Boston Symphony Orchestra Announces ENCORE BSO RECITALS Series

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is pleased to present Encore BSO Recitals, a colorful and eclectic online concert series spotlighting 50 musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in small ensembles and giving viewers a rare opportunity to experience the individual artistry of many of the musicians who make up the world-renowned ensemble. With newly recorded musician intros and special live Q&As accompanying select programs, the Encore BSO Recitals series reprises programming initially recorded and aired this past summer for the Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival.

Performances in the Encore BSO Recitals will be released each Thursday at noon, September 17-November 12. The series as a multiple-stream package, accessible through www.bso.org, is available for a minimum donation of $25; all subscribers to the 2019-20 BSO Symphony Hall season and Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival will be able to enjoy the online content free-of-charge. Most of the Encore BSO Recitals will be available for viewing for up to 30 days, with the entire season coming to a close on November 19.

"The Boston Symphony Orchestra is committed to connecting with our devoted audiences through engaging online content during the time we would have typically presented our fall season at Symphony Hall," said Mark Volpe, BSO President and CEO. "The Encore BSO Recitals series spotlights the incredibly talented musicians who make the Boston Symphony Orchestra the extraordinary, singular ensemble it is today. This wide-ranging encore series will serve as a compelling prelude to a more expansive online offering featuring newly recorded performances from Symphony Hall to be premiered in November. We hope all our digital performances will inspire and sustain our loyal music community and music fans worldwide during this period of live concert hiatus, until we can be together again with our magnificent orchestra and its music director Andris Nelsons."

Please note: In October, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will announce details of its new digital content series to be recorded at Symphony Hall and made available through www.bso.org in November and December.

Encore BSO Recitals highlights include original compositions by BSO Associate Principal Horn Gus Sebring (written for alphorn and French horn) and folk arrangements by BSO violinist Bonnie Bewick; the world premiere 80 years after its composition of Sonatine for solo viola by acclaimed African-American composer Ulysses Kay; and newly commissioned works for brass ensemble by West Virginia-born composer and jazz pianist Kevin Day and trombonist and composer Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes. Other contemporary composers of color and women composers represented in the programming include Daniel Bernard Roumain, Gabriela Lena Frank, James Lee III, Valerie Coleman, Paquito D'Rivera, Marti Epstein, and Allison Loggins-Hull. The Encore BSO Recitals series will also feature works of Bach, Beethoven, Berio, Brahms, Copland, Dvořák, Hindemith, Mozart, Poulenc, Ravel, Schubert, Schumann, and Stravinsky, as well as a program of traditional American, Scottish, and Irish reels.

During its ongoing response to the COVID-19 public health crisis, the BSO has made a series of announcements that detailed the full slate of cancellations. These previous announcements can be found here. The BSO will continue to monitor recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as confer with its own team of medical experts on matters related to an eventual reopening. All updates on this subject will be announced through press releases and postings on www.bso.org.

ENCORE BSO RECITALS: PROGRAM DETAILS, SEPTEMBER 17-NOVEMBER 12

Releases on Thursday, September 17 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Saturday, October 17
J.S. BACH Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1005
PAGANINI Larghetto in D-flat from Quartet No. 13 for guitar and strings (arr. for solo violin)
SAURET (arr. ROMANUL) Prelude in G minor from Suite for Violin Solo, Op.68
TRAD. (arr. JOHNSON) "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See"
Victor Romanul, violin
MENDELSSOHN Violin Sonata in F
STILL "Mother and Child" from the Suite for Violin and Piano
Tatiana Dimitriades, violin; Jonathan Bass, piano
PRICE String Quartet in G, II. Andante moderato
Catherine French and Xin Ding, violins; Daniel Getz, viola; Mickey Katz, cello
DVOŘÁK Terzetto in C, Op. 74
Catherine French and Xin Ding, violins; Daniel Getz, viola

The violin-whose presence by sheer force of numbers dominates the orchestral stage-is the focus of this chamber music program by BSO musicians. Victor Romanul plays four solo selections, including one of the single most challenging pieces in the repertoire, the Chaconne from Bach's D minor Partita. Tatiana Dimitriades performs two works for violin and piano: Mendelssohn's early Sonata in F and William Grant Still's beautiful lullaby "Mother and Child" from his 1943 Suite for Violin and Piano. Still and his contemporary Florence Price, whose String Quartet is performed in part here, were pioneering African-American composers. Completing this wide-ranging program is Antonín Dvořák's Terzetto for two violins and viola, which is infused with elements of Czech folk music.

