The Boston Symphony Orchestra ending its contract with Andris Nelsons, its music director since 2014, has come as a shock to players and conductor alike. “The BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision,” read a terse statement released last week by orchestra’s board and Chad Smith, its president and chief executive. Nelsons will leave the orchestra after the summer 2027 Tanglewood season. In the glacial world of conductorly handovers and orchestral music programming, where decisions are often taken years in advance (look at the LPO), this feels disconcertingly hasty.
The BSO is one of the US’s most distinguished and celebrated of orchestras, one of the so-called “Big Five”. Nelsons won two Grammys with the Boston Symphony players just last month (for Messiaen and Shostakovich), so why has the board decided to end the relationship? Is this a board v players and management spat? There’s no suggestion of any misconduct or breach of contract; perhaps the face-value interpretation is the right one: artistic differences over the orchestra’s “future vision”.
The Latvian-born Nelsons has told his musicians that “while this is not the decision I anticipated or wanted, I am unwaveringly committed to you and to our work together”; they appear to be just as blindsided: the BSO players said in a statement posted on social media accounts that they “strongly oppose the decision …to end the appointment of Maestro Nelsons”.
Which all begs the question: what is the BSO board’s vision, and why isn’t Nelsons part of it? One reason might be that he leads two major orchestras on either side of the Atlantic: he’s been Kapellmeister of Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra since 2017, he also regularly guest-conducts with such orchestras as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics. Perhaps Smith wants a music director who’s able to commit to being in the city for more than a third of the year? Cliched as sports analogies are, bear with me as it’s a helpful way of understanding what the role of music director, especially in the US, is all about. It’s not only the performances on match days - sorry, concert evenings – it’s about being there for the training sessions, the rehearsals, and it’s about being a charismatic figurehead who can charm cash from donors. Above all, it’s about being embedded in the city’s musical and cultural grassroots, so that your music director becomes an Alex Ferguson or a Pep Guardiola, indelibly associated not only with the orchestra but the identity of the place as a whole. That’s what Simon Rattle did in Birmingham in the 80s and 90s, and it’s what Mark Elder managed for a quarter of a century with the Hallé in Manchester.
Nelsons, mind you, is far from alone in having two orchestras on two continents: Klaus Mäkelä will take over the Chicago Symphony and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 2027, and dozens of high-flying conductors in recent decades have held positions in Europe, the US and Japan simultaneously. Meanwhile the Leipzig Gewandhaus musicians have released their own message of solidarity with the BSO players, celebrating the mutual benefit that Nelsons’ leadership has given them: “Over many years, the close alliance between the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester has grown into far more than a formal partnership … Knowing the strong artistic bond between Maestro Nelsons and the [Boston Symphony] orchestra, and understanding that this outcome does not reflect the wishes of the musicians, we would like to express our sincere sympathy and solidarity with you at this difficult moment.”
It’s getting fraught in Boston. Meanwhile who might replace Nelsons? My pitch – Karina Canellakis. The US conductor’s boldness of programming as well as commitment to renewing the classics makes her a unique voice in her generation. She would also be the first woman to run any of the US’s Big Five orchestras (not that the UK’s leading orchestras are any better in terms of appointing women to the top jobs, with the exception of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, who succeeded Nelsons as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s music director until 2022).
Right now though, it’s anyone’s guess where the “future vision” of the BSO will take them – and if the relationship between the players and the board is in the state of disrepair it seems to be, this could become a Premier League style story of power, vanity and ingloriousness. Oh dear.
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As Oscars publicity season reaches peak silliness, best actor hopeful Timothée Chalamet has made comments about how “no one cares any more” about ballet or opera. Proving that no publicity is bad publicity, the gatekeepers of those artforms have used Chalamet’s celebrity to whip up a media frenzy, but really, he’s just been a bit of an eejit.
There’s no point excoriating him over his perceived slights of live art-forms, as others have done so energetically and defensively. What is worth saying is that AI is coming for you, Timothée, as it is for every digitally manipulable movie star. It’s the live arts and live experiences – yes, human-made and human-performed opera, ballet, theatre and classical concert-hall culture – that will last. Just you watch.
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This week Tom has been listening to: Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack to My Name is Nobody. Julia Davis’s immortal series Nighty Night got me on to this: it uses the opening title music of the movie as its surreally chirpy theme tune. Morricone’s whole score, complete with Wagnerian send-ups and lyrical intermezzi, is deliriously wonderful. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music
