Pianist Igor Levit and Conductor Elim Chan to Make BSO Debuts

In Her BSO Debut, Elim Chan Leads the Orchestra in Brian Raphael Nabors' Pulse and Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony.

By: Jan. 13, 2022
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Pianist Igor Levit and Conductor Elim Chan to Make BSO Debuts

Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan, chief conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, makes her BSO debut and acclaimed Russian-German pianist Igor Levit makes his BSO subscription series debut in these concerts. Mr. Levit performs Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, a work of grand scope and widely varying character and requiring great virtuosity. The young Alabama-born composer (and 2021 Tanglewood Music Center Fellow) Brian Raphael Nabors' orchestral work Pulse aims to suggest, in several contrasting episodes, the unifying energy of many different facets of life on earth. The nickname of Tchaikovsky's colorful and dynamic Little Russian Symphony refers not to his homeland, but to a part of the Ukraine then known as "Little Russia"; the nickname comes from the Ukrainian folk melodies used in the piece.

On Thursday, January 20 at 10:30 a.m., there is an open rehearsal for this program.

Program Details for BSO Concerts with Thomas Adès and Kirill Gerstein, January 27-29


BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès is joined by pianist Kirill Gerstein in reprise performances of Adès' own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, a BSO-commissioned work written for Gerstein and premiered at Symphony Hall in 2019. Gerstein and Adès have since performed the concerto worldwide to great acclaim, and the BSO's recording of it was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Gerstein also performs Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which Ravel completed in 1930 for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm due to an injury in World War I. Ravel's fascination with jazz shows up in the concerto's syncopated rhythms and energy. Exhibiting stark differences as well as fascinating similarities, both Ravel's La Valse and Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra-written a few years apart during and after World War I-seem to be modern commentaries, both admiring and critical, of the music and society of a bygone 19th-century Europe.

COVID-19 pandemic protocols for Symphony Hall performances and events are available at bso.org/safety.



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