Releases on Thursday, September 24 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Saturday, October 24
CLARKE Sonata for Viola and Piano
KAY Sonatine for Viola and Piano (world premiere recording)
Mary Ferrillo, viola; Brett Hodgdon, piano
BERIO Naturale, for viola, percussion, and recorded voice
Steven Laraia, viola; Kyle Brightwell, percussion
HINDEMITH Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11, No. 4
Daniel Getz, viola; Brett Hodgdon, piano

Three BSO violists perform on his program of all 20th-century masterworks. Both the English composer Rebecca Clarke's and the German Paul Hindemith's sonatas date from 1919, and both are staples of the viola-piano repertoire. The eminent American composer-conductor Ulysses Kay, who studied with Hindemith at the Berkshire (now Tanglewood) Music Center, wrote his Sonatine for Viola and Piano in 1939 but the piece was premiered only this past summer, in the BSO recital presented here. The great Italian composer Luciano Berio's Naturale creates a remarkable landscape for viola and percussion evoking Italian folk song and incorporating pre-recorded Sicilian street cries.

Releases on Thursday, October 1 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Saturday, October 31
MOZART Duo in G for violin and viola, K.424
Julianne Lee, violin; Rebecca Gitter, viola
Daniel Bernard Roumain Filter
Julianne Lee, violin
SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D.804, Rosamunde
Julianne Lee and Lisa Kim, violins; Steven Ansell, viola; Oliver Aldort, cello

BSO violinist Julianne Lee plays a short, energetic piece written by another violinist, Daniel Bernard Roumain-his Filter for solo violin, which employs dynamic bowing techniques to emulate electronic effects. Lee performs with BSO violist Rebecca Gitter in Mozart's Duo in G, one of two duos the composer wrote as a favor for his friend Michael Haydn-Joseph's brother-who fell ill before fulfilling a commission. The G major duo is a substantial work of grace and elegance. Franz Schubert's late string quartets rank among his greatest works. His songful Rosamunde Quartet, the only one of these to be published in his lifetime, takes its name from a melody it shares with music he wrote for the stage play by that name.

Releases on Thursday, October 8 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Saturday, November 7
Gabriela Lena FRANK "Prayer" from Suite Mestiza
Lucia Lin, violin
RAVEL Sonata for violin and cello
Lucia Lin, violin; Owen Young, cello
LOEFFLER Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano
John Ferrillo, oboe; Mary Ferrillo, viola; Randall Hodgkinson, piano

American composer Gabriela Lena Frank's music draws on and transcends her rich cultural heritage, which includes Peruvian, Chinese, and Eastern European Jewish elements. Performed by BSO violinist Lucia Lin, the first movement, "Prayer," of Frank's big solo violin Suite Mestiza was inspired by Peruvian religious songs on Quechua texts. Lin and BSO cellist Owen Young perform Maurice Ravel's Sonata for violin and cello, a varied, full-scale, four-movement work composed in memory of his colleague Claude Debussy. The German-born Charles Martin Loeffler was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra violin section in its earliest decades and a mainstay of Boston's musical life until his death in 1935. His Two Rhapsodies are impressionistic instrumental revisions of pieces that began life as songs.

Releases on Thursday, October 15 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Saturday, November 14
BEETHOVEN String Trio in G major, Op. 9, No. 1
Alexander Velinzon, violin; Danny Kim, viola; Adam Esbensen, cello
GABRIELI (trans. Mark Lewis) Canzona Seconda
J.S. BACH (arr. Glenn SMITH) Contrapunctus IX from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Kevin DAY Ignition
ELLINGTON (arr. Clarence HINES) Come Sunday
Chad "Sir Wick" HUGHES Tribute to Sinfonia
DEBUSSY Trois Chansons
Toby Oft, Stephen Lange, James Markey, trombones; Mike Roylance, tuba

This concert opens with Beethoven's String Trio in G, one of a set of three string trios representing the composer's most important and substantial chamber music works of the 1790s. The concert continues with a potpourri of music for low brass instruments ranging from Gabrieli's late 16th-century canzona and Contrapunctus IX from J.S. Bach's The Art of Fugue to a high-velocity work by West Virginia-born composer Kevin Day and a tribute to the musical society Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia by Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes.

Releases on Thursday, October 22 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Thursday, November 19
Richard SEBRING Awaken! A New Day! for Alphorns (world premiere recording)
Richard Sebring and Michael Winter, alphorns
Richard SEBRING and Charles OVERTON Listen, to the Cry of Your Fellow Man (world premiere recording)
Richard Sebring, horn; Charles Overton, harp
SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro, for horn and piano
DUKAS Villanelle, for horn and piano
Richard Sebring, horn; Vytas Baksys, piano
MOZART Horn Duos selected from K.487/496a
Richard Sebring and Michael Winter, horns
MOZART Horn Quintet in E-flat, K.407
Rachel Childers, horn; Tatiana Dimitriades, violin; Cathy Basrak and Kathryn Sievers, violas; Mickey Katz, cello

This program of horn-centric music features not only the standard orchestral French horn but also its cousin, the long alphorn of Swiss, German, and Austrian tradition. BSO Associate Principal Horn Richard Sebring and colleagues perform Sebring's own new composition for alphorns to start this program. The second Sebring work is a duet for horn and harp with former TMC Fellow Charles Overton. Standard-repertoire horn pieces by Schumann, Dukas, and Mozart-including the substantial Quintet in E-flat for horn and strings-complete the program.

