The tour repertoire includes Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (Lucerne, Essen, Paris, and London) with mezzo-soprano Yvonne Naef as Marguerite, tenor Marcello Giordani as Faust, baritone Jos_ van Dam as M_phistoph_ls, bass Patrick Carfizzi as Brander and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
Levine, currently in his third season as BSO music director, will also lead the orchestra in Brahms's Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Lucerne, Hamburg, D‹sseldorf, and London), Ives's Three Places in New England (Lucerne and Berlin), Carter's Three Illusions (Lucerne, D‹sseldorf, Berlin, and London), Bart‹k's Concerto for Orchestra (Lucerne, D‹sseldorf, Berlin, and London), and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (Lucerne and Berlin) with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Performances in Lucerne and Hamburg will include Bart‹k's only opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, bass-baritone Albert Dohmen and narrator ‹rs Kisfaludy.
"I'm thrilled to lead the BSO on our first European tour together during my work with this orchestra," said Levine. "The programs we'll play include repertoire close to the artistic heart of the BSO: important commissioned scores from Bart‹k and Carter, Berlioz's masterpiece The Damnation of Faust — long regarded as a BSO signature work — plus music of Ravel, Ives, and Brahms, which the orchestra plays so idiomatically."
The BSO's most recent international tour was in August 2001, when Bernard Haitink led the orchestra in a 10-concert tour of European music festivals.
