Andris Nelsons Leads The BSO In Two Dynamic Programs At Symphony Hall And New York's Carnegie Hall, January 11–30

Highlights include superstar pianist Seong-Jin Cho and a concert performance of Shostakovich's opera, 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'.

By: A.A. Cristi Dec. 14, 2023

Andris Nelsons Leads The BSO In Two Dynamic Programs At Symphony Hall And New York's Carnegie Hall, January 11–30 Image

The new year begins with Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons conducting the orchestra in two blockbuster programs that spotlight the BSO's enduring creative partnerships and major recording projects. Both programs will first be performed in Boston: works by Maurice Ravel, Tania León, and Igor Stravinsky with acclaimed pianist Seong-Jin Cho on January 11–13, followed by a concert version of the landmark 1934 Dmitri Shostakovich opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on January 25 and 27. Performances of the two complete programs will be repeated at New York's Carnegie Hall on January 29 and 30, respectively.

Jan. 11–13 (in Boston), Jan. 29, 2024 (at New York's Carnegie Hall): Nelsons Conducts Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with Seong-Jin Cho, Tania León's Stride, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

Continuing a survey of Ravel's works for piano and orchestra with the BSO, 2015 Chopin Competition Winner Seong-Jin Cho performs the composer's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in a program closing with Igor Stravinsky's revolutionary Rite of Spring. Opening the program is the 2021 Pulitzer Prize-winning work Stride by Cuban-born New Yorker Tania León, who holds Carnegie Hall's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair for the 2023–24 season. Inspired by the suffragist movement, Stride is dedicated to Susan B. Anthony.

The Ravel concerto with Cho as soloist will be recorded in Boston for a future release on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Please note that an abbreviated Casual Friday performance on January 26 at Symphony Hall of the León and Stravinsky works omits a performance of the Ravel concerto.

Jan. 25 & 27 (in Boston), Jan. 30, 2024 (at New York's Carnegie Hall): Nelsons Conducts a Concert Performance of Shostakovich's Opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in its Entirety, with the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Andris Nelsons and the BSO maintain the orchestra's tradition of presenting great operatic works in concert with Dmitri Shostakovich's intensely dramatic and socially critical opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which follows recent acclaimed performances of early 20th-century operas by Alban Berg, Richard Strauss, and Giacomo Puccini as well as complete acts from Wagner's music dramas. Portraying the role of Katarina Ismailova, the oppressed, ambitious, and ultimately murderous wife of a provincial merchant, in these performances is celebrated Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais; she headlines an impressive international cast of nearly 25 singers, which includes American tenor Brenden Gunnell as Sergei, British tenor Peter Hoare as Zinovy Izmailov (a BSO debut), and German bass Günther Groissböck as Boris Izmailov. They are joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (James Burton, conductor). The opera is sung in Russian with English supertitles.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was a critical and popular worldwide sensation following its 1934 premiere, but that success helped bring about the greatest crisis in the Russian composer's life. After Josef Stalin attended a performance of the opera in January 1936, an unsigned editorial titled “Muddle Instead of Music,” unequivocally damning the opera, appeared in the newspaper Pravda, Shostakovich and his allies immediately understood it as an official condemnation as well as a warning to comply with increasingly constrained Soviet artistic styles.

Nelsons and the BSO's performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk comes as part of a multi-season focus on Shostakovich's works, begun upon Nelsons' appointment as music director in the 2014–15 season. In the years since, a complete cycle of the composer's 15 symphonies appeared on the recording label Deutsche Grammophon—an eight-year effort that collectively earned three Grammy Awards and a mountain of rave reviews. The last recording in the symphony cycle, featuring symphonies nos. 2, 3, 12, and 13 (Babi Yar), was released in October 2023. Future releases will include the composer's complete concertos (featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Baiba Skride, and pianist Yuja Wang) and the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, captured in the BSO's live January 2024 performances at Symphony Hall.

Since making its Carnegie Hall debut in 1893, the BSO has performed at the venue on more than 950 occasions. Its last performances in April 2023 were warmly greeted by audiences and members of the press. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, critic David Mermelstein noted that “Under Mr. Nelsons's baton, it revealed only its best self to audiences hungry for music making of such high caliber. … The playing was sublime, with abundant nuances and a high gloss that few, if any, ensembles can equal.” The New York Times' Oussama Zahr observed how “in the two New York premieres, Nelsons unleashed the ensemble's astonishing range of colors to enliven the particular atmosphere of each work.”

CONCERT PROGRAM LISTINGS, JANUARY 11–30, 2024

Boston Symphony Orchestra Program Listing, January 11–13, 2024
Thursday, January 11, 10:30 a.m. (Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, January 11, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 12, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 13, 8 p.m.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano
Tania LEÓN Stride
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Boston Symphony Orchestra Program Listing, January 23–27, 2024
Tuesday, January 23, 7 p.m. (Special Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, January 25, 7 p.m.
Saturday, January 27, 7 p.m.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Cast to include
Kristine Opolais, soprano (Katerina Izmailova)

Brenden Gunnell, tenor (Sergei)

Peter Hoare*, tenor (Zinovy Izmailov)

Günther Groissböck, bass (Boris Izmailov and Ghost of Boris)

Michelle Trainor, soprano (Aksinya)

Alexandra LoBianco, soprano (Female Convict)

Maria Barakova, mezzo-soprano (Sonyetka)

Matthew DiBattista, tenor (Teacher)

Neal Ferreira, tenor (Foreman)

Charles Blandy*, tenor (Foreman & Drunken Guest)

Yeghishe Manucharyan*, tenor (Foreman & Coachman)

Charles Blandy, tenor (Drunken Guest)

Yeghishe Manucharyan, tenor (Coachman)

Alexander Kravets, tenor (Shabby Peasant)

David Kravitz, baritone (Millhand)

Alexandros Stavrakakis, bass (Porter & Policeman)

Joo Won Kang, baritone (Steward)

Patrick Guetti, bass (Officer and Sentry)

Goran Juric, bass (Priest)

Anatoli Sivko, bass (Chief of Police)

Paata Burchuladze, bass (Old Convict)

Tanglewood Festival Chorus

James Burton, conductor

Benjamin Richter, staging coordinator

* BSO Debut

Boston Symphony Orchestra Program Listing, January 26, 2024

Friday, January 26, 8 p.m. (Casual Friday)
Andris Nelsons
Tania LEÓN Stride
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

THE BSO WITH ANDRIS NELSONS AT Carnegie Hall

January 29 & 30, 2024

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

Monday, January 29, 2024, 8 p.m.

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Andris Nelsons, conductor

Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Tania LEÓN Stride

RAVEL Piano concerto for the left hand

STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 7 p.m.