Beethoven and Grieg -Program Notes

Published: Oct. 16, 2017, 1 p.m.

BSO Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur leads four very special performances Thursday, October 19- Tuesday, October 24 of the incidental music Edvard Grieg wrote for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. Extremely popular and well-known in the context of the two concert suites Grieg constructed later, this music is rarely heard in its original, complete form. (Its last complete BSO performances were led by Mr. Masur's father, Kurt, in 1985.) These concerts provide an even rarer opportunity for audiences to experience a new stage adaptation of the work by director Bill Barclay, set designer Cristina Todesco, and costume designer Kathleen Doyle, the same team behind the BSO's concert-staged performances of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream in January 2016. In addition to Mr. Masur and the orchestra, the adaptation will include a cast of actors, soprano Camilla Tilling, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor. To open the program, Mr. Masur leads the orchestra in Beethoven's incidental music to Egmont