Just in: Jonas Kaufmann to sing Tristan

The Boston Symphony has just rolled out its season.

Jonas Kaufmann will sing the third act of Tristan und Isolde opposite Emily Magee. He sang the second act last season with Camilla Nylund. Andris Nelsons is the conductor in both instances. He’ll be ready for the full work pretty much now.

Other Boston highlights:
The Boston Symphony Orchestra/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig alliance, curated by Andris Nelsons, breaks new ground this year with the first-ever joint BSO/GHO concerts, taking place at Symphony Hall during the third “Leipzig Week in Boston.” In this third year of the BSO/GHO Alliance, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig itself comes to Boston in late October and early November for two programs of its own, as well as two joint concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of Andris Nelsons. These joint concerts bringing together the BSO and GHO feature Olivier Latry in performances of Richard Strauss’ Festive Prelude for organ and orchestra, and BSO wind principals John Ferrillo and Richard Svoboda and GHO string principals Frank-Michael Erben and Christian Giger in Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante in B-flat for oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello; these concerts will also include Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy.

Also: premieres of three BSO/GHO Alliance co-commissions, all to be led by Andris Nelsons. The first, Betsy Jolas’ Letters from Bachville, receives its world premiere performances in the concerts of November 7–12, in a concert also featuring Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Mitsuko Uchida as soloist and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12, The Year 1917, to be recorded live for the BSO’s ongoing Shostakovich cycle (also marking the first BSO subscription performances of this work). The world premiere of Latvian composer Arturs Maskats’ “My River runs to thee…” (Homage to Emily Dickinson), the second of the three BSO/GHO Alliance co-commissions, is part of the subscription program of November 21–26, which also includes Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Daniel Lozakovich making his subscription series debut, and Galina Grifojeva’s On Leaving for unaccompanied choir featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which also participates in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2, To October, to be recorded live for the orchestra’s ongoing project for Deutsche Grammophon. The final BSO/GHO Alliance co-commission to be presented in 2019–20 is the American premiere of HK Gruber’s Short Stories from the Vienna Woods, which is part of the subscription program of April 2-4, also featuring Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. On October 3–5, Mr. Nelsons leads James Lee III’s Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula, the first work by this American composer to be performed by the BSO. Also on that program are Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Yuja Wang as soloist, and music from Smetana’s patriotic salute to his Bohemian homeland, Má Vlast.