Releases on Thursday, October 29 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Thursday, November 19
Bonnie BEWICK Cindy/Snowblower
TRAD. (arr. BEWICK) Roslin's Castle/Ghostwalk/The Foray
Bonnie BEWICK Mt. Greylock Waltz
TRAD. (arr. Mark O'CONNOR and Edgar Meyer) Limerock
GORNEY (arr. BEWICK) Introduction and Song from Once I Built a Railroad
Bonnie Bewick, violin; Mickey Katz, cello; Lawrence Wolfe, bass
Marti EPSTEIN (Wisp), Lawrence WOLFE (C), Sid RICHARDSON (Study for Remembrance), Nico Muhly (Just One), Andrew LIST (Elegy for a Changing World), Richard PANTCHEFF ("...the field long-slept in pastoral green...") #cellominute (world premiere recording)
Mickey Katz, cello
Valerie COLEMAN Umoja
Paquito D'RIVERA Selections from Aires Tropicales
Cynthia Meyers, flute; Robert Sheena, oboe; Michael Wayne, clarinet; Richard Ranti, bassoon; Jason Snider, horn

Along with classical music, BSO violinist Bonnie Bewick has delved deeply into fiddle music from around the world, including traditional American, Scotch and Irish reels, and music of other European traditions. This program of traditional and folk-style pieces includes some of Bewick's own arrangements and compositions, as well as an arrangement by violinist Mark O'Connor and double bassist Edgar Meyer of the American fiddle tune Limerock. BSO cellist Mickey Katz performs a selection of new solo cello miniatures. These six one-minute pieces, which Katz solicited this past spring, are by composers Marti Epstein, BSO Assistant Principal Bass Lawrence Wolfe, Sid Richardson, Nico Muhly, Andrew List, and Richard Pantcheff. The program concludes with two colorful works for woodwind quintet by American composers: Umoja by Valerie Coleman and selections from Aires Tropicales by Paquito D'Rivera.

Releases on Thursday, November 5, at noon, at www.bso.org; available through Thursday. November 19
COPLAND Duo for Flute and Piano
Elizabeth Ostling, flute; Randall Hodgkinson, piano
James Lee III Chôro sem tristeza, for solo flute
Elizabeth Ostling, flute
BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Alexander Velinzon and Bracha Malkin, violins; Cathy Basrak, viola; Blaise Déjardin, cello; Jonathan Bass, piano

In this recital, BSO Associate Principal Flute Elizabeth Ostling performs two American works. Aaron Copland's 1967 Duo features both the pastoral lyricism and the rhythmic bounce so characteristic of the composer. The Michigan-born composer James Lee III drew on his strong relationship with Brazil's music and musicians for his Chôro sem tristeza, "lament without sadness." Johannes Brahms' F minor piano quintet began life as a string quintet before Brahms realized he needed the contrasting power of his own instrument, the piano, to bring the piece to its full potential. It today stands as one of the great chamber music works in the repertoire.

Releases on Thursday, November 12 at noon at www.bso.org; available through Thursday, November 19
POULENC Trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano
John Ferrillo, oboe; Richard Ranti, bassoon; Vivian Choi, piano
Allison LOGGINS-HULL Homeland, for solo flute
Elizabeth Rowe, flute
HENZE S. Biagio 9 agosto ore 1207, for solo bass
Edwin Barker, bass
STRAVINSKY Elegy, for solo viola
Steven Ansell, viola
BRAHMS Trio in A minor for clarinet, cello, and piano, Op. 114
William Hudgins, clarinet; Blaise Déjardin, cello; Vivian Choi, piano

Poulenc's Trio for winds and piano, a model of neoclassical style and French lyricism, opens this Boston Symphony Chamber Players program, which continues with four solo works. BSO Principal Flute Elizabeth Rowe performs innovative flutist-composer Allison Loggins-Hull's evocative Homeland, which explores racial injustice and the concept of belonging. Edwin Barker plays Hans Werner Henze's introspective solo bass piece S. Biagio 9 Agosto ore 1207, which refers in its title to an ancient Tuscan church. Violist Steven Ansell plays Stravinsky's ceremonially somber Elegy from 1944. The program culminates with one of the great chamber music works of the late Romantic era and one of Brahms's final compositions, the warm and lyrical Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, one of several works Brahms wrote for the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. For this performance, clarinetist William Hudgins joins cellist Blaise Déjardin and guest pianist Vivian Choi. Originally aired in last summer's Tanglewood Online Festival as part of the Recitals from the World Stage series.

To post a comment, you must register and login.