Tanglewood — 2014/07/11-13

Friday, July 11  Music Director Designate Andris Nelsons leads an all-Dvořák concert — "The Noonday Witch," his Violin Concerto, with Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist, and Symphony No. 8. Go to the orchestra's performance detail page for links to program notes, audio previews, and performer bios (click on the thumbnail photos). They summarize the program as follows:

Czech composer Antonin Dvořák was a long-serving orchestral string player, so it is curious that his beautiful, singing violin concerto should be the least well-known of all the instrument's great masterpieces. Flowing, lyrical and fiery, the concerto reminds the German virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter of passages in Mozart's The Magic Flutesung by the Queen of the Night due to its technically daunting passages for the violin's highest register. Andris Nelsons, the BSO's music director designate, offers a torrent of melodies in Dvořák's 8th symphony, in turns thrilling, adventurous and achingly lyrical.

The concert begins at 8:30 and can be heard over WCRB via radio or webstream., with a "pre-game show" at 8:00. Go to the station's BSO page for brief descriptions of this weekend's broadcasts and the remainder of the Tanglewood broadcast season, as well as links to interviews, podcasts, etc.


Saturday, July 12  Maestro Nelsons conducts music of Richard Strauss — the final scene from "Der Rosenkavalier," with Sophie Bevan, soprano (Sophie), Angela Denoke, soprano (Marschallin), Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano (Octavian), and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra,  Rachmaninoff — Symphonic Dances, and Ravel — Boléro, the latter two with the BSO back on stage. The program detail page, with usual links, describes it, somewhat irreverently, thus:

Strauss's Rosenkavalier ("The Knight of the Rose") portrays the bitter-sweet love triangle between the worldly-wise, aristocratic Marshallin, her young toy-boy lover, and a young rose, Sophie, in a rollicking comic opera that is, well, Wunderbar! The BSO's Andris Nelsons presents Rachmaninov's lush Symphonic Dances, the composer's final composition, written in New York exile but full of nostalgia for the old Russia. Ravel's  Bolero--pounding, relentless, irresistible-rounds out  a spectacular gala program.

Once more the concert begins at 8:30, with the station's preliminaries at 8:00.


Sunday, July 13  The Boston Pops take the stage under the baton of Keith Lockhart, with Jason Alexander as guest artist. Here's the description from the performance detail page:

Singer, dancer, and master of comedic timing, Jason Alexander is best known for his appearances on television (as George Costanza in Seinfeld) and in film. A Broadway veteran and Tony-Award winner, with the Boston Pops he will perform selections from The Music Man, Pippin, andMerrily We Roll Along, plus a few surprises.

The show begins at 2:30, with WCRB beginning coverage 1/2 hour earlier.