Back to Press Release List > - Boston Symphony Orchestra Returns to Carnegie Hall with Maestro James Levine in February and April

On Monday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m., the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Music Director James Levine returns to Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins the orchestra for Elliott Carter’s Dialogues, for Piano and Orchestra and Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. In addition, BSO principal violist Steven Ansell is featured in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 completes this program. Maestro Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra return on Monday, April 5 at 8:00 p.m. to make their fourth and final appearance of Carnegie Hall’s 2009–2010 season. Soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, and bass-baritone Shenyang are featured soloists for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, in a performance that also features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Artist Information
This season, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard has the rare opportunity to appear as soloist on consecutive nights at Carnegie Hall with two leading orchestras: first with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 31 (performing Bartók) and then with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 1. Widely acclaimed as a leading interpreter of the standard piano repertoire, Mr. Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career that transcends traditional boundaries. In recent seasons Mr. Aimard has been invited by Carnegie Hall, the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Berliner Philharmoniker, Palais Garnier/Opera National de Paris, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Cité de la Musique in Paris to devise groundbreaking residential projects, performing himself within chamber music, lieder, solo piano, and orchestral programs. Highlights of Mr. Aimard’s 2009–2010 season include an Auftakt residency at the Alte Oper Frankfurt including a joint piano recital with Tamara Stefanovich, a lieder recital with soprano Christine Schäfer, and chamber music with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; as well as solo recitals in Paris, New York, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, and Berlin. Mr. Aimard was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award in spring 2005 and was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America in 2007. Born in Lyon, France in 1957, Mr. Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod, and in London with Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks included winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition, and being appointed at the age of 19 by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble InterContemporain's first solo pianist. Mr. Aimard records exclusively for the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Steven Ansell joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as its principal violist in September 1996, having already appeared with the orchestra in Symphony Hall as guest principal viola. A native of Seattle, Mr. Ansell also remains a member of the acclaimed Muir String Quartet, which he co-founded in 1978, and with which he has toured extensively throughout the world. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Ansell was named professor of viola at the University of Houston at 21 and became assistant principal viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under André Previn at 23. As a recording artist he has received two Grand Prix du Disque awards and a Gramophone Magazine award for Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year. He has appeared on PBS's In Performance at the White House and has participated in the Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Marlboro, Blossom, Newport, Spoleto, and Snowbird festivals. Mr. Ansell currently teaches at the Boston University School for the Arts. As principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he is also a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Brewer’s appearances in opera, concert, and recital are marked with her own unique timbre, which combined with her range, golden tone, boundless power, and control make her a favorite of the stage as well as a sought-after recording artist. Highlights of Christine Brewer’s 2009-10 season include performances with the New World Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, the Dallas Symphony and Jaap van Zweden, and excerpts from Wagner operas with the BBC Philharmonic and Donald Runnicles, as well as the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and at the Ravinia Festival. This season also brings a highly anticipated reprisal of Ms. Brewer’s critically acclaimed portrayal of Lady Billows in Albert Herring at Santa Fe Opera. An avid recitalist, Ms. Brewer will be heard on the stages throughout North America in venues such as Cal Performances, Spivey Hall, University Musical Society, the Schubert Club, the Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival, and in a presentation by the Los Angeles Philharmonic among others.

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe has sung in many of the renowned opera houses in the U.S. and Europe including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Opera National de Paris. Ms. Blythe has also appeared with many of the world's finest orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra (in Boston and at Tanglewood), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Opera Orchestra of New York, Minnesota Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Orchestre de Paris. A frequent recitalist, Ms. Blythe has been presented in recital with her collaborative partner, Warren Jones, in Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Vocal Arts Society and at the Supreme Court at the invitation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Washington, DC; the Cleveland Art Song Festival, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore. Ms. Blythe was recently named Musical America's 2009 Vocalist of the Year. Her other awards include the 2007 Opera News Award and the 1999 Richard Tucker Award. Ms. Blythe sang three roles (Frugola, La Principessa, and Zita) in Puccini’s Il Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera this fall.

Tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko was born in Riga, Latvia, in June 1975. In 1998 he graduated from the Jāzeps Mediņš College of Music where he played wind instruments and studied singing. During his studies he won the Contest of Young Singers for Students of Musical Colleges (in 1993 and 1996). He has also studied at the Department of Vocal Music at the Latvian Academy of Music. In 1997, Mr. Antoņenko joined the Latvian National Opera as a member of the choir, and just five months later made his debut as Oberto in Handel’s Alcina. Mr. Antoņenko was the 2003 recipient of the Latvian Music Grand Prix for vocal performances in several opera productions and Verdi’s Requiem. During the 2004–2005 season, he became the most internationally renowned of Latvian tenors, engaged by the world’s most influential opera companies (he appeared in 74 opera performances during the season). Mr. Antoņenko has given performances in Israel, Poland, Estonia, Russia, and Hong Kong. He made his Latvian National Opera debut as Sergey in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Most recently Mr. Antoņenko made his debut at The Metropolitan Opera Dvořák’s Rusalka with Renée Fleming.

