The
Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)
is an orchestra based in Boston,
Massachusetts
. It is one of the five American orchestras
commonly referred to as the "
Big
Five".
Founded in 1881, the BSO plays the majority
of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall
and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center. The
music director is
James Levine.
History
The orchestra was founded in 1881 by
Henry Lee Higginson. It went on to have
several notable
conductors, including
Arthur Nikisch from 1889 to 1893, and
Pierre Monteux from 1919 to 1924 who
gave the orchestra a reputation for a "French" sound which persists
to some degree to this day.
The orchestra's reputation increased most prominently during the
music directorship of
Serge
Koussevitzky.
Under Koussevitzky, the orchestra gave
regular radio broadcasts and established its
summer home at Tanglewood
, where Koussevitzky founded the Berkshire Music Center, which is now
the Tanglewood Music
Center. Those
network radio
broadcasts ran from 1926 through 1951, and again from 1954 through
1956; the orchestra continues to make regular live radio broadcasts
to the present day. The Boston Symphony was closely involved with
the creation of
WGBH Radio as an outlet
for its concerts.
Koussevitzky also commissioned many new pieces from prominent
composers, including the
Symphony No. 4 of
Sergei Prokofiev and the
Symphony of Psalms by
Igor Stravinsky. They also gave the premiere
of
Béla Bartók's
Concerto for
Orchestra, which had been commissioned by the Koussevitzky
Foundation at the instigation of
Fritz
Reiner and
Joseph Szigeti.
Koussevitzky started a tradition that was to be continued by the
orchestra with commissions by
Henri
Dutilleux for its 75th anniversary,
Roger Sessions, and
Andrzej Panufnik, for the 100th, and lately
for the 125th works by
Leon Kirchner,
Elliott Carter, and
Peter Lieberson. On other occasions, they
have commissioned works from various other composers, such as
John Corigliano's
Symphony No. 2 for the 100th anniversary
of Symphony Hall.
Hans Werner
Henze dedicated his
Eighth
Symphony to the orchestra.
In 1949,
Charles Munch
succeeded Koussevitzky who toured with the orchestra overseas for
the first time, and also produced their first stereo recording in
February 1954 for
RCA Victor.
Munch was succeeded in 1962 by
Erich
Leinsdorf, who served as music director for seven years until
1969.
William Steinberg was then
music director from 1969 to 1973. In 1973,
Seiji Ozawa took over the orchestra and remained
the Music Director until 2002, the longest tenure of any Boston
Symphony conductor.
In 2004,
James Levine became the first
American-born music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Levine has received critical praise for revitalizing the quality
and repertoire since the beginning of his tenure, including
championing contemporary composers. Since becoming music director,
the Boston Symphony has performed 18 world premieres, 12 of them
conducted by Levine. To be able to fund the more challenging and
expensive of Levine's musical projects with the orchestra, the
orchestra has established an "Artistic Initiative Fund" of about
US$40 million. This is in
addition to the current endowment of the orchestra, which is the
largest of any American orchestra at about US$300 million. Levine's
current contract as music director is through 2012.
An offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the
Boston Pops Orchestra, founded in
1885, which plays lighter, more popular classics, and
show tunes.
Arthur
Fiedler was the conductor who did the most to increase the fame
of the Boston Pops, over his tenure from 1930 to 1979. Film
composer
John Williams succeeded
Fiedler as the conductor of the Pops from 1980 to 1993. Since 1995,
the conductor of the Boston Pops is
Keith
Lockhart.
The Boston Symphony Chamber Players were launched in 1964. They are
still the only chamber ensemble composed of principal players from
an American symphony orchestra. In addition to regular performances
in Boston and Tanglewood, they have performed throughout the United
States and the Europe. They have also recorded for RCA Victor, DG,
Phillips, and Nonesuch.
Performing with the BSO and Boston Pops for major choral works is
the
Tanglewood Festival
Chorus. Organized in 1970 by its founding director,
John Oliver, the Chorus comprises
250 volunteer singers. Before the creation of the Tanglewood
Chorus, and for some time after, the BSO frequently employed the
New England Conservatory
Chorus conducted by
Lorna Cooke
DeVaron,
Chorus Pro Musica,
Harvard Glee Club and
Radcliffe Choral Society.
The BSO
also benefits from its close association with the New England
Conservatory
, located just one block from Symphony Hall with
several graduates now occupying BSO musician seats.
