In his great ode \u201cTo Autumn,\u201d Keats addressed the season itself: \u201cWhere are the songs of spring?… Think not of them, Thou hast thy music too.\u201d This autumn there\u2019s an amazing amount of music \u2014 especially classical music \u2014 taking place around here. In the summer, we had to leave town to hear the most serious concerts, but in the fall, everything starts to percolate closer to home. So here\u2019s our autumnal cornucopia of the choices classical music lovers will have this fall.<\/p>\n
And as I like to remind you every season, there are numerous excellent and often free programs at Boston\u2019s schools and conservatories. And please keep your eyes and ears open for any other performances I might not know about in time for this listing.<\/p>\n
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SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS<\/h2>\n
<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Whatever one\u2019s take on any individual concert, conductor, or guest artist, there\u2019s little disagreement that the Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the world\u2019s great instrumental ensembles. The season of weekly concerts begins with BSO music director Andris Nelsons leading Mozart\u2019s magnificent \u201cJupiter\u201d Symphony (his last and most complex) and Richard Strauss\u2019s autobiographical and self-promotional \u201cEin Heldenleben (A Hero\u2019s Life),\u201d more up Nelsons\u2019 alley (Sept. 25-27<\/a>).<\/p>\n This year, the BSO is exploring Boston in 1900, with music composed around the time of the opening of Symphony Hall. The first of these programs will include the odd coupling of Debussy\u2019s \u201cNocturnes,\u201d a sensuously seductive piece often spoiled by the final movement with wordless chorus (\u201cSirens\u201d). Perhaps the estimable Lorelei Ensemble will give us mystery and danger instead of the usual sugar-coating. Debussy shares the program with a composer Andris Nelsons has been more at home with: Mahler. It\u2019s the enchanting Symphony No. 4, with the young German soprano Nikola Hillebrand, whose operatic roles suggest she might have the perfect voice for the last movement\u2019s view of heaven through a child\u2019s wide eyes (Oct. 2-4<\/a>).<\/p>\n The following week comes one of the greatest of all choral works, and the very first piece to be performed at Symphony Hall: Beethoven\u2019s \u201cMissa Solemnis\u201d \u2014 challenging for the conductor, the orchestra, the chorus, the four vocal soloists, and for the audience! Andris Nelsons conducts, but after the surprising announcement of the resignation of James Burton, director of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus since 2017, the crucial choral director will be Anthony Blake Clark. The only one of the vocalists I\u2019m familiar with is Wagnerian tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, but all four have impressive resumes (Oct. 9-11<\/a>).<\/p>\n The remaining BSO programs of the fall season begin with Nelsons leading Tchaikovsky\u2019s Fifth Symphony and John Adams\u2019s Violin Concerto (surely the best of Adams\u2019 purely instrumental works) featuring Italian-born, American German virtuoso and BSO 2025-26 artist-in-residence Augustin Hadelich (Oct. 16-18<\/a>), followed by superstar pianist Yuja Wang playing Prokofiev\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 2 under Domingo Hindoyan on a program including Three Dance Episodes from Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cOn the Town\u201d and Aaron Copland\u2019s Third Symphony (Oct. 23-25<\/a>). Then we\u2019ll get the Dvo\u0159\u00e1k Violin Concerto under guest conductor Nodoka Okisawa (in her BSO debut), on a program with Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Symphony No. 7 and Takemitsu\u2019s \u201cRequiem\u201d for strings (Nov. 6-8<\/a>).<\/p>\n And before it\u2019s time for the Pops, we\u2019ll get guest conductor Dima Slobodeniouk conducting the world premiere of Tania Le\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cTime to Time,\u201d Roberto Sierra\u2019s Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra (James Carter playing both soprano and tenor saxes), and what less likely a closer than Brahms\u2019s Symphony No. 2 (Nov. 13-15<\/a>). And there\u2019s still more Dvo\u0159\u00e1k in store when assistant conductor Samy Rachid leads the popular Cello Concerto (with Spanish cellist Pablo Ferr\u00e1ndez) and the Symphony No. 8 (Nov. 28-29<\/a>).<\/p>\n These are all likely to be excellent performances, and I\u2019m happy to see some new ideas injected into the programming, but except for the Le\u00f3n premiere, the Sierra and Adams concertos, and the overwhelming Beethoven mass, there\u2019s a disappointing familiarity about the repertoire. I wish our greatest orchestra were a little more adventurous in that critical department.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n You couldn\u2019t accuse Steven Lipsitt\u2019s BB&B of dull or inappropriate programming. Still performing in Brookline churches while its home at Boston\u2019s Faneuil Hall is renovated, BB&B puts the Brahms Second Symphony on a bill with works by Emilie Mayer and Mendelssohn\u2019s rarely performed \u201cPsalm 42,\u201d with soprano Sonja Tengblad and the New World Chorale (Sept. 28). Then Lipsitt weaves a fascinating program in which Bach\u2019s familiar Air (the so-called \u201cAir on a G-String\u201d) from his Orchestral Suite No. 3, Arhtur Foote\u2019s Air & Gavotte, John Corigliano\u2019s Fantasia on a Bach Air and Samuel Barber\u2019s famous Adagio for Strings both bounce off each other and lead inevitably into Howard Frazin\u2019s Peace Cantata, in its Boston premiere, with soprano Carley DeFranco, mezzo-soprano Krista River and baritone Keith Phares (Nov. 18). BB&B\u2019s annual pre-Christmas concert features \u201cminuets, scherzos, & waltzes by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, & Brahms\u201d (BB&B loves ampersands) with the choral music performed by the Apollo Club, Heritage Chorale and VOICES Boston Children’s Choir (Dec. 14).<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The passionate fans of Benjamin Zander<\/a>\u2019s Boston Philharmonic are going to be thrilled by the upcoming programs. On Oct. 19<\/a>, an evening of Brahms firsts, the Piano Concerto No. 1 with Alessandro Deljavan, maybe the best pianist you\u2019ve never heard of, and the First Symphony \u2014 both massive, ambitious works Brahms waited a long time to confront. And even more thrilling, the Verdi Requiem, one of the greatest pieces of choral music ever written and perhaps the most operatic (and scariest) of all masses. With Zander happily in charge, the splendid vocal soloists are soprano Ailyn Perez, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, tenor John Osborn and bass Maharram Huseynov. The Chorus pro Musica is under the direction of Jamie Kirsch, but the special guest choral coach and artistic advisor will be Donald Palumbo, who was music director of the Chorus pro Musica in the 1980s before he became the chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera, the position from which he has only recently retired. This will mark a very welcome return (Nov. 23<\/a>).<\/p>\nSymphony Hall | Sept. 25-Nov. 29<\/h3>\n
United Parish & All Saints Church | Sept. 28-Dec. 14<\/h3>\n
Symphony Hall | Oct. 19, Nov. 7 & Nov. 23<\/h3>\n
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