The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
based in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "
Big Five". Founded by
Henry Lee Higginson
Henry Lee Higginson (November 18, 1834 – November 14, 1919) was an American businessman best known as the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a patron of Harvard University.
Biography
Higginson was born in New York City on November 18 ...
in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's
Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...
.
Since its founding, the orchestra has had 17 music directors, including
George Henschel
Sir Isidor George Henschel (18 February 185010 September 1934) was a German-born British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer. His first wife Lillian was also a singer. He was the first conductor of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra ...
,
Serge Koussevitzky,
Henri Rabaud
Henri Benjamin Rabaud (10 November 187311 September 1949) was a French conductor, composer and pedagogue, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of th ...
,
Pierre Monteux,
Charles Munch,
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
,
William Steinberg
William Steinberg (Cologne, August 1, 1899New York City, May 16, 1978) was a German-American conductor.
Biography
Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, ...
and
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...
.
Andris Nelsons
Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor who is currently the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has previously served as music directo ...
is the current music director of the BSO.
Seiji Ozawa has the title of BSO music director laureate.
Bernard Haitink
Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021) was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to Lon ...
had held the title of principal guest conductor of the BSO from 1995 to 2004, then conductor emeritus until his death in 2021. The orchestra has made gramophone recordings since 1917 and has occasionally played on soundtrack recordings for films, including ''
Schindler's List
''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel ''Schindler's Ark'' by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film f ...
''.
History
Early years
![Henry Lee Higginson by John Singer Sargent 1903](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Henry_Lee_Higginson_by_John_Singer_Sargent_1903.jpeg)
The BSO was founded in 1881 by
Henry Lee Higginson
Henry Lee Higginson (November 18, 1834 – November 14, 1919) was an American businessman best known as the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a patron of Harvard University.
Biography
Higginson was born in New York City on November 18 ...
. Its first conductor was
George Henschel
Sir Isidor George Henschel (18 February 185010 September 1934) was a German-born British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer. His first wife Lillian was also a singer. He was the first conductor of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra ...
, who was a noted baritone as well as conductor, and a close friend of
Johannes Brahms. For the orchestra, Henschel devised innovative orchestral seating charts and sent them to Brahms, who replied approvingly and commented on the issues raised by horn and viola sections in a letter of mid-November 1881. The BSO's first concert took place on October 22, 1881. The program consisted of Beethoven's ''
The Consecration of the House'', as well as music by
Franz Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
,
Christoph Willibald Gluck,
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...
and
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...
.
![Nathaniel Livermore Stebbins Boston Symphony Orchestra 1891](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Nathaniel_Livermore_Stebbins_Boston_Symphony_Orchestra_1891.jpg)
The orchestra's four subsequent music directors were all trained in Austria, including the seminal and highly influential Hungarian-born conductor
Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch (12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London, Leipzig and—most importantly—Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of B ...
, in accordance with the tastes of Higginson.
Wilhelm Gericke
Wilhelm Gericke (April 18, 1845 – October 27, 1925) was an Austrian-born conductor and composer who worked in Vienna and Boston.
He was born in Schwanberg, Austria. Initially he trained in Graz to be a schoolmaster. This didn't work out, thoug ...
served twice, from 1884 to 1889 and again from 1898 to 1906. According to Joseph Horowitz's review of correspondence, Higginson considered 25 candidates to replace Gericke after receiving notice in 1905. He decided not to offer the position to
Gustav Mahler,
Fritz Steinbach
Fritz Steinbach (17 June 1855 – 13 August 1916) was a German conductor and composer who was particularly associated with the works of Johannes Brahms.
Born in Grünsfeld, he was the brother of conductor Emil Steinbach. He studied at the Le ...
, and
Willem Mengelberg
Joseph Wilhelm Mengelberg (28 March 1871 – 21 March 1951) was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest s ...
but did not rule out the young
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...
if nobody more senior were to accept. He offered the position to
Hans Richter in February 1905, who declined, to
Felix Mottl in November, who was previously engaged, and then to previous director Nikisch, who declined; the post was finally offered to
Karl Muck
Karl Muck (October 22, 1859 – March 3, 1940) was a German-born conductor of Classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). M ...
