Tanglewood 2011 Summer Season Schedule (Third Revision): Dutoit, Krivine, Graf, and Storgårds to fill in for Levine’s major concerts

This preview of this year’s Tanglewood season has been revised twice already, as far as James Levine’s cancellations of all his Tanglewood engagements. The Pelléas et Mélisande will be replaced by a TMC Orchestra concert under Jaap van Zweden on July 25. The other programs will proceed as scheduled, with Charles Dutoit conducting the Italian opera pot pourri and the Berlioz Requiem (July 8-9), Emmanuel Krivine the all-Ravel program (July 24), and Hans Graf the Mahler Symphony No. 5 and Mozart piano concerto (July 29). Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Stefan Asbury will take over Levine’s bits in Tanglewood on Parade, August 2. All these have conducted the BSO several times in the past at least. A newcomer, the distinguished Finnish conductor, John Storgårds, will take over the all-Sibelius program on July 16. Storgårds is Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, and  Principal Guest Conductor of BBC Philharmonic. He is known for rooting out little-known symphonic treasures of the twentieth century. Unfortunately we won’t benefit from that aspect of his talents, but the Sibelius Violin Concerto (with Nikolaj Znaider) and Fifth Symphony should give him plenty of substance to work with.

In the last version of this preview I introduced the following paragraph to mitigate the peevish tone in which I began. It still holds true, I think. There will be a modicum of grumbling in this preview, which doesn’t mean that Tanglewood no longer offers a variety of superb music-making which will appeal to music-lovers of many different tastes. While the situation as it stands is not good, one can only express one’s sympathy and admiration for the administrators who have attempted to keep most of the offerings Tanglewood that have made Tanglewood popular with a broad audience and to avoid a disaster at the box office.

With this season, it is beginning to be apparent that the change of scheduling — more importantly the shape of the season — at Tanglewood is intended to permanent. In the past the Music Director and the BSO got the Festival off to a rousing start on the Fourth of July weekend with a Tchaikovsky symphony or some other grandiose work of popular appeal. (I don’t know how long the actual Fourth of July program has been a pop concert.) Beginning in 2008, that holiday weekend has become the property of James Taylor, the ever-popular singer, guitarist, and local resident. In fact the entire first week of the season will be a James Taylor festival, with performances in Ozawa Hall on June 28th, 29th, and 30th, and in the Music Shed with the Boston Pops on July 1st, followed by A Prairie Home Companion on July 2nd, culminating in two performances of The Essential James Taylor on July 3rd and 4th. The BSO concerts now begin and end a week later than in the past.

The pre-season performances, previously given by distinguished soloists and chamber groups, usually a string quartet, will be replaced, like last year, by a two-day string quartet marathon in the Theatre. As usual the Mark Morris Dance Group will perform two evenings in Ozawa Hall, June 28th and 29th (with Yo-Yo Ma, no less!), but the first sign of life at Tanglewood will be a performance by the eclectic rock group, Earth, Wind, and Fire, announced several weeks after the original season schedule. Like all of Tanglewood’s ever-increasing pop offerings, this group has stood the test of time and has developed a broad appeal. As the release says, “Formed in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Earth, Wind, & Fire created a new brand of pop music — one steeped in African and African-American styles including jazz and R&B but appealing to a broader cross-section of the listening public. Earth, Wind, & Fire combined high-caliber musicianship, wide-ranging musical genre eclecticism, and ’70s multicultural spiritualism.”

The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, composed of the elite fellows, who flock to Lenox each summer to perfect their already impressive musicianship, will play its first concert on Tuesday, July 5, an as yet unannounced program under the Peruvian conductor, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony.

Eclectic crossover classical-pop will then return on Thursday, July 7, when the Mark O’Connor String Quartet will play a program of their favorites. Friday, July 8 will then be the official “Opening Night at Tanglewood.” Music Director James Levine will be on hand to conduct a program of Italian snippets, overtures by Rossini and Verdi, a few Gabrieli canzoni, excerpts from Bellini’s Norma and Verdi’s I Lombardi, all concluding with Respighi’s Pines of Rome. This would seem pretty much a mindless throw-away program, if it were not an opportunity for a wider group to hear Angela Meade sing bits from Norma, in which performed so thrillingly at Caramoor in an impeccably prepared and brilliantly executed performance under Will Crutchfield at Caramoor last summer. If nothing else, it will give her and James Levine a chance to get better acquainted, as her Met career begins to advance, as it possibly may. That alone should be very much worthwhile, but if anyone thinks that any James Taylor fan who was still recovering from the previous weekend and happened to drop in might pick up a passion for Italian opera from this program, they are sadly mistaken. The program at least has the merit of conserving rehearsal time and energy for the important and challenging work scheduled for the following evening.

