The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced plans for its 2009-10 season at Symphony Hall, as well as its summer season at Tanglewood. At the latter venue, vocal repertoire will include two operas in concert, Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Carmina Burana and two recitals by baritone Thomas Hampson of American music with pianists Craig Rutenberg and Orli Shaham. Tanglewood’s annual Festival of Contemporary Music, directed this year by Augusta Read Thomas, will take place from August 7 to 11, and Michael Tilson Thomas will conduct, narrate, and play piano in his own musical-theater evening The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater. The BSO’s 2009-10 subscription season will feature four world premieres: John Williams’s On Willows and Birches, featuring Principal Harp Ann Hobson Pilot; Elliott Carter’s Flute Concerto, with Principal Flute Elizabeth Rowe; Peter Lieberson’s Farewell Songs, with bass-baritone Gerald Finley; and John Harbison’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with Mira Wang and Jan Vogler. The orchestra will also perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, and baritone Michael Volle; a complete Beethoven symphony cycle; and Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with soprano Renée Fleming.
Posted March 20, 2009