I was away from Boston when I got a call from a friend who asked, “What do you think of the news?” As if there could have been only one piece of news. “Which news?” I replied. Iran? Ukraine? Minneapolis? My friend’s answer: “Andris Nelsons.” Word had just gotten out that Nelsons’ contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was not being renewed after the 2027 Tanglewood season.
This was seismic in the classical music world. But I wasn’t shocked. I had been hearing rumors for almost a year that the BSO’s music director was on his way out. The BSO selected a new CEO in 2023, Chad Smith from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Nelsons had a new contract — a “rolling contract” — which would make it easier to rehire him but also easier to let him go.
I scoured the news on my phone. There were articles in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, then the Boston Globe (co-written by both the classical music critic and arts reporter), The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. And emails to me from countless acquaintances. This was the biggest classical music story since Gustavo Dudamel announced that he was leaving LA for the New York Philharmonic, and with a touch of scandal.
This was seismic in the classical music world. But I wasn’t shocked.
The announcement from the BSO Board and the CEO was, as The Guardian put it, “terse.” I’d say cold, without considering that Nelsons had his fans, both in the audience and in the orchestra. He was a sympathetic figure. He had gone through a divorce with one of the world’s most glamorous sopranos. His weight had gone up, then dramatically down again. People were worried about his health. And he never seemed to try hard enough to fit into the community. But he had won six Grammys! Surely the board and Smith were savvy enough to know that if they needed to get rid of Nelsons, they needed to do it in the most tactful way, not just announce brusquely, without further explanation, that “the BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision.”
I was originally a fan of Nelsons. I saw him conduct for the first time at Tanglewood in 2012, while the BSO was still looking for a replacement for the visibly ailing James Levine. The headline for my review in The Boston Phoenix was “Admirable Nelsons: A leading contender excels at Tanglewood.” I thought there was something fresh about his approach to music and that he was young, energetic, even adorable — like a Latvian Seiji Ozawa. But once he was chosen to be the new music director, some of his audience (me among them) became seriously disenchanted.
Whatever the issues of James Levine’s health and sexual abuse allegations, I’ll never forget how he reinvigorated the BSO after 29 years of the BSO relying on Ozawa’s popularity. I’ll never forget how he spent nearly half an hour at his first press conference talking about dividing the first and second violins so you could actually hear that each section was playing something different. (When I asked Nelsons about dividing the sections, he seemed surprised that anyone would care. His answer was something like “only when it’s necessary.”)
Levine was devoted to 20th-century music. His Beethoven/Schoenberg season included one of the most illuminating and daring concerts I’ve ever heard. It began with Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge (a string quartet transposed for string orchestra), one of the most challenging pieces of music he ever wrote. This was followed by Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto and after intermission, by Schoenberg’s far more difficult one, and then, most astonishing of all, a repeat performance of the Grosse Fuge. That repetition allowed you to hear how Schoenberg assimilated Beethoven, and how Beethoven was already on the road to Schoenbergian atonality. It was a revelation, as was the whole season!
I thought there was something fresh about [Nelsons'] approach to music ... like a Latvian Seiji Ozawa.
But what do I remember of Nelsons? A Wagner “Tristan: Prelude and Liebestod” that had no forward momentum, no yearning, and therefore no profound final resolution. It just dragged. And a performance I would never have dreamed possible: a Stravinsky “Rite of Spring,” one of the fiercest and most exciting works in the entire classical repertoire, that was inert and boring from beginning to end. Unimaginable — but I heard it. That’s his legacy for me.
As Nelsons’s Shostakovich recordings were coming out and winning Grammys, I was initially impressed, but when I listened to some of my old Shostakovich recordings led by some of the master Russian conductors dating from when Shostakovich was still alive, I heard the inflections of a true Russian sound. Nelsons made these symphonies sound countryless, international, almost anonymous. And loud, betraying the true warmth of Boston Symphony Hall’s acoustics, a particular problem for singers. Shostakovich’s notorious opera, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” forced the singers to scream. A replacement tenor in this season’s performance of Samuel Barber’s opera “Vanessa” was virtually inaudible.