During his tenure at the BSO Maestro Levine has shown a predilection for starting Tanglewood off with something serious, as well as the traditional opening night fare. This year, he will continue his commendable Berlioz initiative with the Requiem. This has been a great war horse for Levine’s predecessors at the BSO. Charles Munch’s recording remains a classic. Levine’s sincere enthusiasm for Berlioz, the BSO’s traditional grounding in the music, and the matchless singing of John Oliver’s chorus — not to mention the vast space of the Music Shed, as a fitting transatlantic stand-in for Les Invalides — should make this one of the absolute musts of the Tanglewood season. If you stay over for the Sunday afternoon concert, you can recover on familiar Tanglewood fare, like the Bruch Scottish Fantasy with Joshua Bell and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique under the direction of Harth-Bedoya. But why not stick around for Monday night as well, when the TMC Orchestra will play an as yet unannounced program under Stefan Asbury, unfortunately the only appearance of this energetic advocate for modern and new music, unless he will be a part of the Contemporary Music Festival, which has not yet been announced in detail. He is a splendid conductor in any repertoire.

Chamber music will begin in earnest during the week with the great Emerson String Quartet playing a satisfying program of Haydn, Bartók’s Sixth, and Schubert No. 15 in G in Tuesday July 12. On Thursday July 14 Nikolaj Znaider and pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar will play violin sonatas by Beethoven, Schumann, and Franck.

The BSO concerts the following weekend will include, on Friday, July 16, Lynn Harrell playing the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Kurt Masur, who will also conduct Schumann’s First Symphony, Spring. Schumann has been a speciality of Masur’s throughout his career, but note that Charles Warren was rather disappointed with his performance of the work this past fall. On Saturday, the all-Sibelius program under John Storgårds, with the Fifth Symphony and Nikolai Znaider playing the Violin Concerto should provide an appropriate warm-up for the Bard Festival coming up in August, which will be devoted to the controversial Finnish master. On Sunday, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops will take over for a program of orchestral favorites and Cole Porter show tunes.

The following week will bring the major solo event of the season. Jean-Yves Thibaudet will play Ravel’s complete works for piano, Wednesday and Thursday, July 20 and 21. On Sunday, July 24, M. Thibaudet will play both of Ravel’s piano concerti along with the orchestral version of Valses nobles et sentimentales. Emanuel Krivine will conduct. This Ravel mini-festival should also prove one of the highlights of the summer.

A TMC Orchestra concert will replace the previously scheduled Pelléas et Mélisande. The only other concert that week will be the rock group Steely Dan the evening after. So that will be a quiet week at Tanglewood.

Friday July 29, Hans Graf will conduct the Mahler Fifth, which Levine conducted so sensitively early last fall. This was one of Levine’s very greatest Mahler performances, broad, analytical, and extremely detailed, with a deeply moving slow movement. Leon Fleisher will begin the program with Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A, K. 414. On Saturday Christoph Eschenbach will accompany Peter Serkin in Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, followed by Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, and on Sunday he will accompany Alisa Weilerstein in Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C, before he leads the BSO in Mahler’s First Symphony.

The traditional Tanglewood on Parade concert will occur on July 31, complete with fireworks, to be followed by something completely different, the four-day Festival of Contemporary Music, this year devoted to the wonderful Charles Wuorinen, who will direct it. The six-program festival will feature two world premiere performances including Mr. Wuorinen’s It Happens Like This, a dramatic, semi-staged 35-minute cantata for four singers and 12 instrumentalists set to six selections from James Tate’s Return to the City of White Donkeys (2004), which will open the festival on August 3, and will be conducted by James Levine. More details later, as they are announced.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, a very welcome staple at Tanglewood and at Symphony Hall, will turn up on Friday, August 5, to a program of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff (Paganini Rhapsody with Yuja Wang), and Richard Strauss. Saturday, another Tanglewood staple, Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, will make its appearance under Assistant Conductor Sean Newhouse, along with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Sarah Chang. On Sunday Lionel Bringuier (Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Valladolid and Associate Conductor of the LA Philharmonic) will conduct program which will include Smetana’s Die Moldau, Emanuel Ax playing Mozart’s K. 482 (one of his greatest, in my opinion), and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. As pained as those Russian gentlemen were in life, one might well call that the Painless Weekend at Tanglewood.

