Even as the BSO grapples with its long-term future strategy, at a glance, the orchestra’s 146th season reveals an approach to programming based on one of the orchestra’s most recent successes. In January of 2025, Music Director Andris Nelsons conducted all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies in four consecutive programs in the space of 17 days. Despite — or perhaps because of — the familiarity of those works, it was an immersive and electrifying experience, certainly for the audience and seemingly for the musicians and conductor. Now, the BSO is applying that approach to a few different composers.
Most prominent among them is Tchaikovsky, whose six numbered symphonies and opera Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) account for four weeks of programs in January, all of them conducted by Nelsons. The Queen of Spades, presented in concert form in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera, features soprano Kristine Opolais in the role of Lisa and tenor David Butt Philip as Hermann. According to the BSO’s announcement, these performances “are complemented by a series of talks illuminating the composer’s inner life and legacy through contemporary lenses.”
A second ultra-concentrated musical experience is on the calendar in February, when, in two consecutive programs, Andris Nelsons conducts the three major ballet scores Stravinsky wrote for Serge Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes. The works roll out in reverse order of composition, beginning with The Rite of Spring, paired in one program with Unsuk Chin’s Trumpet Concerto with soloist Håkan Hardenberger, followed the next week by Petrushka and The Firebird, in its complete form. Both the Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky series also extend to repertoire on Boston Symphony Chamber Players programs.
In addition to these two single-composer multi-program series, the BSO extends that programming approach to several single programs:
- An All-Rachmaninoff program led by Andris Nelsons (Sep. 30-Oct. 3) features pianist Seong-Jin Cho in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
- An All-Philip Glass (Feb. 11-13) is led by Dennis Russell Davies, with violinist Renaud Capuçon.
- Two All-Beethoven programs (Mar. 2-6) are anchored by two of the composer’s piano concertos with soloist Lang Lang, all led by Andris Nelsons.
- Prokofiev is the single composer represented on a program led by Andris Nelsons that also includes violinist Himari (Apr. 1-4).
- And Richard Strauss is the focus of a program that includes Don Quixote, with BSO Principal Cellist Blaise Déjardin and Principal Violist Steven Ansell, and An Alpine Symphony, led by Andris Nelsons (Apr. 8-10).
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein is the Boston Symphony’s Artist in Residence during the 2026-2027 season. In that capacity, she will be the soloist in Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto on a program led by Paavo Järvi in his Symphony Hall debut that also includes the Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius (Feb. 4-6). In addition, Weilerstein will perform solo and chamber works, perform at Tanglewood in 2027, and work with local students in masterclasses.
Commissions and premieres have been a consistent part of the Boston Symphony’s artistic profile for decades, and that continues in the 2026-2027 season:
- In a program anchored by Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 (Sep. 24-26), Andris Nelsons conducts the world premiere of Prologue, a piece co-commissioned by the BSO, left incomplete by the late Sofia Gubaidulina, and completed by Elena Firsova.
- Another BSO co-commission, Francisco Coll’s Piano Concerto, in its U.S. premiere with soloist Kirill Gerstein, is part of a program (Oct. 8-10) led by Andris Nelsons that includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
Kendall BesentCarlos Simon - BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon’s Double Concerto is a BSO co-commission and features violinist Hilary Hahn and Seth Parker Woods in a program (Oct. 15-17) led by Andris Nelsons that also includes the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Act II from the same composer’s The Nutcracker.
- Tod Machover’s already and not yet, a BSO commission, receives its world premiere in a program (Oct. 22-24) in a program that also includes the U.S. premiere of Alex Nante’s Ein feste Burg and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, the "Reformation" Symphony, all led by Kent Nagano. Machover’s piece is the anchor of a weeklong series of events exploring the intersection of technology and music, in conjunction with the MIT Media Lab’s 40th anniversary.
- As part of a two-week “Creation Festival,” Eric Jacobsen conducts the world premiere of Creation, by composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist Henry Hwang, with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and kamancheh soloist Kayhan Kalhor (Nov. 12-14). Commissioned by the BSO, Creation “is a momentous new work that draws on jazz, Arabic, and Brazilian music as it explores Darwinian theory, randomness in the cosmos, and theories of the universe.” It’s also a companion piece to Haydn’s The Creation, which forms the preceding week’s program (Nov. 5-7), led by Philippe Jordan. In addition to these two major orchestral works, according to the BSO, in “chamber concerts, talks, and multidisciplinary offerings across Boston, creation is depicted as more than just a moment in time, and instead as a continuing story that unfolds through sound, drama, and collective listening.”
In addition to all of these major anchors, there are several more highlights of the BSO’s 2026-2027:
- The opening program, led by Andris Nelsons (Sep. 18-19), begins with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, with soloist Emanuel Ax, followed by Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
- Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, part of a program led by Kazuki Yamada (Nov. 27-28) that also includes Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals.
- Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (Apr. 17), with mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the BSO x NEC Honors Children’s Choir.
Nikos AliagasGautier Capuçon - Susanna Mälkki leads a program that includes works by Dukas, Saariaho, and Ravel, as well as the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Saint-Saëns, with soloist Gautier Capuçon (Apr. 22-24).
- Winner of the 2023 Gilmore Artist Award Alexandre Kantorow is the soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms, part of a program led by Jakub Hrůša that also includes Martinů’s Symphony No. 6, Fantaisies symphoniques, a piece composed at the request of former BSO Music Director Charles Munch for the orchestra’s 75th anniversary.
- The season closes with the return of conductor Joana Mallwitz (May 6-9), who leads the BSO in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with soloist Joshua Bell.
For complete information about the 2026-2027 season, visit the Boston Symphony Orchestra.