BSO to open Carnegie Hall season with new Williams work
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For the first time in more than a decade, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will launch the new season at Carnegie Hall, performing a new work by John Williams on opening night this fall.
The BSO under music director James Levine also returns to Carnegie Hall for its usual three performances over the course of the season, details of which were announced today in New York.
Because the Carnegie programs will be performed first in Symphony Hall, the details also provide an early peek at the BSO's local season, well ahead of its formal announcement later this year.
In addition to music by Debussy and Berlioz, Carnegie's opening night gala program (Oct. 1) will feature Williams's "On Willows and Birches," a new work for harp and orchestra written as a tribute to the BSO's principal harpist, Ann Hobson Pilot. Pianist Evgeny Kissin will also perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2. The same program will open the orchestra's Symphony Hall season as well, on Sept. 23.
The BSO returns to Carnegie Hall the following month (Nov. 2) with an all-Beethoven program, devoted to the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies.
The next Carnegie concert (Feb. 1, 2010) will feature Elliott Carter's "Dialogues" for piano and orchestra, with the soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Also on the program will be Berlioz's "Harold in Italy" (with BSO principal violist Steven
The orchestra's final program (April 5, 2010) will be devoted to Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah," with vocal soloists Christine Brewer, Stephanie Blythe, and Michael Volle as well as the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
Highlights of Carnegie Hall's 119th season include "Ancient Paths, Modern Voices," an expansive citywide festival exploring a broad mix of Chinese culture, from traditional folk arts to contemporary music (Oct. 21 to Nov. 10).
The Dutch composer Louis Andriessen will hold the Debs Composer's Chair, and the Kronos Quartet will curate a six-event Perspectives series. That series includes the premiere (Nov. 3) of "Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home," a new multimedia project staged and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and inspired by the 200-year-old home that was transported from the Anhui province of China and rebuilt at the Peabody Essex Museum, opening to the public in 2003.
A new work by Boston-based composer Osvaldo Golijov will also receive its US premiere as part of the Carnegie season, in a performance (March 17, 2010) by pianist Emanuel Ax, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and hyper-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman.
