Boston Symphony Orchestra to Return to Carnegie Hall, 4/3-5

This April, Carnegie Hall presents the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in three performances led by two outstanding maestros, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Daniele Gatti (pictured at right), in its annual visit to Carnegie Hall. The BSO begins its series on Wednesday, April 3 at 8:00 p.m. with Mr. Frühbeck de Burgos conducting Paul Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson joins the orchestra for Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

The following evening, Thursday, April 4 at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Gatti takes the podium, leading Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter; the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, led by John Oliver; and boys of the PALS Children's Chorus, led by Andy Icochea Icochea.

In the final BSO program, on Friday, April 5 at 8:00 p.m., Maestro Gatti leads the orchestra in an all-Wagner program featuring works from Götterdämmerung, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Lohengrin, and Tristan und Isolde with guest soloist mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos is a regular guest with North America's top orchestras. He appears annually at the Tanglewood Music Festival and regularly with the National, Chicago, and Toronto symphony orchestras. Named "Conductor of the Year" by Musical America in 2011, Mr. Frühbeck's other numerous honors and distinctions have included the Gold Medal of the City of Vienna, Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Republic of Austria and Germany, Gold Medal from the Gustav Mahler International Society, and the Jacinto Guerrero Prize, Spain's most important musical award, conferred in 1997 by the Queen of Spain. In 1998, he was appointed Emeritus Conductor by the Spanish National Orchestra. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Navarra in Spain. Since 1975, he has been a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. From 2004 to 2011, he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Dresden Philharmonic, and in the 2012-2013 season, he began his post as Chief Conductor of the Danish National Orchestra. Mr. Frühbeck de Burgos has recorded extensively for the EMI, Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Spanish Columbia, and Orfeo labels, including acclaimed interpretations of Mendelssohn's Elijah and St. Paul, Mozart's Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Bizet's Carmen, and the complete works of Manual de Falla.

Daniele Gatti was born in Milan and graduated in composition and conductorship at the Academy of Music of his native city. He has been Music Director of the Orchestre National de France since September 2008 and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2009 after serving as its music director from 1996 to 2009. He has also served as Chefdirigent of the Opernhaus Zürich (2009-2012), Music Director at both the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (1997-2007) and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome (1992-1997), and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London (1994-1997). He has close relationships with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and he conducts many other important American and German orchestras. As an opera conductor, Mr. Gatti has led many new productions at the Staatsoper Wien, Bayerisches Staatsoper Munich, Opernhaus Zürich, and La Scala. He is currently conducting Wagner's Parsifal at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Mr. Gatti has signed an exclusive contract with the Sony Classical label, and his first CD for the label, featuring the music of Debussy with Orchestre National de France, has recently been released. Next season, he returns to Carnegie Hall, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the citywide festival Vienna: City of Dreams.

Now in its 132nd season, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert on October 22, 1881. Since then, the orchestra has performed throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, South America, China, and Russia, and also reaches a worldwide audience through its performances on radio and television, its recordings, and its highly successful web platform at bso.org,. Additionally, the BSO has released many recordings, including four with James Levine released in February 2009 (the orchestra's recording of Daphnis et Chloé won a Grammy Award for best orchestral performance) and a recording of Mozart's symphonies 14, 18, 20, 39, and 41 released in July 2010. The BSO has played an active role in commissioning new works from today's most important composers, including Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Gunther Schuller, and Charles Wuorinen, and offers a wide variety of educational programs, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the orchestra's prestigious music academy at Tanglewood, the BSO's summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts.