Saturday, November 15, 2025
8:00 PM
Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the Boston Symphony in the highly anticipated world premiere of Tania León’s Time to Time. Afterwards, James Carter is the soloist in Roberto Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra, and the BSO performs Brahms’s lyrically pastoral Second Symphony.
This performance is part of the E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One celebration, honoring the diverse voices that shape our nation’s musical heritage. Inspired by the spirit of America’s motto, E Pluribus Unum: From Many One is a multi-year celebration that embraces the plurality and singularity of American music. The 2025–26 season’s repertoire includes about three dozen works by composers who have woven the rich tapestry of American music, from Copland, Barber, and Bernstein to modern trailblazers like John Williams, John Adams, Tania León, and Carlos Simon.
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
James Carter, saxophones
Tania LEÓN Time to Time (world premiere; BSO co-commission)
Roberto SIERRA Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 2
In a preview of this program, Dima Slobodeniouk describes the signature sound of music by Tania León, the excitement of Sierra's Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra, and what it means to perform Brahms with the BSO.
Learn more about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2025-2026 season on their site.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Dima Slobodeniouk, back with the Boston Symphony after some exciting stuff over the summer, but here you are now at Symphony Hall. So Dima, thanks for your time today, I appreciate it.
Dima Slobodeniouk Hi Brian, great to be back.
Brian McCreath This program is all over the place, it feels like. And so I really just want to unpack how it came together with you. A world premiere by Tania León and a piece by Roberto Sierra, this Concerto for Saxophones, and Brahms's Second Symphony. You've conducted Brahms with this orchestra before and it's been a great experience. But let's start with Tania León. Have you conducted music by her before?
Dima Slobodeniouk Yes, I have, this is my second time. I do have a connection to her music. We did it in London with the London Philharmonic, of course, another piece because this is a premiere. But the style is very consistent, so I really recognize her writing.
Brian McCreath I want to ask about that because, what is it to you that says Tania León in a piece of music? What's the signature, or what's the language that really resonates with you? And is there something about Time to Time, this new piece, that in some way departs from that or, on the other hand, kind of lives into it even further?
Dima Slobodeniouk She works with the rhythmic structures, and she works with a rhythmical intensity. And what it means, on a more practical level, is that you would hear rhythms and structures which are more blurred and then you would, little by little, start getting a grip of them and things become more apparent, more clear, and then it pours into something which can be called a pattern, rhythmical pattern. So all that is a bit like a play between moon and the clouds, where they kind of cover the moon and then they uncover. So it's all rather abstract, but then when you hear it, she manages to get the orchestra to sound in a very different way than what people are used to hearing. And that is actually a merit which cannot be attributed to too many composers. So she has a language of her own. For us on stage, the writing is difficult. We need to work a lot on the piece to figure out how the rhythms should be played and treated. But the outcome for a listener, I think, is very interesting, very organic.
Brian McCreath I have only heard a little bit of this piece, but based on my own experience of Tania's music, and I probably have an incomplete picture, but this feels like, compared to what I've come to associate with her, rounded edges, more rounded edges to those rhythmic patterns that you're describing. I feel like other music I've heard by her has more sharply defined rhythmic patterns, but this one, there's something more rounded about it, a little more softer edged.
Dima Slobodeniouk Yes, I agree. And also she writes many rhythms in this piece which look one way and sound differently.
Brian McCreath Oh wow.
Dima Slobodeniouk Yeah, for me even. I kind of imagined them to be different than what they actually sound like. So the score surprises you.
Brian McCreath Is that because of the orchestration or some other thing with the time signatures or what?
Dima Slobodeniouk It's the orchestration, I think, the way it is written. She takes a lot of risk, but with an orchestra like this, one can take risks. They are incredible readers, just their ability to read the parts and connect it to what they see from my beat and my conducting. So they are very quick to realize what needs to be done.
Brian McCreath The Concerto for Saxophones by Roberto Sierra, again, where are you in your experience of Roberto Sierra's music and this particular piece? And how did this piece come to be a part of this program even?
Dima Slobodeniouk Well, this piece was a suggestion from the orchestra. I'm a beginner with Roberto Sierra's music. This is the first time. And, you know, making programs is a long process, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but it's complicated. It's not always straightforward. Sometimes you get a clean piece of paper and you just sit down and you have an idea. But then sometimes it takes days, weeks, sometimes even months to come up with a program. James Carter, as a soloist, is super exciting. People use this word "crossover," which I really don't like. Because somehow, I don't know, "crossover" already underlines the fact that there is something to cross over. [laughs] I don't think it's that much of a difference, but let's say the approach to music making is slightly different in jazz and in classical music. The result is the same, but how we approach it... So it's exciting. What we just did on stage, it's very exciting, and we have to figure out how to be good in both worlds.
Brian McCreath And for you as the conductor, there is so much of this that is improvised on the soloist's part, and yet this is not a simple score to conduct, I don't imagine. What are the challenges, then, for you in navigating soloist and everything that he wants to do and orchestra and everything they need to do in the piece?