, who accepted and began his duties in October 1906. He was conductor until 1908 and again from 1912 to 1918.
The music director 1908–12 was
Max Fiedler
Max Fiedler (21 December 1859, Zittau – 1 December 1939, Stockholm) was a German conductor and composer, born August Max Fiedler in Zittau, Saxony, Germany. He was especially noted as an interpreter of Brahms.
He first studied the piano ...
. He conducted the premiere of
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...
's
Symphony in B minor "Polonia" in 1909.
During World War I, Muck (born in Germany but a Swiss citizen since childhood), was arrested, shortly before a performance of the
St. Matthew Passion in 1918, and interned in a prison camp without trial or charge until the end of the war, when he was deported. He vowed never to return, and conducted thereafter only in Europe. The BSO's next two titled conductors were French:
Henri Rabaud
Henri Benjamin Rabaud (10 November 187311 September 1949) was a French conductor, composer and pedagogue, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of th ...
, who took over from Muck for a season, and then
Pierre Monteux from 1919 to 1924. Monteux, because of a musician's strike, was able to replace 30 players, thus changing the orchestra's sound; the orchestra developed a reputation for a "French" sound which persists to some degree to this day.
Koussevitzky and Munch
![Boston Symphony Hall from the south](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Boston_Symphony_Hall_from_the_south.jpg)
The orchestra's reputation increased during the 1924–1949 music directorship of
Serge Koussevitzky. One million radio listeners tuned in when Koussevitzky and the orchestra were the first to perform a live concert for radio broadcast, which they did on NBC in 1926.
In August 1942, the
American Federation of Musicians kicked off the
two-year long musician's strike, with the goal of musicians receiving more in royalty payments from record companies. Initially, the BSO were the only major performing group in the nation unaffected; the orchestra's musicians hadn't been unionized since the orchestra's founding. By the end of 1942, however, the orchestra joined the AFM, effectively joining the strike, and also kicking off a long series of live radio concerts on CBS with Koussevitzky conducting.
Under Koussevitzky, the orchestra gave regular radio broadcasts and established its summer home at
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...
, where Koussevitzky founded the
Berkshire Music Center, which is now the
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...
. Those
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
radio broadcasts ran from 1926 through 1951, and again from 1954 through 1956. The orchestra continues to make regular live radio broadcasts to the present day. The Boston Symphony has been closely involved with Boston's
WGBH Radio as an outlet for its concerts.
Koussevitzky also commissioned many new pieces from prominent
composers, including the
Symphony No. 4 of
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...
,
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
's ''
Second Rhapsody'' and the ''
Symphony of Psalms
The ''Symphony of Psalms'' is a choral symphony in three movements composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orc ...
'' by
Igor Stravinsky. They also gave the premiere of
Béla Bartók's
Concerto for Orchestra, which had been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the instigation of
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...
and
Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti ( hu">Szigeti József, ; 5 September 189219 February 1973) was a Hungarian violinist.
Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on ...
.
Koussevitzky started a tradition of commissions that the orchestra continued, including new works by
Heitor Villa-Lobos (
Symphony No. 11) and
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...
for its 75th anniversary,
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...
, and
Andrzej Panufnik
Sir Andrzej Panufnik (24 September 1914 – 27 October 1991) was a Poles, Polish composer and conductor. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw ...
, for the 100th, and lately for the 125th works by
Leon Kirchner
Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Pr ...
,
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
, and
Peter Lieberson
Peter Goddard Lieberson (25 October 1946 – 23 April 2011) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His song cycles include two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: '' Rilke Songs'' and ''Neruda Songs''; the latter won t ...
. Other BSO commissions have included
John Corigliano's
Symphony No. 2 for the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall.
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...
dedicated his
Eighth Symphony to the orchestra.
