Tanglewood July 17-19, 2009

Here's what the BSO's Tanglewood page for this weekend has to say about this weekend's programs. As usual, the concerts will be streamed on WAMC, and WGBH will stream the Sunday concert with a "pre-game" show at 2:00 (all times Eastern).

Mozart and Mahler

 FRIDAY 

July 17, 2009 8:30 PM  

One of the highlights of James Levine’s fall season with the BSO was the powerful Symphony Hall performance series of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. This week, the orchestra performs the symphony for the first time at Tanglewood since Levine conducted the work here in 1972, and it marks a continuation of the maestro’s multi-year survey of Mahler’s major works with the orchestra. The program also includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, with the esteemed American pianist/conductor/teacher Leon Fleisher, the Tanglewood Music Center’s artistic director from 1986-1997.

 

Film Night at Tanglewood

 SATURDAY 

July 18, 2009 8:30 PM  

One of the most popular evenings of each summer’s festival is the lively Film Night at Tanglewood. Boston Pops’ Laureate Conductor John Williams lends his unparalleled expertise to an evening celebrating the colorful legacy of Hollywood’s Warner Brothers dynasty. The evening features excerpts from classic film scores accompanying thematic montages and film clips from some of the studio’s legendary movies including Casablanca and The Seahawk, as well as selections from Williams’ own scores for Superman and Harry Potter. The evening will also include tributes to Errol Flynn, James Dean, and Bette Davis, three of Hollywood’s greatest stars. The evening’s first half will feature selections from popular Williams scores, including Suites from E.T. The Extra-Terestrial and Far and Away.

 

All-Mozart Program

 SUNDAY 

July 19, 2009 2:30 PM  

James Levine leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an all-Mozart program, conducting the composer’s final three symphonies, Nos. 39, 40, and 41, Jupiter. Mozart was just a few months past his 32nd birthday and in dire financial need when he began these last three symphonic works, and they were composed in a whirlwind of creative fervor, completed just weeks apart. Yet each is distinctly unique, with striking differences of mood, and they stand at the pinnacle of Mozart’s orchestral mastery, representing a standard by which other symphonies are appraised.