Andris Nelsons is to leave the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The shock decision is strongly opposed by the players. What is going on, and what, should a music director’s role be? Plus: why Timothee Chalamet is an eejit
The Boston Symphony Orchestra ending its contract with Andris Nelsons, its music director since 2014, has come as a shock to players and conductor alike. “The BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision,” read a terse statement released last week by orchestra’s board and Chad Smith, its president and chief executive. Nelsons will leave the orchestra after the summer 2027 Tanglewood season. In the glacial world of conductorly handovers and orchestral music programming, where decisions are often taken years in advance (look at the LPO), this feels disconcertingly hasty.
The BSO is one of the US’s most distinguished and celebrated of orchestras, one of the so-called “Big Five”. Nelsons won two Grammys with the Boston Symphony players just last month (for Messiaen and Shostakovich), so why has the board decided to end the relationship? Is this a board v players and management spat? There’s no suggestion of any misconduct or breach of contract; perhaps the face-value interpretation is the right one: artistic differences over the orchestra’s “future vision”.
