Coming up this month with The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood:
Tuesday, August 1st—Tanglewood on Parade-Broadcast begins @7PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, Moritz Gnann, Keith Lockhart, Bramwell Tovey, and John Williams, conductors
Garrick Ohlsson, piano*
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man (4 min)
COPLAND Piano Concerto (18 min)
KODÁLY Suite from Háry János (24 min)
MENDELSSOHN Overture, The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) (10 min)
RODGERS and HART Blue Moon and Manhattan (3 min)
John WILLIAMS Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (4 min)
John WILLIAMS A New Beginning from Minority Report (3 min)
John WILLIAMS Throne Room & Finale from Star Wars (7 min)
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture (16 min)
*2017 Koussevitzky Artist
One of the festival's most beloved traditions, the ever-popular Tanglewood on Parade takes place this year on Tuesday, August 1, offering audiences a full day of musical activities for the entire family, culminating in an 8 p.m. concert in the Shed featuring all of the festival's orchestras performing in a single concert. Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart and Pops Laureate John Williams, along with conductors Charles Dutoit, Bramwell Tovey, and BSO Assistant Conductor Moritz Gnann lead the BSO, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a program of works including Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man; Copland's Piano Concerto, featuring 2017 Koussevitzky Artist Garrick Ohlsson; the suite from Kodály's Háry János; the Mendelssohn's Hebrides Oveture; and music from John Williams' scores to Jurassic Park, Minority Report, and Jaws. The traditional Tanglewood on Parade finale, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, closes the concert, followed by fireworks over the Stockbridge bowl.
Friday, August 4th, 20017 @8PM
CHOPIN - Piano Concerto No. 1
RACHMANINOFF - Symphony No. 3
On Friday, August 4, Mr. Garrick Ohlsson performs Chopin's First Piano Concerto, written shortly after the composer finished conservatory. Maestro Hans Graf also leads the BSO in Rachmaninoff's melancholic Symphony No. 3, the composer's final work in the genre, written almost 30 years after his second.
Saturday, August 5th, 2017 @8PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano*
Kiera Duffy, soprano
Abigail Fischer, mezzo-soprano
Singers from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Chorus Katie Woolf, conductor
Antonio Weissinger, actor
Caleb Mayo, actor (Felix Mendelssohn)
Karen MacDonald, actor (Titania)
Will Lyman, actor (Oberon)
Bill Barclay, stage director
Cristina Todesco, scenic designer
Kathleen Doyle, costume designer
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 (32 min)
MENDELSSOHN Incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (55 min) (complete; theatrical adaptation by Bill Barclay)
On Saturday, August 5, Mr. Ohlsson returns to perform Chopin's Second Piano Concerto with the BSO, a virtuosic and remarkably successful work considering it was written when the composer was still a student and just 20 years old. The second half of the program features one of the best-known musical works inspired by Shakespeare-Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream-in a specially designed production adapted by stage director Bill Barclay, which received its world premiere with the BSO at Symphony Hall in Boston in early 2016 as part of the BSO's three-week Shakespeare celebration honoring the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. Mr. Graf and the orchestra are joined for this performance by soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer, and singers from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Chorus, as well as four actors, including Will Lyman as Oberon; Karen MacDonald as Titania; and Caleb Mayo as Felix Mendelssohn/Puck. The costumed actors will perform various passages from A Midsummer Night's Dream interspersed throughout the performance, as prescribed in Mendelssohn's score, with costumes by Kathleen Doyle and sets by Cristina Todesco.
Sunday, August 6th, 2017 @2:30PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
David Zinman, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
MOZART Symphony No. 25 (23 min)
SCHUMANN Cello Concerto (24 min)
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2 (37 min)
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to the Shed on Sunday, August 6, with David Zinman on a program featuring two works by Schumann-the free-flowing and adventurous Cello Concerto, featuring Mr. Ma, and the elevating Symphony No. 2 in C, the longest of the composer's four symphonies. The afternoon concert opens with Mozart's Symphony No. 25, last performed by the BSO at Tanglewood in 2000. At the advice of his doctors, Maestro Christoph von Dohnányi regrets that he cannot appear with the Boston Symphony this summer at Tanglewood. He is continuing to heal from a fall he suffered earlier this year and looks forward to leading the BSO as scheduled in November.
Conductor David Zinman replaces Maestro von Dohnányi for the Sunday, August 6, program featuring Yo-Yo Ma in Schumann's Cello Concerto. The program also includes Mozart's Symphony No. 25 and Schumann's Symphony No. 2.