Although Koussevitsky recommended his protégé
Leonard Bernstein to be his successor after he retired in 1949, the BSO awarded the position to the Alsatian maestro
Charles Munch, who would lead until 1962. Munch had made his Boston conducting debut in 1946. He led orchestra on its first overseas tour, and also produced their first stereo recording in February 1954 for
RCA Victor. In 1952, Munch appointed the first woman to hold a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra, flutist
Doriot Anthony Dwyer
Doriot Anthony Dwyer (; March 6, 1922 – March 14, 2020) was an American flutist. She was one of the first women to be awarded principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra (following hornist Helen Kotas, who was appointed principal horn of the C ...
, who remained as BSO principal for 38 years.
Leinsdorf, Steinberg, and Ozawa
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
became music director in 1962 and held the post until 1969.
William Steinberg
William Steinberg (Cologne, August 1, 1899New York City, May 16, 1978) was a German-American conductor.
Biography
Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, ...
was then music director from 1969 to 1972. Steinberg was "ill and ailing" according to composer/author
Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford (born September 10, 1946) is an American author and composer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts ''magna cum laude'' from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers included Earl Kim at Harvard, ...
, and "for four years he was indisposed much of the time."
After Steinberg's retirement, according to BSO trustee John Thorndike (who was on the search committee) the symphony's board spoke to
Colin Davis and "investigated very thoroughly" his appointment, but Davis's commitments to his young family did not allow his moving to Boston from England;
instead he accepted the post of BSO principal guest conductor, which he held from 1972 to 1984. As the search continued,
Leonard Bernstein met with four board members and recommended
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...
, who had been Assistant Conductor and Associate Conductor under Steinberg, for the directorship, but the young conductor "did not have sufficient support among the BSO players," according to journalist
Jeremy Eichler
Jeremy Adam Eichler (born 13 August 1974) is an American music critic, and cultural historian. Since 2006 he has been the chief classical music critic of ''The Boston Globe'', frequently writing in his column the "Third Ear". Having written ...
.
The committee eventually chose
Seiji Ozawa, who became Music Director in 1973 and held the post until 2002, the longest tenure of any Boston Symphony conductor.
Ozawa's tenure involved significant dissension and controversy. One concern was his handling of the
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...
.
Greg Sandow
Greg Sandow (born June 3, 1943) is an American music critic and composer.
Education
Sandow is a graduate of Harvard University, with a bachelor's degree in government. He is also a graduate of Yale University, with a master's degree in composi ...
wrote in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' in December 1998 that Ozawa "had taken control of the school with what many people thought was surprising and abrupt brutality. Members of the faculty, themselves world-famous, had angrily resigned."
The first departure was in the fall of 1996, when Ozawa fired Richard Ortner, the Festival's administrator.
After a tumultuous season, at the end of summer 1997, pianist
Gilbert Kalish
Gilbert Kalish (born July 2, 1935) is an American pianist.
He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music gro ...
resigned from the faculty by sending Ozawa what the pianist/conductor
Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher (July 23, 1928 – August 2, 2020) was an American classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho called him "one of the most re ...
later described as "a blistering letter of resignation, and he made it public"; Fleisher, who was also a long-term member of the Tanglewood faculty, wrote, "Most of the faculty felt he was speaking for them."
Ozawa reduced Fleisher's role at the Center, offering him instead a "ceremonial puppet role," and Fleisher resigned, writing to Ozawa that the proposed role was "somewhat akin to having my legs chopped off at the knees, you then gently taking me by the arm and inviting me for a stroll. I must decline the invitation."
By contrast, ''Boston Globe'' music critic Richard Dyer wrote that:
: "...not every change was for the better...But there can be no question that Tanglewood is a busier, more adventurous, and more exciting place than it was before Ozawa became music director."
A more basic concern involved perceived shortcomings in Ozawa's musical leadership; as Sandow wrote in the 1998 article, "what mattered far more was how badly the BSO plays."