Recordings
The Boston
Symphony made its first acoustical recordings in 1917 in Camden, New
Jersey
for the Victor Talking Machine
Company with Karl Muck. Among the first discs recorded
was the finale to
Tchaikovsky's fourth
symphony. Typical of acoustical recordings, the musicians had to
crowd around a large horn that transferred the sounds to a
recording machine.
It was under Serge Koussevitsky that the orchestra made its first
electrical recordings, also for Victor, in the late 1920s. Using a
single microphone for a process Victor called "Orthophonic", the
first recordings included
Ravel's
Bolero. Recording sessions took place in
Symphony Hall. Koussevitsky's final recording with the Boston
Symphony was a high fidelity version of
Sibelius' second symphony, recorded in 1949 and
released on LP.
In February 1954, RCA Victor began recording the orchestra in
stereo, under the direction of Charles Munch. RCA continued to
record Munch and the orchestra through 1962, his final year as
music director in Boston (see the
Charles Munch discography for a
complete list of commercial recordings with the BSO under Charles
Munch). During Munch's tenure,
Pierre
Monteux made a series or records with the BSO for RCA Victor
(see
Pierre Monteux for a complete
list of commercial recordings with the BSO).
Erich Leinsdorf, who had already made numerous recordings for RCA,
continued his association with the company during his seven years
in Boston. These included a critically-acclaimed performance of
Brahms'
German Requiem (see
Erich Leinsdorf for a complete
list).
Then, the orchestra switched to
Deutsche Grammophon under William
Steinberg. RCA recorded a handful of LPs with Steinberg and
Berlioz's
Symphonie Fantastique with
Georges Prêtre during the transition to
DG (see
William Steinberg for a
complete list of commercial recordings).
Michael Tilson Thomas, who was an
assistant conductor under Steinberg, also made several recordings
for DG; some of these have been reissued on CD. Due to Steinberg's
illness, DG recorded the BSO with
Rafael
Kubelik in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5,
Ma Vlast by
Bedrich Smetana and in
Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra as well as
with
Eugen Jochum conducting Symphony
No. 41 by
Wolfgang Mozart and
Franz Schubert's Symphony 8.
As a guest conductor in the 1960s, Seiji Ozawa made several
recordings with the BSO for RCA Victor. Seiji Ozawa continued the
BSO relationship with DG while making several other releases for
New World. Over the course of Ozawa's tenure, the BSO diversified
its relationships making recordings under Ozawa with CBS, EMI,
Philips Records, RCA, and
TELARC.
The BSO also recorded for Philips under its principal guest
conductor,
Sir Colin Davis (see
Sir Colin Davis for a complete
list).
Leonard Bernstein made
records for both Columbia and DG. It also appeared on Decca with
Vladimir Ashkenazy, with
Charles Dutoit and
Andre Previn for DG, and on Phillips and Sony
with
Bernard Haitink (see
Bernard Haitink for a complete list).
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has also done recording for film
scores on occasion. Films such as
Schindler's List and
Saving Private Ryan (both composed
and conducted by John Williams) were recorded by the Orchestra at
Symphony Hall.
In the James Levine era, the BSO has no standing recording contract
with a major label; the Grammy award winning recording of Levine
conducting the BSO with
Lorraine
Hunt Lieberson in
Peter
Lieberson's
Neruda Songs, released on
Nonesuch Records, is the only major label
recording to date during Levine's tenure. On February 19, 2009, the
BSO announced the launch of a new series of recordings on their own
label, BSO Classics. Some of the recordings will be available only
as digital downloads. The initial recordings include live concert
performances of
William Bolcom's 8th
Symphony and Lyric Concerto,
Mahler's
Sixth Symphony, the Brahms
Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Ravel's complete
Daphnis et Chloé.
Music Directors
Orchestra personnel
A list of the principal players of the Boston Symphony as of 2009:
- Malcolm Lowe, concertmaster
- Haldan Martinson, principal second violin
- Steven Ansell, principal viola
- Jules Eskin, principal cello
- Edwin Barker, principal bass
- Elizabeth Rowe, principal flute
- John Ferrillo, principal oboe
- William Hudgins, principal clarinet
- Richard Svoboda, principal bassoon
- James Somerville, principal horn
- Thomas Rolfs, principal trumpet
- Toby Oft, principal trombone
- Mike Roylance, principal tuba
- Timothy Genis, principal timpani
Violin virtuoso
Willy Hess
was
concertmaster from 1904 to
1910.
See also
Notes
- BSO History at Boston Symphony Orchestra Website,
BSO.org
- Loomis, George, "Boston Symphony Orchestra/Levine,
Symphony Hall, Boston", Financial Times (February 10,
2009)
References
External links
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