Twenty-five-year-old bass-baritone Shenyang was the winner of the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and a 2008 winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He also won First Prize at the International Opera Competition in Verona, the 2007 Verona Orfeo Singing Competition, and the 2005 Verona Don Giovanni Singing Competition. Born in Tianjin, China, Shenyang studied with Professor Ping Gu at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He is currently enrolled jointly at The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and at The Juilliard School Opera Center. Highlights of Shenyang’s 2009-10 season include a New York Philharmonic debut with Messiah performances under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Colline in La bohème. Engagements of the 2008-09 season included a Metropolitan Opera debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni under the baton of Louis Langrée, performances of Haydn's The Seasons with John Nelson at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, solo Lieder recitals at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and in New York at Lincoln Center under the auspices of The Juilliard School, a Young Singers Concert with Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Festival, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer with James Levine and Daniel Barenboim at Carnegie Hall. The artist has recorded Schubert's Winterreise (Chinese Premiere recording), released by FengLin Records.

Now in his sixth season as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine is the BSO’s 14th music director since the orchestra’s founding in 1881 and the first American-born conductor to hold that position. Maestro Levine made his Boston Symphony debut in April 1972 and became music director in the fall of 2004, having been named music director designate in October 2001. Highlights of his 2009-10 BSO programs include the premieres of commissioned works from Peter Lieberson, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, and John Williams; the BSO’s first complete Beethoven symphony cycle in 75 years, and the first BSO performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah since 1980, plus music of Berg, Berlioz, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Mozart, Ravel, Schubert, Strauss (Richard, Johann Sr., Johann Jr., and Josef), and Stravinsky. Mr. Levine’s programming each year balances orchestral, operatic, and choral classics with significant music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including newly commissioned works from such leading American composers as Babbitt, Carter, Harbison, Kirchner, Lieberson, Schuller, and Wuorinen. At Tanglewood each summer he leads performances with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, as well as TMC classes devoted to orchestral repertoire, Lieder, and opera. In February 2009, Mr. Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra released their first recordings together on the BSO Classics label, all taken from live performances—Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Ravel’s complete Daphnis et Chloé, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, and William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony and Lyric Concerto. James Levine is also Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, where, in the thirty-eight years since his debut there, he has led nearly 2,500 performances of 85 different operas, including fifteen company premieres. This season at the Met he conducts new productions of Tosca and Les Contes d’Hoffmann and revivals of Simon Boccanegra and Lulu, as well as concerts at Carnegie Hall with the MET Orchestra and MET Chamber Ensemble. Also a distinguished pianist, Mr. Levine is an active chamber music and recital collaborator, especially in Lieder and song repertoire with the world’s great singers.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Hall season in Boston takes place September 23, 2009-May 1, 2010. Highlights of the 2009-10 season include three world premieres and three American premieres, a concentrated cycle of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, and a wide array of distinguished guests, including violinists Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, and Mira Wang, pianists Evgeny Kissin, Marc-André Hamelin, and Emanuel Ax, vocalists Renée Fleming, Gerald Finley, and Matthew Polenzani, and conductors Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Bernard Haitink. Now in its 129th season, the BSO gave its inaugural concert on October 22, 1881. Since then, the orchestra has performed throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, South America, and China, and also reaches audiences through its performances on radio and television, its highly successful web platform at bso.org, and its many recordings, including four new recordings released by the BSO and James Levine last February. The BSO plays an active role in commissioning new works from today’s most important composers and offers a wide variety of educational programs, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the orchestra's prestigious summer music academy at Tanglewood, the BSO's summer home in Lenox, MA. For further information, visit bso.org.

Program Information
Monday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
James Levine, Music Director and Conductor
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano
Steven Ansell, Viola

ELLIOTT CARTER Dialogues, for Piano and Orchestra
HECTOR BERLIOZ Harold in Italy, Op. 16
MAURICE RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
MAURICE RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2

Sponsored by KPMG LLP
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Monday, April 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
James Levine, Music Director and Conductor
Christine Brewer, Soprano
Stephanie Blythe, Mezzo-Soprano
Aleksandrs Antonenko, Tenor
Shenyang, Bass-Baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, Conductor

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Elijah

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.