Friday, August 11, 2017 @8PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
DVO?ÁK Carnival Overture (10 min)
BRAHMS Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra (34 min)
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring (33 min)
Violinist Gil Shaham and cellist Alisa Weilerstein join forces on Friday, August 11, for a performance of Brahms's Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra, with Costa Rican conductor Giancarlo Guerrero and the BSO. Brahms composed the concerto-his final orchestral work-as an olive branch to his old friend and close musical collaborator Joseph Joachim, with whom he'd had a falling out over Joachim's divorce. Also on the program are Dvo?ák's Carnival Overture and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, the score to an intensely dramatic ballet and on its own some of the most dramatic music ever written.
Saturday, August 12, 2017 @8PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Juanjo Mena, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin
Julian ANDERSON Incantesimi (12 min)
BRAHMS Violin Concerto (43 min)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 (37 min)
Conductor Juanjo Mena leads the BSO in Julian Anderson's Incantesimi, a BSO-commissioned work that receives its American premiere with the BSO in January 2017. Incantesimi is a study in long lines, using "five musical ideas that orbit each other in ever-differing relationships." Mr. Mena and the orchestra are then joined by violinist Nikolaj Znaider for Brahms's lyrical and refined Violin Concerto. The BSO closes out the program with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, one of the composer's most popular works.
At the advice of his doctors, Maestro Christoph von Dohnányi regrets that he cannot appear with the Boston Symphony this summer at Tanglewood. He is continuing to heal from a fall he suffered earlier this year and looks forward to leading the BSO as scheduled in November. Conductor Juanjo Mena steps in for Maestro von Dohnányi on Saturday, August 12, on a program featuring violinist Nikolaj Znaider performing Brahms's Violin Concerto. The program also includes Julian Anderson's Incantesimi and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
Sunday, August 13th, 2017 @2:30PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lahav Shani, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
MOZART Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (4 min)
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto (28 min)
SCHUBERT Symphony in C, The Great (58 min)
On Sunday, August 13, young Israeli conductor Lahav Shani makes his BSO debut on a program featuring Tanglewood regular, violinist Joshua Bell in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. Mr. Shani also lead the BSO in the overture to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Schubert's Symphony in C, The Great. The composer's ultimate symphony (in both senses of the word: it is his biggest and last work in the genre), the C major was famously praised for its "heavenly length" by Robert Schumann, who observed also that it "transports us into a world we cannot recall ever having been before."
Friday, August 18th, 2017 @8PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
David Afkham, conductor
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
MAHLER Selections from Des Knaben
Wunderhorn and Rückert-Lieder (35 min)
BR On Friday, August 18, British baritone Simon Keenlyside makes his Tanglewood debut performing selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Rückert-Lieder with conductor David Afkham and the orchestra. Mr. Afkham also leads the BSO in Brahms's energetic Symphony No. 2. AHMS Symphony No. 2 (44 min)
Saturday, August 19th, 2017 @8PM
Boston Pops Orchestra
Andris Nelsons and John Williams, conductors
John Williams' Film Night has long been established as one of the Tanglewood calendar's most consistently popular evenings. Sharing the podium this summer for what surely will be an historic concert is BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. The program will feature classic cinema scores by Erich Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, and Alex North, as well as music by Mr. Williams himself, including selections from the Harry Potter series, E.T., and Far and Away. Also on the program will be music from Mr. Williams' score to Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with a special guest trumpet soloist.
Sunday, August 20, 2017 @2:30PM
The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony
Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert on Sunday, August 20, in the Shed. Brilliant English pianist Paul Lewis joins Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra for Beethoven's dramatic and tumultuous Third Piano Concerto. Strauss's large-scale An Alpine Symphony, the composer's last tone poem, depicting an eleven-hour hike of an Alpine mountain, closes the program.
Saturday, August 26th, 2017 @8PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Kristine Opolais, soprano
Sir Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone
Russell Thomas, tenor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus James Burton, conductor
On Saturday, August 26, soprano Kristine Opolais, bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for an evening of opera and song. Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel replaces baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Saturday, August 26, opera gala program at Tanglewood.
Sunday August 27th, 2017 @2:30PM
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Katie Van Kooten, soprano
Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano
Russell Thomas, tenor
John Relyea, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
James Burton, conductor
IVES "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" from Three Places in New England (5 min)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 (65 min)
For the second year in a row, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Sunday, August 27. The performance features soprano Katie Van Kooten in her BSO and Tanglewood debuts; mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford; tenor Russell Thomas; and bass-baritone John Relyea, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Maestro Nelsons and the BSO open the program with Charles Ives's tribute to Western Massachusetts, "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" from Three Places in New England.