CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Performance Thursday, Mar 17, 2011 | 8 PM

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
“The most heavenly thing Mahler ever wrote” was Alban Berg’s verdict. “It is music coming from another world, it is coming from eternity,” said Herbert von Karajan, a work that lifts us toward “an atmosphere of utmost transfiguration,” as Bruno Walter put it. Experience Mahler’s ethereal Ninth at Carnegie Hall with the Boston Symphony.

Conductor Andris Nelsons has graciously agreed to replace James Levine for this performance. Maestro Levine is forced to cancel his appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra due to ill effects from a recent procedure addressing his ongoing back issues, further complicated by a viral infection.

For further information, ticket holders may contact CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800.

Performers

  • Boston Symphony Orchestra
    Andris Nelsons, Conductor

Program

  • MAHLER Symphony No. 9

Bios

  • Andris Nelsons

    Making his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut with this performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, Andris Nelsons is one of today’s most sought-after young conductors on the international scene, earning himself a distinguished name on both the opera and concert podiums. Over the next few seasons, he will continue collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Tonhalle Orchester Zurich. Debut appearances will include the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the New York Philharmonic. He recently appeared for the first time in Japan, on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and will return later in the season to conduct Lohengrin at Tokyo Opera Nomori. In 2009–2010, he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with returns planned to each house (he conducts Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at the Met this month). He made his Bayreuth debut with a new production of Lohengrin in 2010, and will return there this summer. Andris Nelsons was appointed Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2008. Following a summer festivals tour in 2009 with performances at the Lucerne Festival, Berliner Festspiele, and BBC Proms, he and the CBSO undertook an extensive European tour in March 2010. Their summer 2010 tour included returns to the Lucerne Festival and BBC Proms plus an appearance at Berlin’s Waldbühne. Their recording collaboration with Orfeo International has produced acclaimed recordings of orchestral works by Richard Strauss, Stravinsky’s Firebird, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies. Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career in music as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra, and has also won many prizes for his singing. He was recipient of the prestigious Latvian Grand Music Award for outstanding achievement in music in 2001 and, after graduating in the same year, went to St. Petersburg to study conducting with Alexander Titov. He has been studying privately with Mariss Jansons since 2002, and completed his tenure as principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, in 2009. From 2003 to 2007, he was music director of the Latvian National Opera. Please visit andrisnelsons.com for more information.
    More Info

Audio

Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D major (III. Rondo-Burleske. Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig)
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra / James Levine, Conductor
Oehms

At a Glance

Though Mahler composed his last works (the unnumbered “song-symphony” Das Lied von der Erde for orchestra and two vocal soloists; the Ninth Symphony, and the unfinished Tenth) under a medical sentence of death, he certainly did not withdraw from active music-making. He not only undertook new challenges in New York—first at the Metropolitan Opera and later with the New York Philharmonic—but also continued composing actively. On the boundary between the Romantic and the modern eras, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony—his last completed symphony—is a stunningly moving piece that can be interpreted as a meditation on both life and death, and is also widely considered one of the most beautiful and moving symphonies in the literature.
Program Notes
The Trustees of Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. Robert L. Turner in support of the 2010-2011 season.
This performance is part of the Great American Orchestras II and American Orchestras Students series.

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