BSO delivers dose of history along with American premiere of ‘The Wrath of God’

The concert began with the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, to whose works music director Andris Nelsons has turned regularly over the past decade. He has also recorded her music to excellent effect with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (which he also directs). On Thursday, he gave the American premiere of “The Wrath of God,” an assertively intense orchestral work of that grew out of the composer’s 2018 oratorio “Of Love and Hate.” It begins with a winding, chromatic melody that rises out of the very depths of the orchestra. Variations on that...