In Sunday’s (3/16) Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler writes that at a recent Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of Strauss’s Salome led by new Music Director Andris Nelsons, the orchestra “sounded alert and vital.… This is an exciting and crucial moment for the BSO…. Will the BSO lead or follow other American ensembles in grappling with the larger question of what it means to be an orchestra in the 21st century? … The challenge for the BSO is not to emulate other orchestras but to reflect the full sophistication and vibrancy of Boston itself. In addition to recasting its approach to new music, the BSO could be curating mid-season mini-festivals that bring subscribers deeper inside a rarely heard body of work; establishing new residencies for individual soloists; and developing artistic projects driven by substantive collaborations with local institutions…. Opera in concert under Nelsons’s baton should also be a fixture of every season.… These would … bring new oxygen, open up and modernize the feel of Symphony Hall, and help the orchestra become more things to more people.” The article also discusses the influences of music directors on orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic.
Posted March 17, 2014
Pictured: Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons at Symphony Hall. Photo by Marco Borggreve
