The conductor addressed the audience at Symphony Hall as he began his 13th and final season as Boston Symphony Orchestra music director, with red roses — the symbol of a months-long campaign supporting him — again prominent on opening night.
Andris Nelsons opened his final season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra with an unusually personal address to the audience, speaking about love, respect, compassion and the role of music in expressing “brotherhood and humanity”.
The remarks came at the BSO’s opening-night gala at Symphony Hall on September 17, an occasion carrying particular significance after months of controversy surrounding the orchestra’s decision not to renew Nelsons’s contract.
Nelsons, who is beginning his 13th season as music director, will leave the position after the 2027 Tanglewood season. The BSO announced the decision in March, saying that Nelsons and the organisation were no longer aligned over its future direction. Nelsons subsequently said that the decision was not one he had anticipated or wanted.
The meaning of the roses
Before discussing the music, Nelsons addressed one of the most visible symbols of the dispute: the red roses worn in support of him.
“You might ask me, why do we have the roses?” Nelsons told the audience. “I think roses, or any flower, is a sign of love.”
He described giving a rose as an expression of “admiration, love, respect, compassion”, before connecting the gesture with the values he believes music can communicate.
“What we want to express through the music is this message of brotherhood, humanity,” he said.
The flowers have acquired a specific significance at the BSO since the announcement of Nelsons’s departure. Musicians initially wore red roses in solidarity with the conductor, and supporters subsequently created the Red Flower Campaign, distributing roses to audience members at Symphony Hall, Tanglewood and elsewhere.
Ahead of Thursday’s opening, campaign organisers prepared another large distribution of artificial red roses. According to WBUR, more than 15,000 had been distributed since the campaign began, while a petition supporting Nelsons had attracted around 4,200 signatures.
The campaign organisers have called for Nelsons to remain as music director and have sought greater transparency from the BSO leadership over its plans for the orchestra. The BSO, meanwhile, has said that the trustees’ decision concerning Nelsons will not be reversed.
A turbulent backdrop
The opening came after an unusually unsettled period for the institution.
The dispute over Nelsons’s departure was followed during the summer by difficult contract negotiations between the orchestra and management. Musicians voted unanimously in August to authorise a strike, although a work stoppage was ultimately avoided when the sides reached a new three-year collective bargaining agreement. The agreement, ratified by 94 per cent of the musicians, runs through August 2029 and gives players an expanded formal role in artistic planning and in the process of choosing the orchestra’s next music director.
On the eve of the new season, BSO President and CEO Chad Smith presented the agreement as the beginning of a more collaborative period for the institution. He wrote that the orchestra intended to celebrate Nelsons’s achievements during his final season while preparing for its next chapter.
That institutional tension inevitably formed part of the context for Nelsons’s remarks, although the conductor did not use his opening-night speech to criticise management or revisit the decision over his contract.
Instead, he repeatedly returned to music and the relationship between the orchestra and its audience.
He spoke of music encompassing “excitement”, “inner dreams”, compassion and brotherhood, as well as “dark moments” and despair, before ultimately offering the possibility of light and hope.
Nelsons invoked Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and its message of brotherhood as an example, and described performing at Symphony Hall as a privilege because of the history and tradition accumulated on its stage.
He also paid tribute to the BSO itself, which is beginning its 146th season.
“I love this orchestra from the bottom of my heart,” Nelsons said. “We love you, our wonderful audiences and our wonderful community.”
Yo-Yo Ma joins opening night
The sold-out gala featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bandoneon player Julien Labro.
Nelsons opened the programme with Tango by Latvian composer Arturs Maskats, followed by Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Ma. After the concerto, Ma joined the BSO’s cello section for an unannounced performance of Pablo Casals’s El cant dels ocells (Song of the Birds). Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 concluded the programme.
Nelsons was greeted with a standing ovation before the orchestra had played a note, according to reports from the concert.
The conductor is scheduled to lead 15 of the BSO’s 25 subscription programmes during his final season, including a Tchaikovsky cycle, Stravinsky’s three early ballets and Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. His final Symphony Hall appearance as music director is scheduled for April 2027, when he will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.
For opening night, however, Nelsons largely avoided the controversy that has surrounded the orchestra for the past six months. With the red roses visible once again inside Symphony Hall, he chose instead to explain what he wanted them to represent.
“Positivity, love, roses, respect,” he told the audience. “Thank you so much.”
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