BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The 'Boston Symphony Orchestra' is one of the world's premiere orchestras. Its home base is Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, usually considered to be one of the three finest concert halls in the world.

Contents

History

Recordings

Music Directors

References

External links

History

The orchestra was founded in 1881 by Henry Lee Higginson. It went on to have several notable conductors, including Arthur Nikisch from 1889 to 1893, and Pierre Monteux from 1919 to 1924 who gave the orchestra a reputation for a "French" sound which persists to some degree to this day. However, it was under the baton of Serge Koussevitzky that the orchestra became best known.
Under Koussevitzky, the orchestra gave regular radio broadcasts and established its summer home at Tanglewood, where Koussevitzky founded the Berkshire Music Center which is now the Tanglewood Music Center. Those network radio broadcasts ran from 1926 through 1951, and again from 1954 through 1956; the orchestra continues to make regular live radio broadcasts to the present day. The Boston Symphony was closely involved with the creation of WGBH Radio as an outlet for its concerts.
Koussevitzky also commissioned many new pieces from prominent composers, including the ''Symphony No. 4'' of Sergei Prokofiev and the ''Symphony of Psalms'' by Igor Stravinsky. They also gave the premiere of Béla Bartók's ''Concerto for Orchestra'', which had been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation at the instigation of Fritz Reiner and Joseph Szigeti.
Koussevitzky started a tradition that was to be continued by the orchestra with commissions by Henri Dutilleux for its 75th anniversary, Roger Sessions, and Andrzej Panufnik, for the 100th, and lately for the 125th works by Leon Kirchner, Elliott Carter, and Peter Lieberson. On other occasions, they have commissioned works from various other composers, such as John Corigliano's ''Symphony No. 2'' for the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall.
In 1949, Charles Münch succeeded Koussevitzky who toured with the orchestra overseas for the first time, and also produced their first stereo recording in February 1954 for RCA Victor. Münch was succeeded in 1962 by Erich Leinsdorf, who served as music director for seven years until 1969. William Steinberg was then music director from 1969 to 1973. In 1973, Seiji Ozawa took over the orchestra and remained the Music Director until 2002, the longest tenure of any Boston Symphony conductor. In 2004, James Levine became the first American-born music director ever to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine has received critical praise for revitalising the quality and repertoire since the beginning of his tenure.^[1]
The BSO also benefits from its close association with the New England Conservatory, located just one block from Symphony Hall with several graduates now occupying BSO musician seats.
An offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the Boston Pops Orchestra, founded in 1885, which plays lighter, more popular classics, and show tunes. Arthur Fiedler was the conductor who did the most to increase the fame of the Boston Pops, over his tenure from 1930 to 1979. Film composer John Williams succeeded Fiedler as the conductor of the Pops from 1980 to 1993. Since 1995, the conductor of the Boston Pops is Keith Lockhart.
Performing with the BSO and Boston Pops for major choral works is the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Organized in 1970 by its founding director, John Oliver, the Chorus comprises 250 volunteer singers. Before the creation of the Tanglewood Chorus, and for some time after, the BSO frequently employed the New England Conservatory Chorus conducted by Lorna Cooke DeVaron, Chorus Pro Musica, Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society.
Violin virtuoso Willy Hess was concertmaster from 1904 to 1910. The current concertmaster is Malcolm Lowe.

Recordings

The Boston Symphony made its first acoustical recordings in 1917 in Camden, New Jersey for the Victor Talking Machine Company with Karl Muck. Among the first discs recorded was the finale to Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony. Typical of acoustical recordings, the musicians had to crowd around a large horn that transferred the sounds to a recording machine.
It was under Serge Koussevitsky that the orchestra made its first electrical recordings, also for Victor, in the late 1920s. Using a single microphone for a process Victor called "Orthophonic," the first recordings included Ravel's ''Bolero''. Recording sessions took place in Symphony Hall. Koussevitsky's final recording with the Boston Symphony was a high fidelity version of Sibelius' second symphony, recorded in 1949 and released on LP.
In February 1954, RCA Victor began recording the orchestra in stereo, under the direction of Charles Munch. RCA continued to record Munch and the orchestra through 1962, his final year as music director in Boston.
Erich Leinsdorf, who had already made numerous recordings for RCA, continued his association with the company during his seven years in Boston. These included a critically-acclaimed performance of Brahms' ''German Requiem''. Then, the orchestra switched to Deutsche Grammophon under William Steinberg and Seiji Ozawa. Michael Tilson Thomas, who was an assistant conductor under Steinberg, also made several recordings for DGG; some of these have been reissued on CD.

Music Directors

★ 1881-1884 George Henschel ★ 1884-1889 Wilhelm Gericke ★ 1889-1893 Arthur Nikisch ★ 1893-1898 Emil Paur ★ 1898-1906 Wilhelm Gericke ★ 1906-1908 Karl Muck ★ 1908-1912 Max Fiedler ★ 1912-1918 Karl Muck

★ 1918-1919 Henri Rabaud ★ 1919-1924 Pierre Monteux ★ 1924-1949 Serge Koussevitzky ★ 1949-1962 Charles Münch ★ 1962-1969 Erich Leinsdorf ★ 1969-1972 William Steinberg ★ 1973-2002 Seiji Ozawa ★ 2004-present James Levine

References

1. Stretching exercises: The BSO challenges the audience and itself



★ On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, , John, Dunning, Oxford University Press, 1998,

External links

★ Boston Symphony Orchestra Official website

★ Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks

★ Geoff Edgers, "6 minutes to shine." ''Boston Globe'', 4 September 2005.