Dima Slobodeniouk Well, the span is quite large, I would say, of things which I need to be doing there. From the episodes which stay together themselves in a very natural way, because there is either a clear repeating rhythmical pattern coming from the soloist or from one of the groups of the orchestra, then moving on to a more singing episode where you have to be very sensitively adjusting the tempo regarding on what James is doing, creating atmosphere, balancing also. And then the Scherzo, the third movement, which is very tricky to keep together, and there you need to be quick in realizing what to attach to what. Is it us following the soloist or is it the soloist following us? So the priority there shifts. It's just written like this. And then the finale is very groovy, boogie-woogie. It's groovy, but again, because you're dealing with probably an orchestra of about 80 people, maybe even more, and with distances, it's one thing to play boogie woogie sitting next to each other. Another thing is to get everything together. So there is some fine tuning and adjustment to be done. Are we on the backside of the beat? Are we in the middle of it? Like some things which in jazz are self-explanatory, also in classical music, but in this case, we really have to dive into that world and feel. Most of it is on the backside, slightly laid back.
Brian McCreath Well, it's exciting, as you say, because not only are these rhythms happening, this improvisation is happening, he's using two different saxophones through the piece. So there's this kind of tonal variance just on the solo part. And it's almost as though, as much as you're hearing Roberto Sierra, you're hearing James Carter, I suppose.
Dima Slobodeniouk Oh, absolutely. He just builds his own structures, harmonic structures, which connect to what's going on in the orchestra. But yeah, a lot of it is free, which is wonderful.
Brian McCreath The second half of the program, Brahms's Second Symphony, you mentioned that the orchestra had requested that you do the concerto. Was the Brahms a request that you made, or was it something that they thought, you know, Dima, we'd really love you to do more Brahms with us?
Dima Slobodeniouk That was my request.
Brian McCreath So tell me more about Brahms and why this particular symphony is one that you wanted to do with the Boston Symphony.
Dima Slobodeniouk In a way, having the first half the way we have it this week gives you free hands, to an extent, to come up with the second half. And I think this is, first of all, a huge contrast, obviously, but it is also the piece which I really wanted to do with the BSO. And by this time, now we have done his First Symphony, his Third, and now the Second. And it feels like a beautiful journey to do Brahms with them. There's a strong tradition in terms of playing Brahms, a long-standing relationship with the conductors who have done a lot of it. And I am honored and fortunate to be able to bring my own way of creating these pieces, and it's an unforgettable experience to merge your own vision to what's in the orchestra already. It's quite unique. You never actually repeat things.
Brian McCreath Yeah, and the orchestra has done it, as you say, with so many different conductors. Just in recent years, Blomstedt, I can't remember specifically the Second Symphony, but certainly Brahms's symphonies with Blomstedt and with Andris and so many others, going way back, Bernard Haitink and all these conductors... When you stand in front of the orchestra, they're kind of ready for almost anything that you want them to do in this piece. How do you find your voice within that piece, collaborating with them?
Dima Slobodeniouk Well, first of all, the most unnecessary thing in this process is me thinking about how they have played it before, because then I somehow shift my own musical personality from where it should be. So I try just to be very convinced in the things which I offer them and ask from them, and that way it is easier and actually that's the only way when you can get people on board with your ideas. You have to believe in these ideas yourself. And these are pieces which are so multi-layered, both on stylistic and emotional levels. So the older you get, I think at the same time it becomes easier because you see through pieces better. You understand, you have larger, broader experience of not just experience of life, but also emotional different stages which this goes through. It's a very lyrical piece, but it's not just a set of beautiful melodies. It's so much more. This gentleness, and at the same time, it really speaks to you. It's not like a beautiful picture you're watching in the museum.
Brian McCreath You mentioned before how much time it can take to put together programs, and you have, for years, put together with orchestras that you've worked with. When you feel like you're going to be in a location where you can go to a concert, and you're in the audience. Maybe you're in New York or something where there's a lot of options, and you say, well there's this concert and there's this concert and this concert. What is it that attracts you to a program from an audience perspective, not just what you want to do as a musician on stage with an ensemble, but if you just want to listen to a concert, what are the kinds of programs that really excite you?
Dima Slobodeniouk The programs which contain music which I don't know. That's what excites me. If I can go somewhere, experience a piece which I don't and get excited about it... I don't mean just excited to go and listen, but excited from the interpretation and convinced by it and wanting to perhaps even do it myself, well, that's the best.
Brian McCreath Does that happen often?
Dima Slobodeniouk No. [laughs] No, but it does. When it does, it's a fantastic feeling. So let's say, if I see a program which consists either purely or partially of pieces which I know, I'm not very tempted to go and listen, except if it's someone I really want to hear. But if we're talking simply about programs, not performers, then it's something that I don't know that I want to hear. And then the other option or part of it is that I'm sure, as it is for any listener, then you have musicians whom you want to hear. And in that case, it almost doesn't matter what they play because the main question is how and how it touches you?
Brian McCreath With those two things, I mean, you've just made a great case for people coming to this concert because the Tania León is a world premiere. By definition, nobody's heard it before. Most people probably haven't heard Roberto Sierra's Concerto for Saxophones. And then the Brahms Second, what better orchestra could you hear than the Boston Symphony playing this piece.
Dima Slobodeniouk Exactly, yeah, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the three pieces. And I hope we can bring Brahms onto a level where it sounds for someone like not just a repetition, but we can bring something new as if it was premiered today
Brian McCreath Dima Slobodeniouk, it's great to have you back and wonderful to hear you work with the orchestra. Thanks for your time again.
Dima Slobodeniouk Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much.