Sunday, July 12, 2026
7:00 PM
In the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first Sunday performance of the 2026 Tanglewood season, Dallas Symphony Music Director Fabio Luisi leads the BSO in Sophia Jani’s “What do flowers do at night?,” Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist and Bedford, MA native Eric Lu.
Fabio Luisi, conductor
Eric Lu, piano
Sophia JANI What do flowers do at night?
Frédéric CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 2
Also on this broadcast, from the Tanglewood Music Center:
TMC Vocalists
Thomas TALLIS "Why fum'th in sight," from Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter
Recorded on July 6th, 2026
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Lauren Smith, conductor
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Recorded on July 6th, 2026
For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.
In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Fabio Luisi describes the qualities he finds compelling in music by Sophia Jani, his experiences with pianist Eric Lu, and his own fascination with creating perfumes.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath with Fabio Luisi, who is here at Tanglewood, I think for the first time, but not your first time with the Boston Symphony. Is that right, Mr. Luisi?
Fabio Luisi This is absolutely right. I was in Boston with this orchestra like 17 or 18 years ago for the first time, but I'm for the first time now in Tanglewood with them.
Brian McCreath Had you ever been to Tanglewood before this week?
Fabio Luisi No, it is my very first time.
Brian McCreath Oh, wonderful. It's nice to have you here. And let's talk about the program that you've chosen. You've, I want to say, maybe brought along the first piece of the program because Sophia Jani is the Composer-in-Residence of the orchestra for which you are the Music Director, one of the orchestras for which you're the Music Director, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. So tell me about Sophia Jani's music and what you find distinctive among the many, many composers out there today.
Fabio Luisi Well, Sophia's language is a beautiful language, focused on beauty. So, beauty of sound she can achieve from the orchestra. Beauty of phrasing, which is anchored in the German tradition, if we want, but in a beautiful, singing way. And this is why I chose her to be our Composer-in-Residence in Dallas. She is having a huge success there, and I love the kind of music she's writing. This particular piece is about a flower. This is a very special flower that blows up only once and only for some minutes and then dies immediately. And you can see when it is starting to develop, and it happens in the night. And as a matter of fact, in the garden where I live in Switzerland, my landlady has this flower.
Brian McCreath Oh my goodness.
Fabio Luisi And I remember the last couple of years she told to us, to the tenants, so tonight it is the night. And she prepares the chairs in front of this flower, and we would sit there and wait for this flower to open, which is something magic, is something special, is something which is absolutely contrary at the world in which we are living, because it's something which takes time, it comes up with extreme beauty, and then dies immediately afterwards. So, it's a very profound moment for me. And I think the piece by Sophia reflects this idea of developing immense beauty and then dying.
Brian McCreath That's amazing. What a fantastic coincidence, that you have this flower at your garden in Switzerland. And I have to ask, because this is a topic, maybe unsurprisingly to you, that I want to come back to, but I wonder if there is a scent to the flower that you've perceived with your exquisite sense of scent.
Fabio Luisi There are a couple of different varieties of this flower. Some of them have a scent. Some of them don't. The flower in my garden doesn't have any scent.
Brian McCreath Well, if there's anyone who would know that, it would be you, of course. We'll come back to that topic because, for our listeners, that's a very interesting part of your life. Have you worked before with Eric Lu?
Fabio Luisi I have worked with Eric Lu, as a matter of fact, some months ago in Tokyo with my other orchestra, with NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. That orchestra has a very close relationship to the Chopin Competition. They always invite the first prize [winner] immediately after the competition. And so, I had the pleasure to work with Eric for the first time in Tokyo, on this same concerto.
Brian McCreath And what do you find in his playing? To what would you ascribe his success, not just as a pianist, but especially with Chopin? What does he bring to this music?
Fabio Luisi He doesn't show off. And this is the beauty. He's very— how can I put in words? He's a very discreet pianist who tries not to make a big show out of the music he's playing, but to go into this music and try to understand the moods and the intensity and the intention of the music. And this is something I really very much appreciate.
Brian McCreath Yes, the understated approach can often do wonders, especially when it's something that's so florid, so technical, so involved. Maybe the more minimal approach to interpretation offers clarity.
Fabio Luisi Well, this is— yes, this is not a minimal approach. It is a respectful approach, but nevertheless, it is a very profound and deep approach. So, he tries really to put out the feelings which this music has in it.
Brian McCreath That's wonderful. I've just watched you rehearse all morning the Second Symphony by Brahms. And who doesn't love a performance of Second Symphony by Brahms? But tell me why this was a piece that you wanted to do with the Boston Symphony here at Tanglewood.
