Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Season Preview (2012) and Concert Schedules (UPDATED)

(For a review of the gala 75th anniversary concert, click here.)

Last November Mark Volpe, Managing Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Anthony Fogg, Artistic Administrator, and members of the orchestra presented the 75th anniversary season of the festival in a low-key event, which, as relaxed and friendly as it was, brought back memories of old Boston in its restraint. No one attempted to hide his pride in this important anniversary of what is undoubtedly the key music festival in North America, but nobody did anything that would be out of place at the Somerset Club either.

One could say the same thing about anniversary programs at Tanglewood. To observe that the season, which includes hommages to programs performed at the first festival, as well as some important new commissions, is not terribly different from any other season in memory is to recognize how faithfully the festival has remained true to its traditions and founding purpose—one entirely rooted in music, largely conceived by Serge Koussevitzky. The guiding has been relatively simple, bringing together the central works of the classical orchestral repertoire with new music, much of it commissioned by the Boston Symphony and most of it American. If in later years solo recitals, chamber music, and opera joined this, the work of the BSO remained at the core. Like every Tanglewood Festival since the beginning, the 75th anniversary season will include a wealth of the classics and choice pickings of the new.

After the now-customary pre-festival offerings from Mark Morris, the Emerson String Quartet, Diana Krall, and James Taylor, as well as an appearance by the Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma, all of which should create a festive and well-populated situation, the official opening night on Friday, July 6, will offer a repeat of the concert of August 5, 1937, an all-Beethoven program consisting of the Leonore Overture No. 3 and the Sixth and Fifth Symphonies, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. These works are of course favorites on Tanglewood programs, year after year, which only underscores the imprint of that event 75 years ago. The ensuing Saturday concert will contain another work performed at those early concerts, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, which was performed on August 7, 1937. The concert will begin with Barber’s Overture to the School for Scandal, Tchaikovsky’s Meditation, for violin and orchestra, played by Joshua Bell, and a new work by an American composer, Edgar Meyer, who, like Maestro Koussevitzky, is also a double-bass virtuoso. His work, receiving its world premiere, will be a double concerto for violin, double-bass, and orchestra.

Another tribute to a program from that 1937 festival (August 12, 1937) will be an all-Wagner program of orchestral excerpt conducted by Ascher Fisch, who has earned a high reputation as a Wagner specialist in recent years. He has been conducting Wagner in Seattle recently and will conduct the Ring there in 2013. On August 3, Loren Maazel will include a work performed on August 7, 1937, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, prime Koussevitzky material, along with more Ravel and Mozart. Other tributes to the past will be more in spirit than in the letter.

The summer will be rich in all the solid—and rightly valued as such—classics Tanglewood is known for. The admired names that have been steadily present over the years will be there: Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, André Previn, John Williams, Peter Serkin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, in addition to Maazel and Dohnányi, and I imagine that Anne-Sophie Mutter, and relative newcomers Bramwell Tovey and Stéphane Denève can be included among those familiars now.

I’ll only single out a few musicians and works that strike me as especially exciting.

Emanuel Ax will play the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Stefan Asbury and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Ozawa Hall. I have never heard Mr. Ax play this repertory, but knowing his work as I do, I’d expect this to be an extraordinary performance of the concerto. Ax has not only the technique, but the mind to bring it all together into a cohesive whole, without exaggeration, as the Romantic virtuoso concerto Schoenberg envisaged. The combination of hall, orchestra, conductor, and soloist is irresistable.

Benjamin Bagby, who packed Ozawa Hall in 2010 with his recital of Beowulf, will return with The Rheingold Curse: A Germanic Saga of Greed and Vengeance from the Medieval Icelandic Edda, taking us back to the roots of the material Richard Wagner re-imagined as Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Charles Dutoit will conduct a concert performance of Berlioz’ Damnation de Faust with Susan Graham, Paul Groves, and Sir Willard White.

Andris Nelsons, the young Latvian conductor who is considered to be a strong candidate for the position of Music Director of the BSO is scheduled to conduct two concerts. While one program is undetermined, the first will include Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Brahms’ Second Symphony. Nelsons appearance will be all the more anticipated, because he cancelled his January engagement in Boston, because of the birth of his first child.

The distinguished German pianist Gerhard Oppitz will give a series of recitals including all of Brahms’ solo piano music—great music which has become all too rare on pianists’ recital programs, it seems.

