BSO plans five-city US tour

By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff  |  November 11, 2005

The Boston Symphony Orchestra will make its first American tour under music director James Levine in March. The orchestra has regularly traveled to New York's Carnegie Hall to repeat key Boston progams with Levine, but this is the first opportunity for other cities to experience Levine at the head of the BSO.

The BSO and Levine will begin the tour at Carnegie Hall on March 6, moving on to additional concerts in Chicago (March 7), Newark (March 9), Philadelphia (March 10), and Washington, D.C. (March 11).

New York will hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Other cities will hear a program compiled from earlier Levine concerts -- Strauss's ''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," Peter Lieberson's ''Neruda Songs" with mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Elliott Carter's ''Three Illusions for Orchestra," and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is still scheduled to sing the East Coast premiere of ''Neruda Songs," with Levine and the BSO over Thanksgiving weekend, according to BSO artistic administrator Anthony Fogg.

Lieberson has canceled most of her engagements this year and has pruned several future commitments from her schedule, citing back problems and creating concerns among admirers who remember that she canceled an entire season five years ago because of a battle with cancer. The New York Times reported on those concerns in an article this week.

''I have spoken to her recently and she was in great spirits, saying she feels stronger than she has for many years," Fogg said yesterday. ''In addition to her three programs with us in Symphony Hall this season, and her participation in our national tour in March, she has just accepted an additional engagement for Tanglewood next summer."

Besides ''Neruda Songs," Lieberson is scheduled to sing Beethoven's ''Missa Solemnis" in January and Schoenberg's ''Gurrelieder" in February.

The mezzo made her first appearance with the BSO in 1986. ''She began her career with us," Fogg said yesterday, ''and the performances of her husband's songs that are coming up represent a milestone in a relationship with the orchestra that has developed over many years. We have many projects planned for her over the next several seasons."

Another major 20th-century musician continues to be active into the 21st: Gunther Schuller celebrates his 80th birthday Nov. 22. Schuller has made major contributions to music as composer, conductor, writer and historian, horn virtuoso, educator, publisher, record producer, and inspiration to others. Three institutions collaborate next week to honor him in a festival called ''I Hear America," coordinated by pianist Bruce Brubaker: the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Harvard University, and New England Conservatory, where Schuller served as president (1966-1977).

James Levine leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Schuller's ''Spectra" on Nov. 19 and 22. There are three NEC/Jordan Hall concerts Monday-Wednesday at 8 p.m. Monday's program features chamber music and transcriptions by Schuller, as well as the Boston premiere of Schuller's ''Grand Concerto for Percussion and Keyboards" which created a sensation at Tanglewood last summer.

Tuesday brings a concert by a new edition of the NEC Ragtime Ensemble, which was founded by Schuller. Wednesday brings further chamber music by Schuller. At 5 p.m. that day, Schuller and Levine discuss ''Towards an American Repertory" in Williams Hall (this writer serves as unpaid moderator). Wednesday at 3 in Sanders Theatre, Schuller speaks with Harvard and NEC composition students, in an event moderated by Robert Levin.