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2023-24 BSO Season

Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

Andris Nelsons, conductor
Randall Goosby, violin

SMYTH Overture to The Wreckers
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
Intermission
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 5, Reformation

Saturday evening’s concert is in memory of Jane O’Keefe, supported by Cecilia O’Keefe.

Music Director Andris Nelsons opens the program with the overture to the 1906 opera The Wreckers by Dame Ethel Smyth, a composer and suffragist who was one of England’s leading musicians of her time. American violinist Randall Goosby, the youngest-ever winner of the Sphinx Concerto Competition, makes his BSO debut with Max Bruch’s spirited Violin Concerto No. 1. The program closes with Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, composed in 1830 as part of celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The music quotes the familiar hymn “Ein feste Burg,” a link to Reformation leader Martin Luther.

On February 2 the Friday Preview will be given by Marc Mandel, former BSO Director of Program Publications, at 12:15pm. Admission included with ticket.

Friday's concert will end around 3:15pm, and Saturday's concert will end around 9:45pm.

  • The Norman V. and Ellen B. Ballou Memorial Concert
Randall Goosby sitting on a couch holding a violin in front of him

Performance Details

Feb 2, 2024, 1:30pm EST

Featuring

Program Notes & Works

Overture to The Wreckers

Ethel Smyth

Ethel Smyth's 1904 opera The Wreckers is based on a particularly English story inspired by the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. Her 10-minute overture conjures the picaresque and majestic energy of seafaring England.

Violin Concerto in G minor

Max Bruch

The first of his three violin concertos was one of his earliest successes and remains the most frequently performed of all his works.

Symphony No. 5, Reformation

Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn was 20 when he began writing his Reformation Symphony, anticipating the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a major event in the establishment of Protestant theology and the Lutheran Church. He underlines this connection by using Martin Luther’s hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser G...

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A view of the empty Symphony Hall, with the stage in the distance

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