The orchestra is known for its traditional classical music, with a strong focus on contemporary composers and a broad range of artists. The renowned symphony announced Wednesday that it is orchestrating a season where art will imitate human life using classical music to address the tragic events of armed conflict.
The next series of concerts by the orchestra will also include a three week festival in March called “Voices of Loss, Reckoning and Hope”. This is a musical exploration of racial inequity, civil rights, and gender inequality.
Gail Samuel, president and CEO of the BSO, stated that she looks forward to welcoming audiences and creating a season that reflects the music’s profound ability in bearing witness to the social issues and cultural concerns of our time.
The orchestra will be led by Andris Nelsons and will play works by famous Soviet-era Russian composers. 13 — A five-movement condemnation of Stalinism, based on Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poems. The first condemns Soviet revisionist history, antisemitism and invokes a Nazi massacre against Ukrainian Jews.
Omer Meir Willber will direct the BSO for the American premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff’s “The Eternal Stranger” by Israeli composer Ella Milch Sheriff. This film captures the hostility, rejection and frustration experienced by refugees and other people who are often on the margins of society.
Other concerts will include Henryk Gorecki, Polish composer; Aleksandra Kurzak, soprano in the role of a mom who lost her child to the war; Osvaldo Gaolijov, Argentine composer. Osvaldo’s “Falling Out of Time” is inspired by David Grossman’s novel about the wartime loss of a son. Grossman experienced this devastating loss and wrote that it “now permeates all of my life.”
Nelsons, who was born in Latvia at the end of World War II, expressed hope that the season’s opening on Sept. 22 will use “music’s power” to reach people and share the stories and emotions that connect us as a family.
Three important American composers will be featured in the March festival, including Julia Wolfe’s “Her Story”, which speaks broadly to the ongoing struggle for women’s rights.
Highlighted also: Anthony Davis’ clarinet concerto “You Have The Right to Remain Silent,” featuring soloist Anthony McGill. This piece is about the emotional consequences of encounters between law enforcement and the individual; Uri Caine’s “The Passion of Octavius Catto,” which reflects the life of the 19th-century Philadelphia civil right activist.