He noted that a group of Boston Symphony musicians had privately published a newsletter, ''Counterpoint'', expressing their concerns; in the summer of 1995
concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and principal cellist
Jules Eskin wrote that in rehearsal Ozawa gave no "specific leadership in matters of tempo and rhythm," no "expression of care about sound quality," and no "distinctly-conveyed conception of the character of each piece the BSO plays."
The BSO's managing director, Mark Volpe, responded that some board members considered Sandow's article a "hatchet job," and some unnamed BSO "observers" were said in ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' to believe that Sandow "might be sharpening blades for BSO members with axes to grind".
Sandow called the suggestion "nonsense," saying, "I found them
layers criticizing Ozawa in his article they didn't find me".
André Previn wrote to ''The Wall Street Journal'' defending Ozawa,
and Lowe wrote to the Journal that he was "frustrated and upset to see my name attached to the article since your reporter did not contact me and chose to quote a letter published nearly four years ago in an internal orchestra publication."
Boston Symphony Board of Trustees president Nicholas T. Zervas described Sandow as expressing an "`insulting, reductive, and racist view of
zawaas a
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
kept in place in order to raise Japanese money"
- a point Sandow rebutted in a letter to the Journal, saying "These are things I didn’t say. I’d heard the charge about Japanese money while I was writing my piece, so I asked Mark Volpe, the BSO’s General Manager, what he thought of it. Mark refuted it, and I quoted him approvingly."
Critic Lloyd Schwarz defended Sandow in the Boston alternative paper, ''The Boston Phoenix''
Various current music critics described a decline in the orchestra's playing during Ozawa's tenure.
Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford (born September 10, 1946) is an American author and composer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts ''magna cum laude'' from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers included Earl Kim at Harvard, ...
wrote:
: "Now and then he gave a standout performance, usually in the full-throated late-Romantic and 20th-century literature, but most of the time what came out was glittering surfaces with nothing substantial beneath: no discernable concept, no vision."
In a 2013 survey of recordings of ''
The Rite of Spring
, image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
, image_size = 350px
, caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of '
, composer = Igor Stravinsky
, based_on ...
'' by
Igor Stravinsky, a
New Yorker
New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to:
* A resident of the State of New York
** Demographics of New York (state)
* A resident of New York City
** List of people from New York City
* ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925
* '' The ...
music critic, the composer Russell Platt, wrote of:
: "Seiji Ozawa’s downright depressing account, recorded in 1979: the Boston Symphony Orchestra's sonic shine, developed by Ozawa's predecessors Monteux and Charles Munch, is audibly dripping away, its dispirited musicians losing their sense of individual responsibility to the score. It is a record of a professional relationship that went on far too long."
On June 22, 1999, the symphony announced Ozawa's departure as music director, as of 2002, following the sudden announcement of Ozawa's appointment as music director of the
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...
- a decision the board had heard about only a day earlier, where Volpe said he was "a little surprised at the timing".
He gave his last concert with the orchestra in July 2002.
During Ozawa's tenure,
Bernard Haitink
Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021) was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to Lon ...
served as principal guest conductor from 1995 to 2004. Haitink was named conductor emeritus in 2004, and actively served in the post as a returning guest conductor through his retirement in 2019.
Levine and Nelsons
In 2004,
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...
became the first American-born music director of the BSO. Levine received critical praise for revitalizing the quality and repertoire since the beginning of his tenure, including championing contemporary composers. During Levine's tenure, by February 2009 the BSO had performed 18 world premieres, 12 of them conducted by Levine. To fund the more challenging and expensive of Levine's musical projects with the orchestra, the orchestra established an "Artistic Initiative Fund" of about $40 million. (As of March 2013, the Boston Symphony also claimed an endowment of $413 million, the largest of any orchestra in the world.) Levine suffered from recurring injuries and health problems during his BSO tenure, which led to his resignation as BSO music director as of September 1, 2011.
