Andris Nelsons conducts Augusta Read Thomas, Beethoven, and Liszt featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and a frequent collaborator, the French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, in a passionate and virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 by Franz Liszt — who himself was considered the most brilliant performer of the 19th century Romantic era. These concerts open with the American premiere of Augusta Read Thomas' Dance Foldings, which Thomas describes as “like jazz big band with Stravinsky ballets.” Closing the program is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, one of the composer’s sunniest and most congenial works.
Pianist Mitsuko Uchida has unfortunately had to withdraw from these concerts due to a recent back injury. Her multi-year collaboration performing the Beethoven concertos with Andris Nelsons and the BSO will now begin in the 2022-2023 season. We are grateful that French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, a frequent BSO collaborator, is available to perform in these concerts in her place.
Program Notes & Works
Dance Foldings
Like much of her music, Augusta Read Thomas' Dance Foldings is energized by the dynamics of bodies in motion—though in this case those bodies are protein molecules.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in A
In Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, interconnected themes create a work of many moods, from the dreamy to stormy, reflecting the very soul of the Romantic era.
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, Opus 60
Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony wonderfully combines a relaxed and lyrical element with a mood of exuberantly aggressive high spirits.