Fabio Luisi Well, I suggested several different pieces, and this was the piece they chose for me, but in fact, it's one of my favorite pieces. I feel a very deep connection to this kind of repertoire, to the late Romantic, middle European music, so, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss, and I'm very happy to do it with this orchestra. I mean, this orchestra brings everything you need for this symphony.
Brian McCreath Tell me more about that, because you're a conductor... You have positions in Denmark, in Dallas and, as you say, in Tokyo. And I wonder how much interpretation and chemistry changes what a piece sounds like according to the orchestra. And I wonder if there's something in the way the Boston Symphony plays or their profile that maybe affects the way you're looking at Brahms' Second.
Fabio Luisi Well, you know, the work between a conductor and the orchestra is giving and taking. The conductor is not anymore the one who dictates or who gives orders. And the musical and technical level of the orchestras, of all orchestras actually today, is very high. And a musical and technical level of the orchestra like the Boston Symphony is the highest possible. So they offer— this is a special orchestra because they have a special sound. They have a distinct personality, and in the rehearsal they are used to offering something. And this is a dream for a conductor.
Brian McCreath That's fascinating. And you have not only the three positions that I've now mentioned, but you also have a long history with orchestras in Vienna, and you first came to my attention when you were in Dresden at the Staatskapelle. And there's a recording you did of Alpine Symphony that I just love. I love that recording. But so, you have this whole set of orchestras that you've worked with, many of them very distinct, as you're describing the Boston Symphony. And so, tell me about Dallas and what the Dallas Symphony offers artistically that maybe no other orchestra can.
Fabio Luisi Well, the Dallas Symphony is an excellent orchestra, and we are working very, very hard on my priorities, actually. And my priorities are not just the verticality, of course, but my priorities are the beauty of sound and the shaping of phrases. And this is the work we are doing since I'm there, and we've had a lot of success with many of our projects, and I'm very happy that the orchestra is following me with a lot of attention and love, and we are on the same track. That's why I'm happy with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And I think this orchestra has enormous potential. And so we are working on it.
Brian McCreath Wonderful. I alluded before to another part of your life that is easily found in other interviews and even in your official biography. So it's not a secret or anything, but you have an enthusiasm for creating perfumes. And I don't think I've ever met anyone who creates perfumes. I guess the question that I want to ask about that as a part of your life is, do you feel that that is a pursuit that gives you a respite from the work of being a conductor? It takes you away. Or is it a pursuit that enhances and maybe magnifies some of your thoughts as a musician, as an artist, as another pursuit of the senses that we have in the world around us?
Fabio Luisi Well, let me be frank. I don't connect the two activities. Nevertheless, I am sure that the attention to the world of scents is something which can develop a personality because scent is the most underevaluated sense we have, and we came out of this importance. But scent is very primal. Scent is something— well, you smell other people, for example, and there is this way of saying, "Oh, I can smell this guy," or so. This is not literal, but it comes from there. And it has a very strong importance in how we found our partner in life. And so, even if we don't believe that, but it plays a role, in my opinion. But on the other side, it is for me just a hobby, important, big hobby. I try to take it seriously and I do. But it is something completely different, and in doing this, I can free my brain from all the music which is in it, which is sometimes a little bit too much.
Brian McCreath I think that's so healthy. It's a really healthy thing to allow your brain to shut down in the music world and really engage in something else that you find fascinating. The way you describe it, it reminds me that scent is one of the senses that is very difficult to duplicate outside of a real-time, in-the-moment experience. There's not really, to my knowledge, much that you can do in the digital world with scent. You can do visuals, you can do audio. There's some ways that you can do touch, you know, in some situations, but scent is one of those things, as I understand it, that nobody's really cracked how to do that through a phone or through other medium. You have to be in the moment where that scent is being created to sense it. And so I wonder if that's part of why it takes you away from other things in life.
Fabio Luisi Well, let's say music is similar in this because you enjoy music in the moment in which it is played. And this is why I think a medium like streaming or a CD or recording will never reproduce what we feel and what emotions it gives us to be in a live concert in the very moment in which this music is going to be recreated from scratch. And there is a similarity, yes, perfume is this very moment. And the other similarity is that one concert is different to the next concert of the same program. And the way you approach a perfume or a scent, it is like this today, and tomorrow the same scent can have a different meaning or a different— can give you a different impression. And this is a very good similarity.
Brian McCreath Fabio Luisi, it's so fascinating to talk to you. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you're here at Tanglewood and I'm so looking forward to the concert. Thank you.
Fabio Luisi Thank you.