In the wake of Levine's resignation,
Andris Nelsons
Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor who is currently the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has previously served as music directo ...
made his first guest-conducting appearance with the BSO in March 2011, as an emergency substitute for Levine at Carnegie Hall in Mahler's
Symphony No. 9.
He subsequently guest-conducted the BSO at Tanglewood in July 2012,
and made his first appearance with the BSO at Symphony Hall in January 2013. In May 2013, the BSO named Nelsons as its 15th music director, effective with the 2014–2015 season. His initial contract was for 5 years, with 8–10 weeks of scheduled appearances in the first year of the contract, and 12 weeks in subsequent years. Nelsons held the title of Music Director Designate for the 2013–2014 season. In August 2015, the BSO announced the extension of Nelsons' contract as music director through the 2021–2022 season, with a new contract of 8 years to replace the initial 5-year contract, and which also contains an evergreen clause for automatic renewal. In October 2020, the BSO announced a further extension of Nelsons' contract as music director through August 2025, with an evergreen clause for automatic renewal.
In September 2015, the orchestra announced a new artistic collaboration with the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...
, of which Nelsons was appointed as its next Gewandhauskapellmeister, effective with the 2017–2018 season.
Unequal-pay lawsuit
On July 2, 2018, BSO principal flautist
Elizabeth Rowe filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of
Suffolk County, Massachusetts claiming pay discrimination on the basis of gender. Rowe said she was paid much less than principal
oboist
An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette.
The following is a list of notable past and pres ...
John Ferrillo since 2004 and was seeking more than $200,000 in unpaid compensation from the orchestra. The BSO tried to discredit Rowe's claim that she was being discriminated against because of the unequal pay compared to Ferrillo by saying in a court filing that the two
wind instruments
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...
were not comparable. After mediation, the case was settled out of court in February 2019 for an undisclosed amount.
Recent history
In January 2020, the BSO cancelled its planned tour of Asia, the first American orchestra to cancel overseas travel in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Subsequent events related to the COVID-19 pandemic included the following:
* Cancellation of the 2020 Tanglewood summer festival season
* Cancellation of its scheduled subscription concerts through November 2020, the first-ever full cancellation of the orchestra's autumn subscription concerts in its history
* Staff redundancies effective September 1, 2020
* Reduction in orchestra musician compensation in its latest labour agreement, from August 24, 2020 through August 27, 2023
The most recent president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the BSO was Gail Samuel, as of 21 June 2021. Samuel is the first woman to be named to the posts in the history of the orchestra. In December 2022, the BSO announced simultaneously the resignation of Samuel as its president and CEO, effective 3 January 2023, and the appointment of Jeffrey D. Dunn as its interim president and CEO, effective 4 January 2023.
Related ensembles
The
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
, the Boston Symphony Orchestra minus its principal players, was founded in 1885, and plays lighter, more popular classics, and
show tunes
A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context.
T ...
.
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one ...
was the conductor who did the most to increase the fame of the Boston Pops over his tenure from 1930 to 1979. Film composer
John Williams succeeded Fiedler as the conductor of the Pops from 1980 to 1993. Since 1995, the conductor of the Boston Pops has been
Keith Lockhart
Keith Alan Lockhart (born November 7, 1959) is an American conductor. He is the Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Caro ...
.
The Boston Symphony Chamber Players were launched in 1964. Today they are the only chamber ensemble composed of principal players from an American symphony orchestra. In addition to regular performances in Boston and Tanglewood, they have performed throughout the United States and Europe. They have also recorded for RCA Victor, DG, Philips, and Nonesuch.
Performing with the BSO and Boston Pops for major choral works is the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Organized in 1970 by its founding director,
John Oliver
John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...
, the Chorus comprises over 300 volunteer singers. Before the creation of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and for some time after, the BSO frequently employed the New England Conservatory Chorus conducted by Lorna Cooke DeVaron, Chorus Pro Musica,
Harvard Glee Club
The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the H ...
and
Radcliffe Choral Society. In February 2017, the BSO announced the appointment of
James Burton
James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized ...
as the new conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and as the newly created BSO Choral Director, both with immediate effect. Burton founded the Boston Symphony Children's Choir in 2018.