The following week, on Tuesday, August 9, following a concert by the rock band Train on Monday August 8, André Previn will play an intriguing program with the BSO Chamber Players: Mozart, Milhaud, Martinů, and his own work for winds, brass, and strings. The mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe will perform a popular American program on Wednesday, August 10.

On Friday, August 12, Frühbeck de Burgos will conduct an accessible Spanish program with Pepe Romero. On Sunday he will conduct the summer’s second all-Brahms program, the Nänie, the Schicksalslied, and the Alto Rhapsody, followed by the Second Symphony. Stephanie Blythe will sing. Given Frühbeck’s outstanding abilities as a choral conductor, this should be very much worthwhile. On the intervening Saturday, Christoph von Dohnányi will conduct the Brahms First Symphony and Schumann’s Cello Concerto, with Yo-Yo Ma, soloist. On Sunday evening, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax will Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Op. 69 and Brahms’ Clarinet Trio with Anthony McGill, principal clarinettist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, among other things. As usual Brahms will be very well served at Tanglewood. (And I haven’t mentioned everything!)

After an exciting outburst of performances by period instrument groups in 2007, mostly the doing of NL: A Season of Dutch Arts in the Berkshires, Tanglewood has settled down into a routine of a single guest group each season. This is too bad, I think, not only because historically-informed performance is one of the most important, characteristic, and stimulating aspects our musical life today, but because all of these concerts are very well attended, coming close to filling up Ozawa Hall for every concert. It is clear that there is an audience for this kind of performance here in the Berkshires, beyond what our own very distinguished early and baroque music festival, Aston Magna, can provide. However, one can’t complain about this year’s single offering, a complete opera by Handel, his Orlando, with an American group, one of the most distinguished, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, founded in 1981, and conducted by Nicholas McGegan, who has been their music director since 1986, otherwise one of most energetic, engaging, and ubiquitous champions of historical performance in America — easily a match for James Taylor in his realm. It should be enlightening for local audiences to hear what a West Coast group can do. Besides this, the great Dominique Labelle, who is a fixture both Boston and in the Berkshires, one of the most intelligent and vocally felicitous singers of both baroque and contemporary music anywhere, of will join them.

This might be a fine culmination to the season, but there is more. Christoph von Dohnányi will conduct a well-balanced program with Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 1, Schumann’s Piano Concerto, played by Martin Helmchen, and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony on Friday August 19. Saturday will be Film Night with the Boston Pops. The Sunday concert will be all-Mozart with Bernard Labadie, including the magnificent Chaconne from Idomeneo, the Piano Concerto K. 456 with Benedetto Lupo, and the Jupiter Symphony. Labadie is not one of my favorite Mozartians — too tight and rococo for my taste — and he’d better do all the repeats in the Jupiter to fill up his time. In the evening there will be Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey. I could go for that.

On Thursday, August 25th, Brad Mehldau will play jazz, and from here on Tanglewood will be fusion right up ‘til the classics run out of breath with the usual Beethoven’s Ninth on Sunday, August 28, when Loren Maazel will preside. Before the classical curtain falls, however, there will be a concert performance of the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with the BSO under Bramwell Tovey, Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony, on Friday August 26th. An all-Beethoven program will follow on Saturday evening, with the First and Fifth Symphonies, led by Itzhak Perlman, who will play the two Romances for Violin and Orchestra. Then comes the Ninth and then the Labor Day Jazz Weekend.

Each week gives us a taste of the various endeavors we know and treasure at Tanglewood, from Rachmaninoff to Wuorinen. Since the economic troubles of 2008 and James Levine’s health problems, which began before that, Tanglewood programming has become increasingly conservative and crowd-pleasing, and the pop stars, especially last season, have been creeping in. The sempiternal Beethoven’s Ninth is being jostled a bit by jazz and pop at the end. Is the management preparing us for a fusion Tanglewood? My knowledge of pop culture is sadly insufficient to describe the sort of middle-brow Middle Earth that is encompassed by James Taylor, Garrison Keillor, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Steely Dan, and Radio Deluxe, but I know that Lenny (Leonard Bernstein), one of the more august tutelary spirits of Tanglewood, would not have approved of easy listening for baby boomers. His vision of “pop” and “classical” was a lot more sophisticated and challenging. Then of course there was the idealistic vision of Serge Koussevitzky. It would be a crime to compromise that for the turnstile and the cash register.

