Friday Evenings

Thomas Wilkins, conductor  

Béla Fleck, banjo  

16-time Grammy Award-winner Béla Fleck joins the CSO for a celebration of the American sound. Fleck’s reimagining of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue pays homage to the legendary composer while redefining an all-time classic. Contemporaries Florence Price and Aaron Copland did the same in their time, shaping, contextualizing and creating indelible music that feels like it was always here. Copland’s ballet music to Rodeo, featuring the rip-roaring and instantly recognizable "Hoe-Down," became a new soundtrack to the American West. Florence Price, merging traditional African American themes with the latest music of her day, established a singular voice all her own.

Marek Janowski, conductor

Mozart and Bruckner’s late symphonies explore drama on radically different scales. Mozart’s compact and wonderful Symphony No. 39 opens with plenty of pomp, interweaving effortless genius, elegance, and playfulness to the very end. Taking nearly a decade to write, Brucker’s last symphonic statement is a gloriously vast cathedral of sound built on foundations of infinite brass.

Joélle Harvey, soprano

Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano

Paul Groves, tenor

John Relyea, bass

May Festival Chorus

The trumpet shall sound. Join the CSO, the May Festival Chorus with Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson, and an all-star cast of soloists for the return of Messiah to Music Hall. You'll hear a new orchestration of Handel’s masterwork, bringing out the glories of movements like the Hallelujah Chorus with new depths of orchestral color from winds and percussion that were not present in the original. It will be an uplifting event for making forever and ever holiday memories. 

Jun Märkl, conductor

Elizabeth Freimuth, horn

Till Eulenspiegel follows the exploits of a noted trickster but doesn’t fool around. The super virtuosic work is a freewheeling tour de force for every member of the Orchestra, beginning with a famous French horn solo. CSO Principal Horn Elizabeth Freimuth steps into the spotlight with a popular early concerto by Strauss, and Debussy’s impressionistic Images create the musical equivalent of a Monet masterpiece.

Keitaro Harada, conductor

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade, based on the legendary stories of One Thousand and One Nights, is a wild ride full of big moments for brass plus a famous violin solo for CSO Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo. Arturo Márquez’ Fandango pays tribute to dances of Mexico, performed here by Anne Akiko Meyers, the soloist it was written for. Yuzo Toyama’s Rhapsody centers on folk songs from his native Japan.

Jaap van Zweden, conductor

Conductor Jaap van Zweden leads the CSO in Mahler’s colossal Sixth Symphony. From the first ominous beat of the strings, the work builds to shocking intensity, full of soaring melodies and towering brass, abruptly contrasted by profoundly sweet interludes. It’s all the drama you need. In time, Mahler’s whole heartfelt world becomes obliterated by cataclysmic hammerblows.