Breaking: Boston renews Andris Nelsons indefinitely
NewsThe Boston Symphony has, after ten years, converted Andris Nelsons’ employment to a rolling contract, meaning he could stay music director forever. Nelsons has also been named Head of Conducting at Tanglewood.
The BSO has also appointed Carlos Simon to its new Composer Chair, ‘working together with BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons and President and CEO Chad Smith to animate the BSO programming, including new compositions, educational initiatives, artist-curated programs, and humanities programming presented in partnership with the newly-announced Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute.’
‘The humanities allow us to understand ourselves better, understand each other better, and understand our world better,” says Chad Smith. “Our work at the BSO is already a part of the humanities, and the music that we play on our stages can be further informed by explorations of these related topics. With the launch of our new Humanities Institute, we invite scholars, artists, and activists to come and help us create throughlines in the works that we are performing, examining what connects this music with ideas and audiences of today.’
Let’s see.
From memory, I believe his last contract with the CBSO was of this nature. Perhaps Stephen Maddock will clarify.
It was – well remembered!
So no woman MD, Chad Smith? Clearly you need a Harvard graduate DEI champion in the press to help you out. When are you going to invite your pal to move back to Boston? Do him a favor. He seems to have run out of ideas in LA.
Wonderful news! As a BSO subscriber, I think Andris Nelsons is having an excellent tenure at the BSO. He’s clearly growing as an artist and the results generally speak for themselves. One can always quibble at the margins about this or that, but where it matters most, Nelsons seems to get it right.
And there’s another way to put it: Who would I rather be hearing as the BSO’s music director? There are definitely some attractive talents out there who I’d like to hear more of, but Nelsons is excellent overall. We’re lucky to have him in Boston (and Tanglewood).
I recently heard BSO and Nelsons on tour in Paris. It was a very bad concert. Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia all had much better showings
Boston benefits from playing in one of the world’s best halls. A very good orchestra, no question, but to hear how they really sound, one has to hear them in other halls or even at Tanglewood. Still a very good orchestra, but it’s a different story.
I agree the hall makes all the difference. I heard the BSO in September in the Elbphilharmonie and they often played at a dynamic that would work well in Symphony Hall but did not translate well at all to the non-shoe box shape. I recall a musician in the SFS recounting how they had a similar experience playing in the Musikverein as opposed to the “barn” (his word) that is Davies. Same goes for the CSO who sounded considerably better in the Musikverein than in the driest of them all, Orchestra Hall.
Orchestra Hall isn’t fit for a junior high school band. The acoustics are abysmal.
First, it is Symphony Hall and, second, your opinion puts you squarely in the troll minority.
Are you talking to me? If so, it is Orchestra Hall (Chicago). I wasn’t referring to Symphony Hall (Boston) which has glorious acoustics. Chicago has a hall that is nice looking enough and comfortable but with a wildly inconsistent acoustic depending on where you sit. And no seat is ideal for most any CSO concert.
Finally, after all these years, a dissenting voice. Is it as bad as the Concertgebouw?
Every orchestra sounds particularly bad in Elbphilharmonie. That’s nothing specific to Boston.
Once I heard Philadelphia play in Symphony Hall. Not sure if they were still based at the Academy, but they were clearly used to over-saturated sound that made them so cherished at Carnegie and in recording studios. Sawallisch spent most of the first half trying to get them to shut up.
That hall in Paris is pretty darn good. I’ve been there and to Symphony Hall in Boston a few times. Well nothing matches Symphony Hall (Karajan thought it even better than the Musikverein) though Detroit’s Orchestra Hall is also fab. I reckon Mr “Overrated” is spot on. I must confess to being a bit disappointed in this contract extension. Nelsons is good at some things and WAS good at most things but is now no longer very exciting or interesting in most things.
You appreciate them better in lesser acoustics? I don’t get it.
Perhaps a greater test of skill, or one that removes the home town advantage.
We finally have a free day today, and some time to write 😉
I agree; this is what a real directorship For Life looks like; the fake ones are those with silly names 😉
In terms of the BSO having a worse showing in Europe than Chicago-Muti (still barreling through as we speak), I beg to differ. I am in the very unfortunate professional situation of not being able to avoid most Chicago train wrecks; many European reviewers with good ears have cut to the chase:
Pierre Liscia-Beaurenaut wrote on Bachtrack:
“In the [Mendelssohn] Italian, the maestro pushes his status as guardian of traditions to the paroxysm, returning to what is most fundamental for him and excluding everything else: phrasing, intonation, rhythmic juxtapositions … ”
“By doing everything to preserve this quality of diction of sound, we perhaps lose the force of its transformation: when the sound should be torn apart, distorted into a metaphysical explosion, it retains its enthusiastic docility. In this, Muti does not necessarily help the music to overflow its framework: his extreme concern for legibility and his slow and ample gestures develop the strong passages into large musical frescoes. But it’s Aus Italian, not Alpensinfonie; and if the precision and overall sound of the orchestra is one thing, the bubbling of the young Strauss specific to this early work is another.”
This is eerily similar to what the New York Classical Review wrote last fall about the CSO sleepy showing at Carnegie Hall:
“Part of the orchestra’s skill is having sufficient energy to give some force to the music, yet there was no sense that there was any thinking behind it other than getting to the end of the phrase or following the dynamic markings.”