In 2017, Nelsons also became music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. News of a collaboration between the two orchestras raised some hopes, but some complaints began to emerge that he was cutting himself too thin, although other music directors have managed. Levine, for example, was one of a number of conductors with more than one major responsibility. He even led a Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast, then flew to Boston to conduct powerful Mahler with the BSO that same evening. Some critics are currently attacking the Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä for taking on too many orchestras. But his recent appearance in Boston as conductor designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was an astounding feat of energy, creativity and insight. The slow movement of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony sounded as delicate as chamber music. The Berlioz “Symphony Fantastique” made you hear why its original audience was so shocked.
An esteemed orchestra like the BSO deserves the best conductor it can get — a conductor who challenges the players as well as the audience.
Rumors began that Nelsons wasn’t rehearsing enough and that this was affecting the level of playing. It drove me crazy that he kept leaning against the railing of the podium, often leading the orchestra with only one hand. Recent reviews in the New York Times ranged from qualified to lethal, one suggesting that Nelsons was a major problem for the BSO. It seemed like the kiss of death. A review of his Mahler with the Vienna Philharmonic drew a rave review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer and the headline of the Guardian article of the current announcement referred to Nelsons as “One of the world’s great conductors.” Though David Allen in the Times, who actually lives in the Boston area and has heard many Nelsons performances, has been one of the few voices raising his consistent disappointment with the state of the BSO. And Smith says there has been a serious falling off of attendance (a 40% decline over 20 years, as reported by the Globe), thanks partly to the pandemic.
The players themselves have been indicating their anger about not being informed in advance of the board’s decision and have been expressing their support for Nelsons. They clearly like him. But in some eyes, he just might have been too easy on them.
Frankly, I won’t miss Nelsons. An esteemed orchestra like the BSO deserves the best conductor it can get — a conductor who challenges the players as well as the audience. And a conductor that needs to look to the future as well as the past. I don’t think that unthreatening Shostakovich, Dvorak and Richard Strauss are the answer. Shouldn’t a premier American orchestra excel in and support American music? Clearly, the board and its chair miscalculated how to announce the necessary turnover. This situation right now is a mess. And no one seems to know what — or who — is coming next.
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Commentary
After the BSO's decision, a critic reviews Andris Nelsons' dismissal and tenure
I was away from Boston when I got a call from a friend who asked, “What do you think of the news?” As if there could have been only one piece of news. “Which news?” I replied. Iran? Ukraine? Minneapolis? My friend’s answer: “Andris Nelsons.” Word had just gotten out that Nelsons’ contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was not being renewed after the 2027 Tanglewood season.
This was seismic in the classical music world. But I wasn’t shocked. I had been hearing rumors for almost a year that the BSO’s music director was on his way out. The BSO selected a new CEO in 2023, Chad Smith from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Nelsons had a new contract — a “rolling contract” — which would make it easier to rehire him but also easier to let him go.
I scoured the news on my phone. There were articles in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, then the Boston Globe (co-written by both the classical music critic and arts reporter), The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. And emails to me from countless acquaintances. This was the biggest classical music story since Gustavo Dudamel announced that he was leaving LA for the New York Philharmonic, and with a touch of scandal.
The announcement from the BSO Board and the CEO was, as The Guardian put it, “terse.” I’d say cold, without considering that Nelsons had his fans, both in the audience and in the orchestra. He was a sympathetic figure. He had gone through a divorce with one of the world’s most glamorous sopranos. His weight had gone up, then dramatically down again. People were worried about his health. And he never seemed to try hard enough to fit into the community. But he had won six Grammys! Surely the board and Smith were savvy enough to know that if they needed to get rid of Nelsons, they needed to do it in the most tactful way, not just announce brusquely, without further explanation, that “the BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision.”
I was originally a fan of Nelsons. I saw him conduct for the first time at Tanglewood in 2012, while the BSO was still looking for a replacement for the visibly ailing James Levine. The headline for my review in The Boston Phoenix was “Admirable Nelsons: A leading contender excels at Tanglewood.” I thought there was something fresh about his approach to music and that he was young, energetic, even adorable — like a Latvian Seiji Ozawa. But once he was chosen to be the new music director, some of his audience (me among them) became seriously disenchanted.
