Boston Symphony Chamber Players
One of the world’s most distinguished chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major symphony orchestra and made up of that orchestra’s principal players, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players include first-desk string, woodwind, and brass players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1964 during Erich Leinsdorf’s tenure as BSO music director, the Chamber Players can perform virtually any work within the vast chamber music literature; they can expand their range of repertory by calling upon other BSO members or enlisting the services of such distinguished artists as BSO Music Director James Levine (as both pianist and conductor) or pianists Emanuel Ax and André Previn.

The Chamber Players’ activities include an annual four-concert series in Boston’s Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music, regular appearances at Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and a busy touring schedule. In addition to appearances throughout the United States, the group has performed in Europe and Japan on numerous occasions and has also toured to South America and the Soviet Union.

Among the Boston Symphony Chamber Players’ many recordings are the Beethoven Septet and Schubert Octet; Smetana’s G major Piano Trio and Dvorák’s String Sextet; the Brahms string quintets; music of John Harbison with soprano Dawn Upshaw, baritone Sanford Sylvan, and pianist Gilbert Kalish; a Copland album with Gilbert Kalish, and a disc of music by Leon Kirchner, all on Nonesuch. For Philips the ensemble has recorded the quintets for clarinet and strings by Mozart and Brahms with former BSO principal clarinet, the late Harold Wright. Deutsche Grammophon has reissued, on a single compact disc, the Chamber Players’ recordings of Stravinsky’s Octet for Winds, Pastorale, Ragtime, and Concertino for Twelve Instruments, along with Johann Strauss waltzes as arranged for chamber ensemble by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.