page_title: Boston Symphony Orchestra
section_title: Koussevitzky and Munch
hierarchical_section_title: Boston Symphony Orchestra / History / Koussevitzky and Munch
caption_attribution_description: View from the south of Symphony Hall in Boston, MA (USA) in the morning sun. Equipment: Canon EOS 30D with Canon EF-S17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; 1/1600 at f/4.0, ISO 100. Post-processing in GIMP.
context_page_description: The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood.
  Since its founding, the orchestra has had 17 music directors, including George Henschel, Serge Koussevitzky, Henri Rabaud, Erich Leinsdorf, William Steinberg and James Levine. Andris Nelsons is the current music director of the BSO. Bernard Haitink currently holds the title of conductor emeritus of the BSO, and Seiji Ozawa has the title of BSO music director laureate. The orchestra has made gramophone recordings since 1917 and has occasionally played on soundtrack recordings for films including Schindler's List.
context_section_description: The orchestra's reputation increased during the 1924–1949 music directorship of Serge Koussevitzky. One million radio listeners tuned in when Koussevitzky and the orchestra were the first to perform a live concert for radio broadcast, which they did on NBC in 1926.
  Under Koussevitzky, the orchestra gave regular radio broadcasts and established its summer home at Tanglewood, where Koussevitzky founded the Berkshire Music Center, which is now the Tanglewood Music Center. Those network radio broadcasts ran from 1926 through 1951, and again from 1954 through 1956. The orchestra continues to make regular live radio broadcasts to the present day. The Boston Symphony has been closely involved with Boston's WGBH Radio as an outlet for its concerts.
  Koussevitzky also commissioned many new pieces from prominent composers, including the Symphony No. 4 of Sergei Prokofiev, George Gershwin's Second Rhapsody and the Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky. They also gave the premiere of Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, which had been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the instigation of Fritz Reiner and Joseph Szigeti.
  Koussevitzky started a tradition of commissions that the orchestra continued, including new works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (Symphony No. 11) and Henri Dutilleux for its 75th anniversary, Roger Sessions, and Andrzej Panufnik, for the 100th, and lately for the 125th works by Leon Kirchner, Elliott Carter, and Peter Lieberson. Other BSO commissions have included John Corigliano's Symphony No. 2 for the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall. Hans Werner Henze dedicated his Eighth Symphony to the orchestra.
  Although Koussevitsky recommended his protégé Leonard Bernstein to be his successor after he retired in 1949, the BSO awarded the position to the Alsatian maestro Charles Munch, who would lead until 1962. Munch had made his Boston conducting debut in 1946.  He led orchestra on its first overseas tour, and also produced their first stereo recording in February 1954 for RCA Victor.  In 1952, Munch appointed the first woman to hold a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra, flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer, who remained as BSO principal for 38 years.
caption: Symphony Hall, Boston, the main base of the orchestra since 1900
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