Things change. In January 2024, the board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra placed Andris Nelsons on a rolling “evergreen” contract as music director. In March of this year, the board announced that his vision and their own for the ensemble’s future were “not aligned” and that his current contract, through the 2027 summer season at Tanglewood, would not be renewed. “Boring repertoire,” one industry insider and BSO subscriber I know tells me, summing up the Nelsons era. “Boring and low-energy interpretations. Half-empty halls. All the excitement of a Puritan mass.” Yet the musicians, by and large, are in vociferous opposition. Reading between the lines, the board’s complaint seems to be that Nelsons lives in the past of dead white Europeans—no woke premieres, no movies with live accompaniment, in short, no pandering. But as the insightful musician, masterful technician, and artist of unimpeachable integrity that he is, he has pledged to bring his tenure to a professional, orderly conclusion. Scrolling through the fall season, novices and devotees alike will find much to revel in. Over the first five weeks, Nelsons leads the Fourth Symphony of Brahms, the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, and Mahler’s hypnotic Seventh (“The Song of the Night”). There’s also an all-Rachmaninoff bill with Seong-Jin Cho, a Baryshnikov among pianists, headlining the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Premieres? Francisco Coll’s piano concerto showcasing the magisterial Kirill Gerstein, and a double concerto by Carlos Simon juxtaposing the radiant maturity of Hilary Hahn on fiddle and the excitement of the fast-rising Seth Parker Woods on cello. —Matthew Gurewitsch