The great Nelson Freire will play Mozart’s D Minor Piano Concerto, K. 466 as well as Villa-Lobos’ Momoprecoce, and Augustin Hadelich will play the Barber Violin Concerto, a welcome follow-up to Garrick Ohlsson’s masterful performance of Barber’s Piano Concerto this past November.

Charles Dutoit will conduct the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, which we all love, in Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques and Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos’ will conduct Manuel de Falla’s opera, La Vida Breve.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, will play Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian, Tanglewood’s annual hommage to the Bard Music Festival, which will explore the works and times of that fascinating and important French composer this summer.

There will be two more world premieres of important anniversary commissions by Michael Gandolfi and John Harbison, and Mr. Harbison and Oliver Knussen, both familiar and much-loved figures at the Tanglewood Music Center will co-direct the Festival of Contemporary Music, between August 9-13.

 

Friday, June 22, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Sunday, June 24, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma, cello

The celebrated Silk Road Ensemble and the remarkable Yo-Yo Ma return to Ozawa Hall for an intimate presentation of musical riches from the along the ancient trade routes. With musicians from around the globe, the Ensemble will perform a special program that reflects a diversity of styles and nationalities, combining Western and non-Western instruments from the old and new worlds in ways which transcends cultural boundaries.

Saturday, June 23, 7 pm
Shed

Diana Krall

Thursday, June 28, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Friday, June 29, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Mark Morris Dance Group
Tanglewood Music Center Fellows
Mark Morris, choreographer
Martin Pakledinaz and Katherine M. Patterson, costume designers
Michael Chybowski and Nicole Pearce, lighting designers
Phyllis Curtin, narrator

Something Lies Beyond the Scene
Walton – Façade: An Entertainment
Rock of Ages
Schubert – Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat, D.897, 2nd movement
Festival Dance
Hummel – Piano Trio No. 5 in E, Op. 83

Saturday, June 30, 5:45 pm
Shed

A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood with Garrison Keillor
Live broadcast

Sunday, July 1, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall
Monday, July 2, 10 am and 1 pm
Ozawa Hall

Tanglewood Music Center Instrumental Fellows
String Quartet Marathon

(One ticket provides admission to all three performances)

Monday, July 2, 7 pm
Shed
Tuesday, July 3, 7 pm
Shed
Wednesday, July 4, 7 pm
Shed

James Taylor at Tanglewood

Fireworks to follow the July 4 concert

Proceeds from the July 4 concert to benefit Tanglewood

Thursday, July 5, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall
Emerson String Quartet

Mozart – Quartet No. 21 in D, K.575
Adès –  Four Quarters, for string quartet
Beethoven – Quartet No. 13 in B-flat, Op. 130, with original Grosse Fuge finale

Friday, July 6, 6 pm Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 6, 8:30 pm Shed
Opening Night at Tanglewood

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor

All-Beethoven – Program+
Leonore Overture No. 3
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Symphony No. 5
+Program of August 5, 1937

Fireworks to follow the concert

Saturday, July 7, 10:30 am
Shed

Rehearsal, Saturday program

Saturday, July 7, 8:30 pm Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Michael Stern, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
Edgar Meyer, double bass

Barber – Overture to The School for Scandal
Tchaikovsky – Meditation, for violin and orchestra
Meyer – Double Concerto for violin, double bass, and orchestra (world premiere)
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4+

+Performed on the program of August 7, 1937

Sunday, July 8, 2:30 pm Shed
Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Bernadette Peters, vocalist

Sunday, July 8, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows

Respighi – Fontane di Roma
Schuller – Dreamscape (world premiere; commissioned by the TMC)
Dvořák – In Nature’s Realm, Op. 91
Prokofiev Selections from Romeo and Juliet

Wednesday, July 11, 8 pm Ozawa Hall
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
André Previn -, piano

Mozart – Sonata No. 27 in G for violin and piano, K.379
Franck – Sonata in A for violin and piano
Previn – Tango, Song, and Dance, for violin and piano
Previn – Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano (American premiere)

Thursday, July 12, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music
Benjamin Bagby, director

The Rheingold Curse: A Germanic Saga of Greed and Vengeance from the Medieval Icelandic Edda
A dramatic presentation, sung in Old Norse with English supertitles

