Critic’s Choice 2024- 25
Andris Nelsons will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt in the 2024-25 season. Photo: BSO
Mahler: Symphony No. 8. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons. October 4-6.
The BSO has only presented Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” at Symphony Hall on two other occasions, most recently in 2004 when James Levine inaugurated his tenure as music director with it. Andris Nelsons directs this third iteration, in which he’s joined by (among others) Christine Goerke, Ying Fang, Michael Nagy, Ryan Speedo Green, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. bso.org
Of Thee I Sing and Let ‘em Eat Cake. Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose. October 12.
Who says politics and music shouldn’t mix? Certainly not George or Ira Gershwin in their two great satires of American democracy. Of Thee I Sing tells of an administration threatened by a scandal involving “the illegitimate daughter of an illegitimate son of an illegitimate nephew of Napoleon.” And Let ‘em Eat Cake envisions a president losing reelection, not accepting the results, and subsequently installing a fascist regime on the banks of the Potomac. Both land at Jordan Hall three weeks before the election in an ambitious double-bill from Odyssey Opera and BMOP. odysseyopera.org
Music by Brahms and Bartók. Boston Philharmonic Orchestra/Benjamin Zander with Guy Braunstein. October 20.
Following his successful debut last year, violinist Guy Braunstein returns to the BPO, this time taking a solo turn in Brahms’s Violin Concerto. Benjamin Zander also conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. bostonphil.org
Gil Rose will lead Odyssey Opera in a pre-election double bill of George and Ira Gershwin’s satirical political musicals Of Thee I Sing and Let ’em Eat Cake October 12.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 5. Celebrity Series. Berliner Philharmoniker/Kirill Petrenko. November 20.
There’s hardly been a more brilliant orchestral performance at Symphony Hall this past decade than the Berliner Philharmoniker’s triumphant appearance in November 2022.They return with music director Kirill Petrenko in Anton Bruckner’s towering Symphony No. 5. celebrityseries.org
“Crossing the Deep.” Handel & Haydn Society/Anthony Trecek-King. January 17 & 19.
H&H’s revelatory juxtaposition of African American spirituals and sacred music by Handel (first presented in 2023) returns for two more concerts at Jordan Hall. Countertenor Reginald Mobley, soprano Brianna Robinson, and spoken word artist Reggie Gibson join the H&H Chorus and Orchestra. handelandhaydn.org
Korngold: Die tote Stadt. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons. January 30 & February 1.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s 1919 masterpiece, a meditation on love, loss, acceptance, and moving on, receives just its second Boston performance, courtesy of the BSO and Andris Nelsons, whose operatic projects have been among the indisputable triumphs of his music directorship. Christine Goerke sings Marietta and Brandon Jovanovich is Paul. bso.org
Music by Beethoven, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Nathalie Stutzmann with Veronika Eberle. February 6-8.
Nathalie Stutzmann, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, makes her belated BSO conducting debut with a concert that pairs Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Stravinsky’s The Firebird with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. bso.org
Pianists Yuja Wang and Vikingur Ólafsson will perform a duo-recital for the Celebrity Series February 21, 2025.
Music by Berio, Schubert, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Adams, Rachmaninoff, and others. Celebrity Series. Víkingur Ólafsson & Yuja Wang. February 21.
Two of the day’s most electrifying keyboardists team up for an invigorating, stylistically eclectic, and century-spanning duo recital. celebrityseries.org
Music by Brahms, Dello Joio, Herrmann, Tchaikovsky, and Estrin. Celebrity Series. Zlatomir Fung. April 16 & 17.
Cellist Fung, the youngest ever Gold Medalist of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, makes his Celebrity Series debut with a refreshing assortment of works, some familiar, some new, some unusual. celebrityseries.org
A Far Cry with Stewart Goodyear. May 9.
Pianist/composer Goodyear joins the Criers for a program that features his own Eclipse alongside Felix Mendelssohn’s early Concerto for Piano & String Orchestra plus selections by Franz Schreker and Teresa Carreño. afarcry.org
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