Rostropovich, the NSO's Conductor Laureate, was to conduct three all-Shostakovich programs between November 2 and 11, featuring the Eighth and Tenth Symphonies as well as concertos for violin, cello and piano; soloists were to include Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich and Yo-Yo Ma.

The National Symphony hopes to reschedule the programs, Rostropovich's health permitting.

For the concerts November 2-4, Pinchas Zukerman will appear as both conductor and violin soloist; the revised program includes the Prelude to Wagner's Die Meistersinger, Bruch's Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra — featuring Zukerman's wife, Amanda Forsyth, as soloist — Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 and Beethoven's Second Symphony.

On November 9-10, Miguel Harth-Bedoya will conduct Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and La noche de los mayas by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. On November 9 and 10, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will join Harth-Bedoya and the NSO for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto; on November 11, as previously planned, Yo-Yo Ma will perform Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1.