Saturday, October 11, 2025
8:00 PM
Universally acknowledged as one of the world’s great concert halls, Symphony Hall’s 125-year anniversary concert features Beethoven’s monumental Missa Solemnis, the very music that was performed when the hall opened in 1900.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Eleanor Lyons, soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl, mezzo-soprano
Klaus Florian Vogt, tenor
Franz-Josef Selig, bass
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
James Burton, conductor
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Missa Solemnis
Learn more about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2025-2026 season on their site.
See Andris Nelsons and BSO President and CEO Chad Smith on Boston Public Radio, September 23, 2025.
In part three of an interview with CRB's Brian McCreath, BSO Concertmaster Nathan Cole describes the unique challenges of the violin solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and he also talks about the process of integrating new members of the Boston Symphony who joined the orchestra at the beginning of the season.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Brian McCreath Missa Solemnis by Beethoven is the first piece of music that was played in Symphony Hall when the hall opened in 1900, so there's a really wonderful historical reason for this piece. Beyond that though, what a remarkable piece of the music. In the Sanctus movement, there is this just jaw-droppingly gorgeous violin solo that, as you mentioned before, it's pretty long, too. Tell me what your experience is with that particular solo.
Nathan Cole So this I'm looking forward to because I have not performed that piece as concertmaster before. So I've been part of performances in other orchestras, but yeah, this has definitely been on my list for wanting to play. And it's funny because Beethoven, there are very few emotions or characters for him that are just clearly one thing. And so, when he gets sweet and heavenly, he also makes it virtuosic for the violin. There are quite a few gymnastics, I think, more than you might expect from this beatific movement. And it does start up in the heavens and then slowly works its way down and then gets actually quite earthy. And it's that mixture, I think, that makes it both challenging but also so satisfying for the listener.
Brian McCreath And I love that one week you're inhabiting what could be Death, and the next week you are inhabiting something utterly heavenly. It's such a beautiful thing. But you know, you and I talked when the BSO did the Beethoven series, the nine symphonies in about three weeks last season. And we talked about the fact that Beethoven never really cares what's possible. He only knows what he wants. And so there are times in everything that he writes, for piano, for chorus, for every instrument of the orchestra in which the playing is really difficult, and you have to take on, like, how do I get what he wanted because he didn't write it, you know to be friendly. Is that the case with this solo or with the Missa Solemnis in general?
Nathan Cole For the solo, it's funny, it reminds me in some ways of the late string quartets, I mean I'm not the first person to think that, but having performed all of those, what I find most difficult is keeping in a certain sound world for quite a long time and while you're navigating this challenge on the instrument or that challenge, never leaving that world that he's setting up. There's also alternation, of course, with the vocalists. There are questions of balance. The violin is not primarily a loud instrument, and if you try to make it an instrument to compete with the really loud ones in the orchestra or with the vocal soloists, then that really goes against the nature of the instrument and ruins the sound.
Brian McCreath I'm glad you mentioned that because it isn't a solo in the clear like you have in [Strauss's Ein] Heldenleben. It's like ribbons almost between you and the singers, so you're not really just spotlighted all the time. So, you do have to pay attention to not just the balance of dynamic – loud, soft – but also the phrasing, the way that you and the singers are interacting with your phrasing.
Nathan Cole Yeah, you know, every instrument has a different sort of natural metronome, so to speak, or internal metronome, and every player, of course. And as violinists, we have to be particularly careful when we play with singers to take care of all the small notes. You know, each of those notes will have syllables or maybe breath before or right after, and that's something we need to be aware of and not simply play the violin.
Brian McCreath Yeah, yeah, the way that you might break up a phrase will be completely different in some instances, because of the way a violin just feels and works and how you think musically, from a singer who has to apply words and their breath control. You might have to adapt to a completely unnatural, seeming kind of phrasing.
Nathan Cole Very much. And that's why it's fortunate that we have Andris for this, too, you know, as a singer. And I know some of his favorite music and some of his favorite concerts are the ones that involve vocalists and chorus, opera, all of those. He's so wonderful with that.
Brian McCreath One more question, this is a time of year when, because it's the beginning of a new season, and it's the beginning, kind of, of the year of the BSO in the way that the organization operates, and so there are new members who have joined at this time. That's how the usual audition cycle works, that people are hired in the winter or spring, and now they start in September. So, tell me what you imagine is going on in their minds. You've been... You were new here a couple of years ago, but you've also been in a major orchestra for a long time, several major orchestras. Some of these players are young enough that this is their first really major orchestra job. And tell me, you know, take me inside their experience, what you imagine that must be like, and also how you as the concertmaster are facilitating their integration into the orchestra.
Nathan Cole Well, you know, while I can't speak for any of our individual new players, I can certainly, I've been there. My first job was with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, but that was a different kind of ensemble. And after only two seasons, I joined the Chicago Symphony. And that I imagine would be more like the experience that our new players are having here. I mean, my first thought was, what did I stumble into? Like this is... All the recordings of all the greatest pieces that I've ever heard, now I'm living it. I'm in this amazing hall. This is one of the great orchestras of the world. Yeah, how is it that I get to do this every day? And closely coupled with that, I had some fear, which I think is probably healthy. I didn't want to stick out. I didn't want to ruin what was happening. And so, when I could spare enough attention, which wasn't as much as it should have been in the very beginning, I'd be all ears and all eyes just looking up, listening. What is the way that the Chicago Symphony plays this chord, this bow stroke? And here, the Boston Symphony, how is everyone else doing it? And how can I become part of that? As concertmaster, part of my job, especially as we have a number of new players in the strings at the same time, you know, part of my job is to remember that not everybody has played all of these pieces a hundred times and never to make assumptions about what should be known. So, they're just questions of bow strokes and ensemble that need to be stated now and then, perhaps even for those of us who've been around for a while.
Brian McCreath Well again, as we talked about last year when we had a conversation, there's a very distinctive Boston Symphony sound and so I take very seriously what you're saying about listening to things and finding out, how does that bow stroke work in this orchestra? Because it's a special thing the way that this orchestra begins a note even so it might take some adjustment, I imagine, for some new players to really lock into that.
Nathan Cole Yes, for sure, but it happens, if you're aware, if you are prepared enough in advance with the actual parts that you're not having to stare into the music all the time. And it's unfortunate because when you're new, that's when you need the most antenna, really. You need the extra perception. And yet, because the music might be new, that's the hardest time to do that. And I remember that feeling so well. In fact, when I first joined the Chicago Symphony, there were a number of performances, especially in the summer where we were preparing so much music, the conductor ran out of time and said, "Okay, well, the third movement, we don't need to play. We'll do it tonight." And I came back down to the locker room, and I walked right into an old orchestral trap, apparently, because I whined. I said, "But I've never played Brahms' Third Symphony." And so, then the standard answer from all the veterans is, "You'll love it."
Brian McCreath And it must be said that every one of these players has gone through an amazing, rigorous audition process. So ,there's no question of their ability to do exactly what we're talking about. It's a matter of just, you know, attending to those details and having that awareness and working with great colleagues like yourself.
Nathan Cole Yeah, absolutely, but it's easier to do with such a magnificent orchestra as the BSO.
Brian McCreath Nathan, it's great to talk with you again. Thank you so much. I'm really looking forward to the entire season, but certainly these first three concerts with your amazing solos. So, thanks a lot for your time.
Nathan Cole Thank you, thank you.