This September, Andris Nelsons returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he is Music Director, conducting a full spectrum of music, from Mozart to John Williams. 

The BSO opens its season with a gala on September 19, with Nelsons leading the orchestra in a crowd-pleasing program of contemporary works. The programs opens with John Adams’ energetic Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and soprano Golda Schultz will join the orchestra for Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Jessie Montgomery’s arrangement of I Want to Go Home. Soloists James Carter (saxophone), J. William Hudgins (vibraphone), and Caleb Quillen (double bass) are featured on John Williams’ dynamic “Escapades” from Stephen Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, and the evening closes with the jazz-infused An American in Paris, by George Gershwin. 

On September 25, 26, and 27, Nelsons conducts the BSO in a luminous program, featuring works by Mozart and Strauss. The orchestra will play Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, nicknamed the “Jupiter Symphony.” The last symphony he ever wrote, Symphony No. 41 exemplifies the Classical-era style, with a tunefulness and luminosity that could only belong to Mozart. In the second half, audiences will hear Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, a spectacular tone poem that traces the life, love, and death of an unnamed hero.