Download the Program Notes. Andris Nelsons leads two very different Russian works written within a year of one another. He and the BSO are joined by Moscow-born mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Serdyuk for Sergei Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky. The dramatic cantata evokes the life of a great 13th-century Russian hero. Completed the following year in the United States, Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances is a symphony-like three-movement work, featuring brilliantly imaginative instrumentation.