I’ve always thought that a yearly ritual of the Ninth is a mistake. A performance of the Ninth should be special. I’ve heard some very good Ninths at Tanglewood, but never a truly great one. Perhaps every three years would be better. I was wondering what had become of the ever-popular staged opera in the Theatre. Finally I found it. It seems the several performances, which nearly always sell out, have been reduced to a single evening of short operas and art song by Darius Milhaud. So the TMC Vocal Fellows will get some stage experience, but nothing like the usual performances. Both the Fellows and the audience will be deeply disappointed by this. It also would have been good to carry over some of the important Harbison symphony performances from the Symphony Hall season. Chamber music seems on the wane, just as pop music is growing. Even the “classical” programming, with concerts like Stephanie Blythe and Friends, is becoming more pop-ified than in the past.

Apart from this, 2011’s program is a bit disappointing. It is the most cautious I can remember, but a roster of some of the finest conductors working in the United States leading one of the great orchestras in a solid repertoire of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler is not a bad thing at all, although I believe quite strongly that this kind of conservatism sends the wrong message about classical music. Still, if you have just discovered classical music and are swimming through the basic repertoire, or if you have been inspired by the vacuous series in the New York Times on the “ten top composers,“ (which also sends the wrong message about classical music) what better thing could you do than to take July and August off and settle in the Berkshires to take a good bit of it in? Classical radio used to do some of this job, but it is rapidly disappearing. (Note what has happened at WGBH and WNYC. There are several important articles on this disaster in the Boston Musical Intelligencer.) Recordings of any kind, even the best technically or the most musically inspired are no match for live music. The Ozawa Hall and the Music Shed have really fine acoustics — but be sure to get the best seats you can afford in the Shed. And if you know your way around all the basic repertoire, you know you can stand to hear it again. That makes a classic. And for that matter, I’m looking forward to hearing many of the old war horses myself.

While, I believe, the Tanglewood management deserves a sound rap of the knuckles for caving in to commercialism and compromising the uniqueness of Tanglewood, so that the season is dangerously similar to SPAC’s, there will be much to enjoy there this summer, and as a wrote this, I found myself looking forward more and more warmly to the Tanglewood summer. The problem is not only in the compromise of Koussevitzkian ideals, and the fact that the pop concerts cut into the time available for the TMC Orchestra and Opera. In providing these blue-chip pop performers the baby-bommers who supposedly flock to the Berkshires feel comfortably with, Tanglewood is fragmenting its audience, and this has been going on for some time. While a person who has come for the Festival of Contemporary Music may well attend a BSO concert in the Shed, just to hear the magnificent orchestra, it is a rare occurrence that a frequenter of the Shed will venture over to the CMF. Similarly, the pop concerts and the Jazz Festival have their own audience, and if a few of them happen to hear a Brahms or a Russian program, it is not enough to bring the audiences together. And I’m not saying this out of snobbishness, either. I’m very much looking forward to hearing Tyondai Braxton at the Tully Scope Festival next month, because his music belongs here and now, and it is entirely relevant to the planning of the festival, for which there is a unified audience. Attendance and money don’t solve the problem for the future.

 

2011 Tanglewood Season Listing
All programs and artists are subject to change.

 

Saturday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Koussevitzky Music Shed
Earth, Wind, and Fire

Tuesday, June 28, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Theatre
Wednesday, June 29, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Theatre
String Quartet Marathon
Two 2-hour concerts each day

Tuesday, June 28, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Wednesday, June 29, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Mark Morris Dance Group
Tanglewood Music Center Fellows
Mark Morris, choreographer
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Isaac Mizrahi, costume designer
Phil Sandstrom and Michael Chybowski, lighting designers
Frisson
Stravinsky – Symphonies of Wind Instruments
New work (world premiere; BSO commission)
Stravinsky – Renard
Falling Down Stairs
J.S. Bach – Suite No. 3 in C for solo cello, BWV 1009

Thursday, June 30, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
James Taylor in Ozawa Hall
James Taylor and guests
In the more intimate setting of Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, James Taylor offers the music that has made him one of the most beloved artists of our day.

