BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons Closes 2022–23 BSO Season With Two Weeks Of Concert Programs

Music Director Andris Nelsons' multi-season focus on the music of Richard Strauss with the BSO culminates in two weeks of programming at the close of the 2021-2022 season.

The celebrated Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen sings the composer's final musical statements, his powerful and gorgeous Four Last Songs-a lasting tribute to his wife, the singer Pauline de Ahna. Also on the program, the symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks follows the madcap and sometimes tender antics of the title character, based on a famous rogue in German history. Strauss' own family are the stars of his Symphonia domestica, which manages to elevate to artistry the musical depiction of a day in the life of two busy parents- by turns quarrelsome and loving-and their exuberant young son.

Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in three monumental Strauss works: the tone poems Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks and Symphonia domestica (described above) as well as the Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten ("Woman with a Shadow"), Strauss' own 1946 distillation of his fabulist 1919 opera.

The April 22 performance is part of our Casual Fridays series and will include only performances of the Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten and Symphonia domestica. The orchestral host for the Casual Friday concert is bassist Carl Anderson.

Program Details for BSO Concerts with Andris Nelsons and Blaise Déjardin, April 28-30
The BSO's own principal cello Blaise Déjardin makes his solo concerto debut with the orchestra in these concerts performing the astonishingly gifted French composer Camille Saint-Saëns' 1873 Cello Concerto No. 1. In one movement, this compact concerto moves from exhilarating energy to great charm and finally to impassioned, virtuosic lyricism. Also on the program, the orchestral interludes from Strauss' 1924 opera Intermezzo are self-contained miniature tone poems of great dramatic effectiveness. The gorgeous "Dreaming by the Fireplace" depicts a woman's yearning for her husband, who is a musician on tour-part of the autobiographical plot of the opera. Strauss' absolute mastery of the orchestra is put to very different use in the tone poem An Alpine Symphony, which musically illustrates nature in all its glory via the climb and descent of a mountain in the Alps.

COVID-19 pandemic protocols for Symphony Hall performances and events are available at bso.org/safety.

The Anna Rakitina and Alexandre Kantorow BSO program will be available as a BSO NOW livestream on Saturday, April 9 at 8 p.m., and for video-on-demand viewing, April 21-May 21.

Current broadcasts include March 5's BSO concert with BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, available on-demand through April 16; March 13's Tanglewood Learning Institute chamber music program with BSO violinists Victor Romanul and Xin Ding, violist Daniel Getz, cellist Mickey Katz, and pianist Randall Hodgkinson, available on-demand through April 30; an archival video stream of the BSO's January 15, 1977 performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony, under the baton of Klaus Tennstedt and featuring soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, available on-demand from April 14 through May 14; and April 10's Tanglewood Learning Institute chamber music program with BSO double basses Benjamin Levy, Edward Kass, Peter Walsh, John Stovall, Todd Seeber, Carl Anderson, Charles Clements; harpist Charles Overton; and tenor Eric Carey, available on-demand from April 28 through May 28.

In addition, the BSO will present for free viewing through April 8 an archival video concert stream of the orchestra's 1963 American premiere of Britten's War Requiem, conducted by then-Music Director Erich Leinsdorf at Tanglewood. The historic recording features vocalists Phyllis Curtin, Nicolas di Virgilio, and Tom Krause, as well as Chorus Pro Musica and Columbus Boychoir. One of the most powerful artistic statements about the effects of war and power of pacifism-and imbued with timeless meaning-Britten's War Requiem is being offered in a spirit of peace and unity, with hopes for an end to the ongoing tragic conflict in Ukraine and throughout the world.

Click here for further details about the 2021-22 BSO NOW online performance series. For more information or to purchase a BSO NOW pass, please go to bso.org/bso-now. (Members of the press may access BSO NOW content by emailing merikson@bso.org.)

In addition, CRB Classical 99.5, a GBH station-celebrating their 70th anniversary of presenting Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts-will feature live BSO radio broadcasts and online audio streams (classicalwcrb.org) of Saturday-evening concerts from Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. through April 30.

Tickets for the 2021-22 BSO season, starting at $25, are available for purchase through bso.org or by calling 888-266-1200. Click here for additional ticketing information, including details on the BSO's discounted ticket programs-the High School and College Cards, $25 tickets for patrons under 40, Rush Tickets, EBT Card to Culture, and Group Sales-as well as access information for patrons with disabilities.

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