Judith von Sternburg on the Frankfurter Rundschau summarized it in one word: sedate.
“JSelbst wenn er traurig ist, kann Brahms leichter und blühender klingen, hier wirkte er manchmal fast behäbig”
(” … Even when he is sad, Brahms can sound lighter and more blooming, here he sometimes seemed almost sedate …” translation mine)
Not to mention that our beloved woodwinds – the “new Chicago brass”, captained by the fearless if barely audible principal clarinet 🙂 – continue to have very serious intonation problems.
Viszlát 🙂
I think that with Muti now in his 80s, he approaches and feels the music differently than when he was a young conductor. In the case of Mendelssohn 4 (clip below), he is relaxed with tempo and favors transparency and balance over fiery intensity and volume. Maybe not to everyone’s liking but it doesn’t mean it’s bad either.
https://youtu.be/R8EB570A0IQ?si=rqK24pj6RRmhZvjm
Wow, it sounds pretty dull, flat and boring.
It sounds like a student orchestra and very mechanical, without flexibility and natural flow. In case anyone still is asking if Abbado was a much better conductor than Muti, compare Muti’s clip with this magnificent recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pO7_IxbDsU
Reservations regarding Muti’s interpretation of the music aside, all the reviews I read praise the quality of the orchestra. This is surprising but also encouraging. The orchestra had a poor showing in the first half of the season in its hometown. Maybe they have regained their playing form on this tour. Due to an injury, Williamson only played one series of concerts with Bychkov this season prior to the tour. I do remember that he had projection problems during his first season here. Now he does not have such issues. I do not notice his intonation problems mentioned here. Perhaps either or both of us should have our ears checked.
Yes. The horns in particular were a disaster for whatever reason. Cooper withdrawals perhaps?
I heard them play that program in NY. I thought the Mendelssohn sounded like Mozart and was all wrong but the Strauss was very good indeed. Better than Kempe. I must also say that the level of pretentiousness in the writing of the critic you quote from Bachtrack is the highest possible level of drivelling meaningless nonsense I’ve read in quite a while so thanks for the entertainment.
The CSO has been getting rave reviews in Europe. This must be a punch to the gut for Chicago Rat. Feel better dude.
Here we go… turning something that has nothing to do with the CSO and Muti into something about CSO and Muti. Hopefully we get some sort of announcement after this tour so all the speculation and commentary is put to rest.
Good appointment for Carlos Simon. I don’t know about his overall ouvre, but his “Amen” has quickly become a staple of the wind ensemble repertoire (now being taken on by orchestras in a transcription).
yep! and it sounds like every other john adams wanna-be with a slice of “soul”… insipid forgettable music which is nonetheless pleasing to listen to as it is harmless, tonal, rhythmic, fast, loud and has lots of percussion. lame.
The Humanities idea never really took root in LA. Maybe it will fare better in Boston.
I don’t miss chad smith in LA! Just produce great music… it’s not complicated.
Never been certain about by Nelsons has been considered such a positive conductor. Especially as of recent, with the BSO and other orchestra he guest conducts, he is more interested with staring into the score than looking at his musicians and engaging with the music. Just a professional violists opinion.
Andris Nelsons is a gifted gut instinct conductor. But stylistically a disaster.
and Fernandel knows not of which he speaks
Boston had Ozawa for ever and a day
Terrific forward looking decision. Programming has been an excellent synthesis of contemporary repertoire with strong support of contemporary composing. His conducting is precise, but humanistic and empathetic. I’m looking forward to future programming and continued development of the very strong presence of the BSO in a very full Boston musical scene.
I think you will find that he does not drive.
Who cares about his music. I want a photo of what he drives!
Speaking of that. I actually saw a commercial of him for luxury Genesis. Instead of driving, he was sitting on the back seat with a score and emphasized how good the sound quality of the car audio was.
Why? He doesn’t need a car to drive you up the wall!!
Andris adores speeding his electric golf cart around the large Tanglewood grounds. He doesn’t drive; that Genesis is “the official car of the BSO.”
More woke garbage. And they like Nelsons because he is a nice guy who demands little. His nose is still in the score more than expressing anything conducting. He should be directing traffic outside on Huntington ave.
OK, that’s nice but why is there STILL no concertmaster? Apparently Malcolm really was irreplaceable.
Nathan Cole, the First Associate Concertmaster of the LA Phil, was the “Guest” concertmaster last night.
I am the only one to think he is now the shadow of the interesting conductor he was ten years ago?
Zzzzzzzz – I listened to him with BPO twice – in 2013 and 2022 – same venue (Baden Baden) – it was exciting in 2013. In 2022 he “managed” to turn the Firebird into a sleeping pill.
Doesn’t ‘evergreen’ usually mean that they’re winding down, not ramping up?
Glad to see that the BSO is giving the patrons more of what they want, videos of Chad the Impaler. Long may he reign!
Nelsons is beloved by the musicians and staff in Symphony Hall, as well as Boston in general. Chad, the new GM on the underhand is already reviled, an elephant with MS on rollerskates.
So Shostakovich for ever more then … I will have to go elsewhere for my thrills.