Boston Symphony Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Announce A Joint Survey Of The Works Of Shostakovich

As part of their pioneering five-year-old BSO-GHO Alliance, the two orchestras will explore the Russian composer's 15 symphonies and six concertos with a third Festival Orchestra composed from the ranks of the Tanglewood Music Center and GHO's Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy and led by former BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina 

 

Shostakovich Festival Leipzig will also feature the composer's complete string quartets, Nelsons conducting two performances of the landmark 1934 opera Lady Macbeth in Mtsensk, song recitals, film screenings, choral and chamber music, and more 

 

The BSO's six solo and joint performances in Leipzig will be part of a multiple-city European tour with details to be announced at a later date 

 

Andris Nelsons brings his two orchestras—the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (GHO)—together for a rare undertaking: a broad survey of the music of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). Between May 15 and June 1, 2025, the first-ever Shostakovich Festival Leipzig marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the great Russian composer. The BSO and the GHO are joined by an unsurpassed roster of world-class soloists, performing Shostakovich's complete symphonies and concertos. A third orchestra created just for the occasion draws from the young professional musicians of the BSO's Tanglewood Music Center and GHO's Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy, together with students from Leipzig's University of Music and Theatre. 

 

Andris Nelsons, currently in his tenth season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is widely acclaimed as one of the preeminent Shostakovich interpreters of his generation. With the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded the composer's complete symphonies and concertos for Deutsche Grammophon, a project that has so far won three Grammy Awards. Nelsons has also been the Kapellmeister (music director and principal conductor) of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig since 2018, the same year that the BSO and GHO entered into a close partnership that includes exchange programs for the musicians of the orchestras and their respective academies, joint commissions of new works, and complementary programming on both sides of the Atlantic. 

 

The BSO and Andris Nelsons will present three concerts at the festival; Nelsons will lead the Gewandhausorchester in three symphonic programs and two performances of the trailblazing 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, in a production with the Leipzig Opera. The BSO and Gewandhausorchester will join forces for a further three concerts. Violinist Baiba Skride, pianist Daniil Trifonov, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and soprano Kristine Opolais are among these concerts' soloists. 

 

A third orchestra, assembled from the ranks of the BSO's Tanglewood Music Center and the GHO's Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy training programs, will be created especially for the festival, augmented by musicians from Leipzig's University of Music and Theatre, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The Festival Orchestra will give three concerts under the direction of former BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina. 

In addition, the Shostakovich Festival Leipzig will include performances of the composer's 15 complete string quartets by the Quatuor Danel, plus other chamber music, film screenings, the 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, Op. 87 (played by Yulianna Avdeeva), vocal and choral music, and more. A complete schedule can be found here.  

 

The BSO's six performances in Leipzig will be part of a multiple-city European tour with details to be announced at a later date. In August and September 2023, the orchestra took part in a nine-city, 12-concert European tour, garnering acclaim from both audiences and critics. 

 

“We are staging this festival in celebration of the life and work of an extraordinary composer, whose life, due to the political and social upheavals of his time, was in constant danger. Shostakovich's music reflects all the facets and abysses of human existence: from anguish and darkness to biting irony and sarcasm, but also childlike, playful joy and burgeoning hope. Shostakovich allows us to share in his personal fate, in his fears and in all that threatened him—dangers that are a tragic reality for so many people today. Therefore, we want to share this cosmos with our audience, with all the emotions, issues, and questions that it will provoke within us.” 

 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig enjoy a close partnership, established in 2018: the GHO-BSO Alliance, initiated by Andris Nelsons, music director of both orchestras. A close connection already existed between the orchestras in the 19th and 20th centuries, which was revived when Andris Nelsons assumed his position in Leipzig. Today, it includes exchange programs for the musicians of the orchestras and their respective academies, shared commissions of new works, and complementary programming on the two sides of the Atlantic.

 

In October 2019, Nelsons led the BSO's first-ever joint performances with the Gewandausorchester Leipzig at Symphony Hall in a special gala program that included an appearance by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.  For more information about the BSO-GHO Alliance, click here. 

 

Led by Music Director Andris Nelsons since 2014, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert in 1881 and opened Symphony Hall—widely acclaimed as one of the greatest concert halls in the world—in 1900. Today, the BSO reaches millions of listeners through not only its concert performances in Boston and at Tanglewood—the orchestra's summer home in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts—but also through educational and community programs, radio, television, recordings, and tours. Click here for further information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Hall.   

 

 

The Gewandhausorchester is the oldest civic symphony orchestra in the world. The enterprise was founded in 1743 by a group of 16 musical philanthropists—representatives of the nobility as well as regular citizens—forming a concert society by the name of Das Große Concert. On taking residence in the trading house of the city‘s textile merchants (the “Gewandhaus”) in 1781, the ensemble assumed the name Gewandhausorchester. Many celebrated musicians have been appointed to the office of Gewandhauskapellmeister (Music Director and Principal Conductor), including Johann Adam Hiller, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Arthur Nikisch, and Kurt Masur. After his inauguration in 2005, Riccardo Chailly's phenomenally successful tenure as Gewandhauskapellmeister came to an end in 2016. Andris Nelsons assumed the position of Gewandhauskapellmeister in the 2017-18 season. Click here for further information about the Gewandhausorchester. 

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