Friday, July 13, 6 pm Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Tanglewood Festival Chorus John Oliver, conductor

Friday, July 13, 8:30 pm
Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Anne-Sophie Mutter, conductor and violin

All-Mozart – Program
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D, K.211
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, K.216
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K.219

Saturday, July 14, 10:30 am
Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 14, 8:30 pm Shed

Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons, conductors

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax and Peter Serkin, pianos
James Taylor, vocalist

Special Guests

Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor

Program to include

Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man

Bernstein – Three dance episodes from On the Town
Selections from the Great American Songbook
Haydn – Piano Concerto in D, 2nd and 3rd movements
Tchaikovsky – Andante cantabile, for cello and strings
Sarasate – Carmen Fantasy, for violin and orchestra
Strauss – Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome
Beethoven – Choral Fantasy

Sunday, July 15, 2:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor

Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms
Brahms – Symphony No. 2

Monday, July 16, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, Marcelo Lehninger, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows

Brahms – Tragic Overture, Op. 81
Schubert – Symphony in B minor, D.759, Unfinished
Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Wednesday, July 18, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Gerhard Oppitz, piano

Brahms – Complete Works for Piano, Program 1:
Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Scherzo in E-flat minor, Op. 4
Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79
Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119

Thursday, July 19, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Gerhard Oppitz, piano

Brahms – Complete Works for Piano, Program 2:
Four Ballades, Op. 10
Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21, No. 1
Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21, No. 2
Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9
Sonata No. 1 in C, Op. 1

Friday, July 20, 6 pm Ozawa Hall

Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 20, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Dan Zhu, violin

Bernstein – Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) for violin and orchestra
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Saturday, July 21, 10:30 am Shed

Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 21, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Asher Fisch, conductor

All-Wagner Program+
Overture to Rienzi
Prelude and Love-death from Tristan und Isolde Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
Forest Murmurs from Siegfried
Prelude to Parsifal
Overture to Tannhäuser
+Program of August 12, 1937

Sunday, July 22, 2:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Kurt Masur and Ken-David Masur, conductors
Gerhard Oppitz, piano

All-Mozart – Program
Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Ken-David)
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 (Ken-David)
Symphony No. 36 in C, Linz (Kurt)

Monday, June 23, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Stefan Asbury, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows

Program to include
Schoenberg – Piano Concerto, Op 42

Wednesday, July 25, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Gerhard Oppitz, piano

Brahms – Complete Works for Piano, Program 3
Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118
Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39
Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Books 1 and 2
Seven Fantasies, Op. 116

Thursday, July 26, 8 pm Ozawa Hall
Gerhard Oppitz, piano

Brahms – Complete Works for Piano, Program 4:
Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76
Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 2
Three Intermezzi, Op. 117
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Friday, July 27, 6 pm Ozawa Hall

Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, July 27, 8:30 pm
Shed

The Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Memorial Concert

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Marcelo Lehninger, conductor
Nelson Freire, piano

Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466
Villa-Lobos – Momoprecoce, Fantasy for piano and orchestra
Mussorgsky – (orch. Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

Saturday, July 28, 10:30 am Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, July 28, 8:30 pm Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano (Marguerite)
Paul Groves, tenor (Faust)
Sir Willard White, baritone (Méphistophélès)
Christopher Feigum, bass-baritone (Brander)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor
PALS Children’s Chorus
Andy Icochea Icochea, conductor

Berlioz – La Damnation de Faust

Sung in French with English supertitles

Sunday, July 29, 2:30 pm
Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 3
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5

Monday July 30, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Program to include
Messiaen – Oiseaux exotiques
Stravinsky – Les Noces

Thursday, August 2, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Gerald Finley, baritone

Songs by Loewe, Schumann, and Britten

Friday, August 3, 6 pm
Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 3, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Gerald Finley, baritone

Mozart – Symphony No. 38, Prague
Mozart – Arias from Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni
Ravel – Alborada del gracioso
Ravel – Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, for baritone and orchestra
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2+
+Performed on the program of August 7, 1937

Saturday, August 4, 10:30 am
Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 4, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

Schumann – Symphony No. 4
Brahms – Piano Concerto No. 2

Sunday, August 5, 2:30 pm
Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Gandolfi – Night Train to Perugia (world premiere; BSO commission)
Saint-Saëns – Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian
Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique

Sunday, August 5, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Chris Botti, trumpet, and his band

Tuesday, August 7, 8:30 pm
Shed

Tanglewood on Parade

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

Stéphane Denève, Keith Lockhart, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and John Williams, conductors

Program to include

Beethoven – Egmont Overture
Ravel – Mother Goose Suite
John Williams – Recent film scores
Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture

Fireworks to follow the concert

2012 FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, AUGUST 9-13

John Harbison and Oliver Knussen, Festival Co-Directors

Thursday, August 9, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Friday, August 10, 2:30 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Saturday, August 11, 6 p.m. Ozawa Hall Prelude Concert
Sunday, August 12, 10 a.m. Ozawa Hall
Sunday, August 12, 8 p.m.

