Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra ranks among America's foremost symphonic institutions and traces its artistic foundations to the Germanic traditions that shaped orchestral life across the United States. Its mid-century recordings for RCA Victor, distinguished by both interpretive reach and exceptional sound captured in the resonant space of Symphony Hall, remain benchmarks of the catalog. Established in 1881 chiefly through the patronage of banker Henry Lee Higginson, who also oversaw the building of Symphony Hall that opened in 1900, the ensemble drew most of its players from German-trained ranks. Its inaugural music director, George Henschel, counted Brahms among his acquaintances, and the conductors who followed were either German or, in Arthur Nikisch's case, Hungarian. A particularly influential figure was Karl Muck, previously at the helm of the Berlin Court Opera, now known as the Berlin State Opera; he directed the orchestra from 1906 to 1908 and, following Max Fiedler's intervening tenure, again from 1912 to 1918. Muck resigned amid World War I and was confined to an internment facility in Georgia after expressing pro-German views. Beginning in 1919 with Frenchman Pierre Monteux, the Boston Symphony turned to a succession of celebrated non-German leaders. Russian-born Serge Koussevitsky guided the ensemble from 1924 to 1949, commissioning a wide array of contemporary scores, leading the world premieres of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, and establishing the Tanglewood Music Festival together with its training programs at which the BSO performs each summer. He was followed by Alsatian-French conductor Charles Münch, who served from 1949 to 1963, and then by Austrian-Jewish conductor Erich Leinsdorf, whose RCA recordings formed a cornerstone of many American LP collections. After the brief, health-limited directorship of William Steinberg, Japanese-born Seiji Ozawa assumed the post in 1973; his extended tenure proved artistically divisive yet produced numerous Deutsche Grammophon releases. James Levine, another conductor with strong operatic ties, succeeded Ozawa in 2002 before stepping aside for medical reasons. Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons, who had stepped in at short notice to lead Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") in Levine's absence, was appointed music director; his contract now runs through 2022, and he has initiated a series of new Deutsche Grammophon recordings with the orchestra, among them a live traversal of the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich. A parallel ensemble drawn from BSO personnel, the Boston Pops, achieved widespread American fame on radio and television as well as in concert under Arthur Fiedler, son of Max Fiedler. The orchestra also appears on the soundtracks of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, both scored by John Williams, who conducted those sessions.