Recordings
The Boston Symphony made its first acoustical recordings in 1917 in
Camden, New Jersey for the
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...
conducted by
Karl Muck
Karl Muck (October 22, 1859 – March 3, 1940) was a German-born conductor of Classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). M ...
. Among the first discs recorded was the finale to
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's fourth symphony.
Under Serge Koussevitzky, the orchestra made its first electrical recordings, also for Victor, in the late 1920s. These electrical recordings included
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
's ''
Boléro''. Recording sessions took place in Symphony Hall. Koussevitzky's final recording with the Boston Symphony was a high fidelity version of
Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
' Symphony No. 2, recorded in 1950 and released on LP.
In February 1954, RCA Victor began recording the orchestra in stereo, under the direction of Charles Munch. RCA Victor continued to record Munch and the orchestra through 1962, his final year as music director in Boston (see the
Charles Munch discography for a complete list of commercial recordings with the BSO under Charles Munch). During Munch's tenure, Pierre Monteux made a series of records with the BSO for RCA Victor (see
Pierre Monteux for a complete list of commercial recordings with the BSO).
Erich Leinsdorf, who had already made numerous recordings for RCA Victor, continued his association with the company during his seven years in Boston. These included a critically acclaimed performance of Brahms'
''German Requiem'' (see
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...
for a complete list).
Then, the orchestra switched to
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
(DG) under William Steinberg. RCA Victor recorded several LPs with Steinberg and
Berlioz's ''
Symphonie Fantastique'' with
Georges Prêtre
Georges Prêtre (; 14 August 1924 – 4 January 2017) was a French orchestral and opera conductor.
Biography
Prêtre was born in Waziers (Nord), and attended the Douai Conservatory and then studied harmony under Maurice Duruflé and conducting ...
during the transition to DG (see
William Steinberg
William Steinberg (Cologne, August 1, 1899New York City, May 16, 1978) was a German-American conductor.
Biography
Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, ...
for a complete list of commercial recordings).
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...
, who was the assistant conductor and associate conductor under Steinberg, also made several recordings for DG; some of these have been reissued on CD.
Due to Steinberg's illness, DG recorded the BSO with
Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík, KBE (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech conductor and composer.
Son of a well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague, and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ...
in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (part of his cycle of Beethoven symphonies with nine different orchestras), ''
Ma Vlast'' by
Bedřich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...
and in
Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra as well as with
Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Biography
Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic family in ...
conducting Symphony No. 41 by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
and
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...
's Symphony No. 8.
As a guest conductor in the 1960s, Ozawa made several recordings with the BSO for RCA Victor. He continued the BSO relationship with DG while making several other releases fo
New World Records Over the course of Ozawa's tenure, the BSO diversified its relationships, making recordings under Ozawa with CBS, EMI,
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in ...
, RCA, and
TELARC
Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner (recording engineer), Jack Renner and Robert Woods (producer), Robert Woods. ...
.
The BSO also recorded for Philips under Colin Davis.
Leonard Bernstein made records for both Columbia and DG with the BSO, including selections from his last concert ever as a conductor on August 19, 1990 at Tanglewood. The BSO has also appeared on Decca with
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...
, with
Charles Dutoit and
André Previn for DG, and on Phillips and Sony Classical with Bernard Haitink.
The BSO has also done recordings for film scores on occasion. Films such as ''
Schindler's List
''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel ''Schindler's Ark'' by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film f ...
'' and ''
Saving Private Ryan
''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set during the Battle of Normandy in World War II, the film is known for its graphic portrayal of war, especially its depicti ...
'' (both composed and conducted by
John Williams) were recorded by the orchestra at Symphony Hall.
