The Boston Symphony Orchestra captured a win last night of two Grammy Awards in Los Angles, the ultimate musical accolade that caps a string of artistic successes.
The BSO and its music director, Andris Nelsons, won the Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of Messiaen’s sprawling Turangalila-Symphonie.
The BSO and Nelsons also won with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the Best Classical Instrumental category for its Shostakovich Cello Concertos album.
Anthony Fogg, vice president of artistic planning for the BSO, said that winning the Grammy is a formal industry acknowledgment of artistic achievement.
“Historically, it’s very important,” Fogg said. “Not only for musical performers in many genres, but also the whole sort of technical team that goes into doing, producing a recording. So we’ve been very lucky over the years.”
Fogg said the work by Messiaan is a giant piece, about 70 minutes long, that originally premiered in 1958. It was commissioned by the BSO’s musical director at the time, and included a piano soloist playing an instrument called the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument that Fogg called one of the “precursors of the synthesizer.”
“It’s an incredible work,” he said. “It’s a big sweeping piece that sort of brings in birdsong and Indian mysticism and so on.”
Shostakovich is a significant part of the BSO’s work over the last 11 seasons. Fogg said the BSO has recorded all 15 of the Russian composer’s symphonies as well as his concertos, his opera, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” and other pieces.
“Shostakovich is one of the most important composers of the 20th century,” Fogg said, “ It’s been a great, great journey and that we were able to record Shostakovich’s two cello concertos with Yo-Yo Ma — who is a great friend of the orchestra and one of the great musical citizens of our day — was a big, big honor for us.”
The BSO has won a total of 13 Grammy’s throughout its 140-year history. This is Ma’s 20th Grammy Award.