Friday, July 1, 8:30 p.m. Shed
James Taylor and the Boston Pops
Boston Pops
James Taylor, soloist
John Williams, conductor
Tanglewood’s favorite singer joins “America’s Orchestra,” the Boston Pops and John Williams for a remarkable collaboration.

Saturday, July 2, 5:45 p.m. Shed
A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood
with Garrison Keillor
Live broadcast

Sunday, July 3, 7 p.m. Shed
Monday, July 4, 7 p.m. Shed
The Essential James Taylor
James Taylor returns to Tanglewood with his extraordinary band of musicians for two spectacular performances.

Fireworks to follow the July 4 concert
Proceeds from the July 4 concert to benefit Tanglewood

 

Tuesday, July 5, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows
Program to be announced

Thursday, July 7, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Mark O’Connor String Quartet
Composer and virtuoso violinist Mark O’Connor introduces and performs a fascinating evening of his own music. Drawing on sources as diverse as bluegrass, swing, and the great classical traditions, O’Connor has defined a new style of string playing in North America. The program will include solos, duets, quartets, and excerpts from the acclaimed Appalachia Waltz Trio.

Friday, July 8, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 8, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, July 8, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Opening Night at Tanglewood
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Angela Meade, soprano
Kristine Jepson, mezzo-soprano
Roberto DeBiasio, tenor
James Morris, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
Bellini – Excerpts from Act 1 of Norma
Rossini – Overture to William Tell
Verdi – Trio from Act 3 of I lombardi
Respighi – Pines of Rome

Saturday, July 9, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, July 9, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 9, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Russell Thomas, tenor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
Berlioz – Requiem

Sunday, July 10, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
Higdon – Loco
Bruch – Scottish Fantasy, for violin and orchestra
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Sunday, July 10, 8 p.m. Theatre
Tanglewood Music Center Vocal and Instrumental Fellows
Mark Morris, director
An evening of short operas and art song by Darius Milhaud

Monday, July 11, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Orchestra
Stefan Asbury, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows
Program to be announced

Tuesday, July 12, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Emerson String Quartet
Haydn – Andante and Minuet, Op. 103
Bartók – Quartet No. 6
Schubert – Quartet No. 15 in G, D.887

Thursday, July 14, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Nikolaj Znaider, violin
Saleem Abboud Ashkar, piano
Beethoven – Sonata No. 8 in G for violin and piano,Op. 30, No. 3
Schumann – Sonata No. 2 in D – minor for violin and piano, Op. 121
Franck – Sonata in A for violin and piano

Friday, July 15, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 15, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, July 15, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Kurt Masur, conductor
Lynn Harrell, cello
Dvořák – Cello Concerto
Schumann – Symphony No. 1, Spring

Saturday, July 16, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, July 16, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Saturday program

Saturday, July 16, 8:30 p.m. Shed
John Storgårds, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin
All-Sibelius Program
Finlandia
Valse triste
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 5

Sunday, July 17, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Kelli O’Hara, vocalist
Jason Danieley, vocalist
Two of Broadway’s most acclaimed stars join Keith Lockhart for a program of Pops orchestral favorites and a tribute to the great Cole Porter.

Sunday, July 17, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Kurt Masur, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows
Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Kodály – Háry János Suite
Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Schumann – Symphony No. 2

Wednesday, July 20, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Ravel – Complete Works for Piano, Program 1
Serenade grotesque
Menuet antique
Miroirs
Sonatine
Gaspard de la nuit

Thursday, July 21, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Ravel – Complete Works for Piano, Program 2
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Jeux d’eau
Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn
Valses nobles et sentimentales
Prélude
A la manière de Borodine
A la manière de Chabrier
Le Tombeau de Couperin

Friday, July 22, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 22, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, July 22, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
All-Baroque program to include arias by Handel and Gluck, plus popular orchestral works by Bach and Rameau
This concert is performed without intermission.