In the James Levine era, the BSO had no standing recording contract with a major label;
the Grammy Award-winning recording of Levine conducting the BSO with
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (March 1, 1954 – July 3, 2006) was an American mezzo-soprano. She was noted for her performances of both Baroque era and contemporary works. Her career path to becoming a singer was unconventional – formerly a pr ...
in
Peter Lieberson
Peter Goddard Lieberson (25 October 1946 – 23 April 2011) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His song cycles include two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: '' Rilke Songs'' and ''Neruda Songs''; the latter won t ...
's ''Neruda Songs'', released on
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly called Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, No ...
, was the only major label recording during Levine's tenure. On February 19, 2009, the BSO announced the launch of a new series of recordings on their own label, BSO Classics. Some of the recordings are available only as digital downloads. The initial recordings included live concert performances of
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He ...
's 8th Symphony and ''Lyric Concerto,'' the latter with flutist James Galway,
Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
's
Sixth Symphony, the Brahms ''Ein deutsches Requiem'', and
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
's complete ''
Daphnis et Chloé
''Daphnis et Chloé'' is a 1912 ''symphonie chorégraphique'', or choreographic symphony, for orchestra and wordless chorus by Maurice Ravel. It is in three main sections, or ''parties'', and a dozen scenes, most of them dances, and lasts just u ...
'',
which won the
2010 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...
.
In April 2015, the BSO announced a new recording partnership with
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
that focuses on the music of
Dmitri Shostakovich, with Nelsons as conductor.
The first recording in the series, of the
Tenth Symphony recorded in concert in April 2015, was released on CD in August 2015, and subsequently won the year's Grammy award for Best Orchestral Performance.
Music directors
In popular culture
In the 1974–1975 American television
situation comedy ''
Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers
''Friends and Lovers'' (also known as ''Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers'') is an American sitcom starring Paul Sand which centers on a musician in Boston, Massachusetts, and his personal relationships. It was Sand's only starring role in a televi ...
'', several cast members played fictional personnel of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The shows star,
Paul Sand
Paul Sand (born March 5, 1932) is an American actor and comedian.
Background
Sand was born Pablo Sanchez in Santa Monica, California, in 1932, the son of Ernest Rivera Sanchez, an aerospace tool designer, and Sonia Borodiansky (aka Sonia Stone) ...
, portrayed Robert Dreyfuss, who played
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
, while
Steve Landesberg played violinist Fred Meyerbach.
Craig Richard Nelson
Craig Richard Nelson (born September 17, 1947) is an American actor in theater, film and television.
Life and career
Nelson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He studie ...
was the orchestras conductor, Mason Woodruff, and
Dick Wesson was its manager, Jack Riordan. In one episode, Roberts father Ben, played by
Jack Gilford, had a job in the orchestras ticket office. Guest stars who appeared as musicians playing in or with the orchestra during the shows 15-episode run included
Henry Winkler as a cellist,
Leon Askin
Leon Askin (; born Leon Aschkenasy, 18 September 1907 – 3 June 2005) was an Austrian Jewish actor best known in North America for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy ''Hogan's Heroes''.
Life and career
...
as a violinist, and
Susan Neher as a flutist.
See also
*
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
*
Charles Munch discography
Notes
;Additional sources
*
*
;Further reading
*Boston Symphony Orchestra. Season programmes. 22nd season, 1902–190
Google books 29th season, 1909–191
Internet Archive 36th season, 1916–191
Google books
External links
Official Boston Symphony Orchestra WebsiteOfficial BSO page on orchestra historyDiscography at SonyBMG Masterworks*Edgers, Geoff
"6 minutes to shine" ''The Boston Globe'', September 4, 2005.
A film about the BSO Premiere of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, from the Philharmonia Orchestra's Messiaen Website.
Boston Public Libraryon Flickr. Programme from U.S. premiere of Prokofiev's
Peter and the Wolf
''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...
, Symphony Hall, March 25, 1938.
{{Authority control
Culture of Boston
Musical groups from Boston
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Orchestras based in Massachusetts
Musical groups established in 1881
Arts organizations established in 1881
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DreamWorks Records artists
RCA Records artists
Cedille Records artists