Program to include Knussen’s Higglety Pigglety Pop!

Monday, August 13, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

Friday, August 10, 6 pm
Ozawa Hall

Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 10, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin
Elizabeth Rowe, flute
John Ferrillo, oboe
Malcolm Lowe, violin
John Gibbons, harpsichord

All-Bach Program
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

Concerto in C minor for violin, oboe, and strings, BWV 1060
Concerto in D minor for two violins and strings, BWV 1043
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

Saturday, August 11, 10:30 am
Shed
Rehearsal, Saturday program

Saturday, August 11, 8:30 pm
Shed 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Previn – New work (world premiere; BSO commission)
Elgar – Cello Concerto
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5

Sunday, August 12, 2:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano

Beethoven – Symphony No. 4
Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K.488
Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

Thursday, August 16, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Ébène String Quartet

Mozart – Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K.421
Tchaikovsky – Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11
Jazz improvisations, arranged by the Ébène Quartet

Friday, August 17, 6 pm Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 17, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin

Copland – Suite from Appalachian Spring
Barber – Violin Concerto
Beethoven – Symphony No. 7

Saturday, August 18, 10:30 am
Shed
Rehearsal, Saturday program

Saturday, August 18, 8:30 pm
Shed

John Williams’ 80th Birthday Celebration

Boston Pops Orchestra
Conductors to include Leonard Slatkin
with
Jessye Norman, soprano
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Gabriela Montero, piano
Anthony McGill, clarinet
BSO soloists
Surprise guests

Sunday, August 19, 2:30 pm
Shed

The Leonard Bernstein – Memorial Concert

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin

Beethoven – Violin Concerto
Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra

Wednesday, August 22, 8 pm
Ozawa Hall

Boston Symphony Chamber Players

Foss – For Aaron
J.S. Bach – Cantata No. 209, Non sa che sia dolore
Hindemith – Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2, for wind quintet
Bruch – Kol nidrei, Op. 47, for double bass and piano
Mozart – Divertimento in E-flat, K.289

Friday, August 24, 6 pm Ozawa Hall
Prelude Concert
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Friday, August 24, 8:30 pm Shed
Boston Pops
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Maureen McGovern and Brian Stokes Mitchell, vocalists
Ilya Yakushev, piano

Gershwin and Friends

Join Keith Lockhart, the Pops, and favorite guest vocalists for a celebration of George Gershwin and the creators of the Great American Songbook including Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern. and Cole Porter. The program also features Gershwin’s classic Rhapsody in Blue.

Saturday, August 25, 10:30 am
Shed

Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 25, 2:30 pm Ozawa Hall

Family Concert
Classical Tangent

Saturday, August 25, 8:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor

Nancy Fabiola Herrera, mezzo-soprano (Salud)
Cristina Faus, mezzo-soprano (Grandmother)
Cátia Moreso, mezzo-soprano (Carmela)
Vicente Ombuena, tenor (Paco)
Gustavo Peña, tenor (A Voice in the Forge)
Alfredo García Huerga, baritone (Uncle Salvaor)
Josep Miquel Ramón, baritone (Manuel)
Pedro Sanz, cantaor (Spanish folk singer)
Núria Pomares Rojas, Flamenco dancer
Pablo Sáinz Villegas, guitar

Albéniz (arr. Frühbeck de Burgos) – Suite española
Falla – La vida breve
Sung in Spanish with English supertitles

Sunday, August 26, 2:30 pm
Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Leah Crocetto, soprano
Meredith Arwady, mezzo-soprano
Frank Lopardo, tenor
John Relyea, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
John Oliver, conductor

Harbison – Koussevitzky said:, for chorus and orchestra (world premiere; BSO commission)
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9