Saturday, July 23, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, July 23, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 23, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, violin
Stucky – Rhapsodies
Brahms – Violin Concerto
Beethoven – Symphony No. 7

Sunday, July 24, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Emmanuel Krivine, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
All-Ravel Program
Valses nobles et sentimentales
Piano Concerto in G
Piano Concerto in D for the left hand
Boléro

Monday, July 25, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows

Beethoven – Leonore Overture No. 3
Debussy – “Nuages” and “Fêtes” from Nocturnes
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4

Monday, July 25, 6pm – Vocal Prelude Concert
Music of Rodrigo, Granados, Turina, and Buchardo

 

Tuesday, July 26 at 7 p.m. Koussevitzky Music Shed

Steely Dan

Friday, July 29, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 29, 7:15 p. m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, July 29, 8:30 p.m. Shed
The Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Memorial Concert
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf, conductor
Leon Fleisher, piano
Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414
Mahler – Symphony No. 5

Saturday, July 30, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, July 30, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 30, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Peter Serkin, piano
All-Brahms Program
Piano Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 4

Sunday, July 31, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Haydn – Cello Concerto No. 1 in C
Mahler – Symphony No. 1

Tuesday, August 2, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Tanglewood on Parade
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Stefan Asbury, John Williams, and Christoph Eschenbach, conductors
Program to include
Wagner – Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Vaughan Williams – Serenade to Music
Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy

1812 Overture

Fireworks to follow the concert

***

Wednesday, August 3 – Sunday, August 7
2011 Festival of Contemporary Music
Directed by Pulitzer-prize winning Charles Wuorinen, the six-program festival will feature two world premiere performances including Mr. Wuorinen’s It Happens Like This, a dramatic, semi-staged 35-minute cantata for four singers and 12 instrumentalists set to six selections from James Tate’s Return to the City of White Donkeys (2004), which will open the festival on August 3, and will be conducted by James Levine.

All concerts in Ozawa Hall except August 6, which is in the Theatre

Wednesday, August 3
New Fromm Players, TMC instrumental and vocal fellows, James Levine conducting
Charles Wuorinen – It Happens Like This (World Premiere) & other works by Wuorinen and Fred Ho

Thursday, August 4
New Fromm Players, TMC instrumental and vocal fellows, Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman, conductor, Fred Sherry, cello
works by Fred Ho, Tobias Picker, Jason Eckardt, Brian Ferneyhough, Chown Chowning, John Zorn: À rebours (World Premiere, TMC commission),

Friday, August 5 at 2:30 pm
TMC fellows, Errollyn Wallen, piano
works by Fred Ho, Eve Beglarian, Lee Hyla, David Festinger, Errollyn Wallen, Wayne Peterson

Saturday, August. 6 at 2:30 pm in the Theater:
TMC fellows, George Flynn, piano
works by Flynn, Jo Kondo, Jonathan Keren

Sunday, August 7 at 10 am
TMC fellows, David Fulmer, violin, Louis Karchin, conductor
Babbitt, Fulmer (violin concerto), Jonathan Dawe, Louis Karchin (chamber symphony)

Sunday, August 7 at 6 pm
Ursula Oppens, piano
Bernard Rands (Memo 5, World Premiere), Jason Eckardt, Jo Kondo, Tobias Picker (Four Etudes for Ursula)

Sunday, August 7 at 8 pm
TMC Orchestra, TMC conducting fellows and Stefan Asbury
Felipe Lara, Jo Kondo, Andrew Norman, David Felder

***

Friday, August 5, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 5, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, August 5, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Beethoven – Symphony No. 8
Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Strauss – Suite from Der Rosenkavalier

Saturday, August 6, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, August 6, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Open Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 6, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Sean Newhouse, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
Jalbert – Music of air and fire
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto
Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2

Sunday, August 7, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lionel Bringuier, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Smetana – The Moldau
Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K.482
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5

Monday, August 8, 7 p.m. Shed
Train
Join this Grammy Award-winning band playing songs from their latest release, “Save Me, San Francisco,” and more.

Tuesday, August 9, 8:00 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
André Previn, piano
Martinů – Les Madrigaux, for winds
Previn – Octet for Eleven, for winds, brass, and strings
Milhaud – La Cheminée du Roi René, suite for wind quintet, Op. 205
Mozart – Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478

Wednesday, August 10, 8 p. m. Ozawa Hall
Stephanie Blythe and Friends
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Alan Smith, piano
Andrew Jennings, violin
Norman Fischer, cello
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
Program to include
Smith – Vignettes: Covered Wagon Woman, for mezzo-soprano, violin, cello, and piano
Smith – An Unknown Sphere, for mezzo-soprano and chorus (world premiere; BSO commission) plus early American popular songs and choruses

Friday, August 12, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 12, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, August 12, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Pepe Romero, guitar
Bizet – Preludes from Carmen
Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez, for guitar and orchestra
Boccherini/Berio – Ritirata notturna di Madrid
Falla – Interlude and First Dance from La vida breve
Granados – Intermezzo from Goyescas
Giménez – Intermezzo from La boda de Luís Alonso

This concert is performed without intermission.

