Tanglewood — 2011/07/22-24

The BSO website provides the following information.

All-Baroque Program 

Friday, July 22, 8:30PM

Young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his BSO and Tanglewood debuts July 22 as he and the orchestra are joined by renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham for an all-Baroque program including vocal excerpts from Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and arias from Handel's Alcina and Ariodonte. Handel's vocal music forms the heart of the Baroque opera repertoire, and Gluck, writing a generation later, was intent on making opera more natural, more diverse, and more dramatically interesting, as he pioneered reforms to the genre that influenced composers around the world and ushered in a new era of music for the theater.  The orchestral works by J. S. Bach and the French composer Jean-Phillippe Rameau, represented on this program by Rameau's Suite from Pygmalion and Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 4, display the era's instrumental music in its highest form.

Stucky, Brahms, and Beethoven 
Saturday, July 23, 8:30PM

Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, currently music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, also makes his BSO and Tanglewood debuts this weekend, conducting Brahms's soaring, ever-popular Violin Concerto; Beethoven's masterful, dance-infused Symphony No. 7; and Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Steven Stucky's Rhapsodies, a series of 12 short and diverse episodes for orchestra. Each of the mesmerizing work's brief sections is begun by the sound of a single instrument playing alone, and that instrument's timbre is then imitated and interpreted by the rest of the orchestra.

All-Ravel Program 
Sunday, July 24, 2:30PM

Hot on the heels of his two recitals featuring Ravel's complete music for solo piano on July 20 and 21, outstanding pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet again takes center stage July 24, this time with the BSO and guest conductor Emmanuel Krivine, for another program exclusively featuring music by the French master. Mr. Thibaudet is the soloist for both of Ravel's piano concertos, the jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G and the Piano Concerto in D for the left hand, which was commissioned by the famous concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein after he lost his right arm in World War I. Also on the program are Valses nobles et sentimentales—which Ravel adapted for orchestra from the original piano version—and the immortal Boléro.

This is certainly a varied weekend. There may be something for everyone, but each listener will probably find something that isn't exactly his or her favorite. I hope you'll find something worth listening to. WCRB begins their coverage 1 1/2 hours before each concert. WCRB is not your only resource. There are other stations which broadcast the concerts, and the BSO has its own media center — all as also indicated on the BSO website.

Radio Broadcasts and Streaming

Concerts from the Shed are broadcast each Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon in Boston on WCRB 99.5 FM and WGBH's HD2 all classical channel, in Albany on WAMC 90.3 FM and its satellite network, and in Connecticut on WMNR 88.1 FM. In addition, Sunday-afternoon concerts are broadcast on WFCR 88.5 in Amherst. Streaming audio of the broadcasts can also be accessed via the stations' websites atwww.wgbh.org/995; www.wamc.org;www.wmnr.org; and www.wfcr.org. How to listen-in from the BSO Media Center: You can listen LIVE to WGBH in our BSO MEDIA CENTER! Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 1pm Tanglewood concerts are broadcast LIVE by 99.5 All-Classical, a service of WGBH .

You can also check out the WCRB website for scheduling info and other features.