Boston Symphony Orchestra - Ravel, Salonen Stravinsky

Former Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen makes a long-awaited return to the BSO podium with a sparkling program, including a recent work of his own, the highly admired Violin Concerto. The critically acclaimed and popular Canadian-born virtuoso Leila Josefowicz, for whom Salonen wrote the piece, is soloist in these performances. Ravel’s familiar Le Tombeau de Couperin is the composer’s own orchestration of four movements from his 1917 piano suite of the same name. Stravinsky’s complete The Firebird ballet score, composed in 1910 for the Ballets Russes, launched the composer’s international reputation with its kaleidoscopic orchestration and exotic sound. It remains one of his most popular works.