Saturday, August 13, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, August 13, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Saturday program

Saturday, August 13, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Prokofiev – Symphony No. 1, Classical
Schumann – Cello Concerto
Brahms – Symphony No. 1

Sunday, August 14, 2:30 p.m. Shed
The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
All-Brahms Program
Nänie, for chorus and orchestra
Schicksalslied, for chorus and orchestra
Alto Rhapsody¸ for mezzo-soprano, male chorus, and orchestra
Symphony No. 2

Sunday, August 14, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Emanuel Ax, piano
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Program to include
Brahms – Trio in A minor for clarinet, cello, and piano, Op. 114
Beethoven – Sonata No. 3 in A for cello and piano, Op. 69

Tuesday, August 16, 7:30 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Dominique Labelle, soprano (Angelica)
Susanne Rydén, soprano (Dorinda)
Diana Moore, mezzo-soprano (Medoro)
Clint van der Linde, countertenor (Orlando)
Wolf Matthias Friedrich, baritone (Zoroastro)
Handel – Orlando

This is an extended concert with two intermissions.
Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Friday, August 19, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 19, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, August 19, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Martin Helmchen, piano
Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony No. 1
Schumann – Piano Concerto
Beethoven – Symphony No. 3, Eroica

Saturday, August 20, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, August 20, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 20, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Film Night at Tanglewood
Boston Pops
John Williams, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Morgan Freeman, narrator
One of the season’s most enduring and popular traditions, the annual Film Night concert celebrates the music of the movies. This summer, John Williams is joined by frequent collaborator Gil Shaham in a program featuring film music arranged for violin and orchestra. Also on the program will be Mr. Williams’ nostalgic evocation of early 20th-century America, ‘The Reivers,’ with special guest narrator.

Sunday, August 21, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Benedetto Lupo, piano
All-Mozart Program
Chaconne from Idomeneo
Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat, K.456
Symphony No. 41, Jupiter

Sunday, August 21, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Radio Deluxe
with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey

Thursday, August 25, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Brad Mehldau, piano
One of the most lyrical and intimate voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path, which embodies the essence ofjazz exploration, classical romanticism, and pop allure.From critical acclaim as a bandleader to major international exposure in collaborations with Pat Metheny, Renée Fleming, and Joshua Redman, Mehldau continues to garner numerous awards and admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike.

Friday, August 26, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 26, 7:15 p.m. Shed
This Week at Tanglewood
Panel discussion with moderator Martin Bookspan and guest artists

Friday, August 26, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Cast to include
Alfred Walker, bass-baritone (Porgy)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano (Bess)
Marquita Lister, soprano (Bess)
Nicole Cabell, soprano (Clara)
Marquita Lister, soprano (Serena)
Gwendolyn Brown, contralto (Maria)
Calvin Lee, tenor (Mingo, Nelson, Crab Man)
Jermaine Smith, tenor (Sportin’ Life)
Gregg Baker, baritone (Crown)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
Gershwin – Porgy and Bess

Saturday, August 27, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, August 27, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 27, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Itzhak Perlman, conductor and violin
All-Beethoven Program
Romances Nos. 1 and 2 for violin and orchestra
Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 5

Sunday, August 28, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Margaret Gawrysiak, mezzo-soprano
Garrett Sorenson, tenor
Eric Owens, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9

Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival, September 2-4

Friday, September 2, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Robin McKelle Quartet
Michael Kaeshammer Quintet

Saturday, September 3, 2 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Live taping of the “Jazz Inspired” with host Judy Carmichael with special guest from the worlds of Jazz, Broadway, or Hollywood to be announced.

Saturday, September 3, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
A Latin Jazz Tribute to Cachao with Federico Britos Sextet and John Santos Sextet as featured in the “American Masters”/PBS documentary “Cachao: Uno Mas”

Sunday, September 4, 2 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Coast to Coast Sextet featuring NEA Jazz Master
Jimmy Cobb
Mingus Orchestra conducted by NEA Jazz Master Gunther Schuller

Sunday, September 4, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Sing the Truth: Celebrating the History of Women Vocalists at Tanglewood with Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and more