Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons Present Decoding Shostakovich Festival, April 2 to May 7

Over the final four weeks of the 2024–25 Symphony Hall season (Apr. 6–May 3), Andris Nelsons caps his tenth anniversary season at Symphony Hall by revisiting the music of Dmitri Shostakovich that has featured so prominently throughout his tenure at the BSO. The programs celebrate the completion of the BSO’s decade-long recording project with the highly anticipated March 28 release of a 19-CD box set on the Deutsche Grammophon label (see announcement). Prior recordings in the cycle have earned four Grammy Awards and a mountain of rave reviews, and the forthcoming box set offers new concerto recordings featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Yuja Wang, and violinist Baiba Skride as well as the towering Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk opera with Kristine Opolais in the title role. The programs also mark the 50th anniversary year of the Russian composer’s death, which is the focus of the Leipzig Gewandhaus’ Shostakovich Festival Leipzig, where the BSO will conclude its May 2025 European tour. 

Following an all-Shostakovich program with Symphonies No. 6 and No. 11 (The Year 1905) on April 10, Nelsons pairs performances of the symphonies with a concerto performance by acclaimed soloists: a single, sold-out performance of Symphony No. 11 with Yo-Yo Ma in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 (April 11); Symphony No. 15, his final symphony, with Mitsuko Uchida in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (Apr. 17–19); and  Symphony No. 8 with Baiba Skride in Violin Concerto No. 1 (May 2 & 3). The Uchida and Ma programs travel to Carnegie Hall on April 23 and 24, respectively.  

In another highlight, Nelsons, the BSO, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under Choral Director James Burton perform the world premiere of Love Canticles, a new commission for chorus and orchestra by Aleksandra Vrebalov. (Apr. 26 & 27). With support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s New Works Fund, the BSO commissioned Vrebalov to compose a psalm setting using the same musical forces as Stravinsky’s work, which Serge Koussevitzky commissioned for the BSO’s 50th anniversary. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and influenced in part by Orthodox chant, Vrebalov is a 1999 composition alumna of the Tanglewood Music Center and winner of the prestigious 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The same program includes both Stravinsky’s choral masterpiece Symphony of Psalms and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6. These two works launch the BSO’s multi-season initiative “faith in our time,” a reflection on the religious and spiritual dimensions of compositions past and present. The survey will continue at Tanglewood with performances of Poulenc’s Gloria, the world premiere of a new work by Carlos Simon for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a recital by the vocal ensemble The Sixteen, as well as in to-be-announced programs in the BSO’s 2025–26 season. 

Click here to download the complete release.