service: There are two lounges in Symphony Hall. The O’Block/Kay Room on the orchestra level and the Cabot-Cahners Room on the first-balcony level serve drinks starting one hour before each performance. For the Friday-afternoon concerts, both rooms open at noon, with sandwiches available until concert time. Drink coupons may be purchased in advance online or through SymphonyCharge for all performances. Boston Symphony Broadcasts: Saturday-evening concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are broadcast live in the Boston area by 99.5 All-Classical. BSO Friends: The Friends are donors who contribute $100 or more to the Boston Symphony Orchestra Annual Funds. For information, please call the Friends of the BSO Office at (617) 638-9276 or e-mail [email protected]. If you are already a Friend and you have changed your address, please inform us by sending your new and old addresses to Friends of the BSO, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 02115. Including your patron number will assure a quick and accurate change of address in our files. BSO Business Partners: The BSO Business Partners program makes it possible for businesses to participate in the life of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Benefits include corporate recognition in the BSO program book, access to the Beranek Room reception lounge, two-for-one ticket pricing, and advance ticket ordering. For further information, please call the BSO Business Partners Office at (617) 638-9275 or e-mail [email protected]. The Symphony Shop is located in the Cohen Wing at the West Entrance on Huntington Avenue and is open Thursday and Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m., and for all Symphony Hall performances through intermission. The Symphony Shop features exclusive BSO merchandise, including calendars, coffee mugs, an expanded line of BSO apparel and recordings, and unique gift items. The Shop also carries children’s books and musical-motif gift items. A selection of Symphony Shop merchandise is also available online at bso.org and, during concert hours, outside the Cabot-Cahners Room. All proceeds benefit the Boston Symphony Orchestra. For further information and telephone orders, please call (617) 638-9383, or purchase online at bso.org.