Whatever the issues of James Levine’s health and sexual abuse allegations, I’ll never forget how he reinvigorated the BSO after 29 years of the BSO relying on Ozawa’s popularity. I’ll never forget how he spent nearly half an hour at his first press conference talking about dividing the first and second violins so you could actually hear that each section was playing something different. (When I asked Nelsons about dividing the sections, he seemed surprised that anyone would care. His answer was something like “only when it’s necessary.”)
Levine was devoted to 20th-century music. His Beethoven/Schoenberg season included one of the most illuminating and daring concerts I’ve ever heard. It began with Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge (a string quartet transposed for string orchestra), one of the most challenging pieces of music he ever wrote. This was followed by Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto and after intermission, by Schoenberg’s far more difficult one, and then, most astonishing of all, a repeat performance of the Grosse Fuge. That repetition allowed you to hear how Schoenberg assimilated Beethoven, and how Beethoven was already on the road to Schoenbergian atonality. It was a revelation, as was the whole season!
But what do I remember of Nelsons? A Wagner “Tristan: Prelude and Liebestod” that had no forward momentum, no yearning, and therefore no profound final resolution. It just dragged. And a performance I would never have dreamed possible: a Stravinsky “Rite of Spring,” one of the fiercest and most exciting works in the entire classical repertoire, that was inert and boring from beginning to end. Unimaginable — but I heard it. That’s his legacy for me.
As Nelsons’s Shostakovich recordings were coming out and winning Grammys, I was initially impressed, but when I listened to some of my old Shostakovich recordings led by some of the master Russian conductors dating from when Shostakovich was still alive, I heard the inflections of a true Russian sound. Nelsons made these symphonies sound countryless, international, almost anonymous. And loud, betraying the true warmth of Boston Symphony Hall’s acoustics, a particular problem for singers. Shostakovich’s notorious opera, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” forced the singers to scream. A replacement tenor in this season’s performance of Samuel Barber’s opera “Vanessa” was virtually inaudible.
In 2017, Nelsons also became music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. News of a collaboration between the two orchestras raised some hopes, but some complaints began to emerge that he was cutting himself too thin, although other music directors have managed. Levine, for example, was one of a number of conductors with more than one major responsibility. He even led a Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast, then flew to Boston to conduct powerful Mahler with the BSO that same evening. Some critics are currently attacking the Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä for taking on too many orchestras. But his recent appearance in Boston as conductor designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was an astounding feat of energy, creativity and insight. The slow movement of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony sounded as delicate as chamber music. The Berlioz “Symphony Fantastique” made you hear why its original audience was so shocked.
Rumors began that Nelsons wasn’t rehearsing enough and that this was affecting the level of playing. It drove me crazy that he kept leaning against the railing of the podium, often leading the orchestra with only one hand. Recent reviews in the New York Times ranged from qualified to lethal, one suggesting that Nelsons was a major problem for the BSO. It seemed like the kiss of death. A review of his Mahler with the Vienna Philharmonic drew a rave review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer and the headline of the Guardian article of the current announcement referred to Nelsons as “One of the world’s great conductors.” Though David Allen in the Times, who actually lives in the Boston area and has heard many Nelsons performances, has been one of the few voices raising his consistent disappointment with the state of the BSO. And Smith says there has been a serious falling off of attendance (a 40% decline over 20 years, as reported by the Globe), thanks partly to the pandemic.
The players themselves have been indicating their anger about not being informed in advance of the board’s decision and have been expressing their support for Nelsons. They clearly like him. But in some eyes, he just might have been too easy on them.
Frankly, I won’t miss Nelsons. An esteemed orchestra like the BSO deserves the best conductor it can get — a conductor who challenges the players as well as the audience. And a conductor that needs to look to the future as well as the past. I don’t think that unthreatening Shostakovich, Dvorak and Richard Strauss are the answer. Shouldn’t a premier American orchestra excel in and support American music? Clearly, the board and its chair miscalculated how to announce the necessary turnover. This situation right now is a mess. And no one seems to know what — or who — is coming next.
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Lloyd Schwartz is the classical music critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and Somerville's Poet Laureate.
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