Tanglewood — 2017/08/25-27

It's the final weekend of this year's Boston Symphony season at Tanglewood. As has become traditional, the final piece on Sunday will be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Friday evening's concert will be the score to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" performed by the Boston Pops to accompany a showing of the movie. For whatever reason, it will not be broadcast. Perhaps it doesn't work without the visuals. Instead, WCRB will give us a reprise of a concert from last summer.



Friday, August 25, 2017.  WCRB tells us they will rebroadcast

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
DVORÁK Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5 

Recorded July 22, 2016.
This encore broadcast is not available on-demand. 

(Emphasis added.)

At the time the performance took place, the BSO performance detail page told us

English conductor  Sir Andrew Davis-currently music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra-returns to the Shed stage for the first time since 2008. To open the program, he leads the  Boston Symphony Orchestra  in Vaughan Williams's haunting  Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, inspired by a melody by the great English Renaissance composer. Renowned Georgian violinist  Lisa Batiashvili joins the orchestra for Dvořák's Violin Concerto, and Maestro Davis and the BSO close the program with Sibelius's soaring Symphony No. 5, written in 1915 on commission from the Finnish government in celebration of the composer's 50th birthday and subsequently revised in 1916 and 1919.

It should be worth listening to.


Saturday, August 26, 2017,  brings vocal soloists to the stage along with the Boston Symphony. To wit:

On Saturday, August 26, soprano Kristine Opolais, bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for an evening of opera and song.Bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel replaces baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Saturday, August 26, opera gala program at Tanglewood.

(Some emphasis added.)

But wait, there's more from the performance detail page. Here's the complete list of pieces:

PUCCINI Tosca, Act IIWAGNER "Entrance of the Guests" from Tannhäuser, Act IIWAGNER "Wie duftet doch der Flieder" (Hans Sachs' "Flieder monologue")from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act IIDVOŘÁK "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka, Act IDVOŘÁK Polonaise from Rusalka, Act IIGERSHWIN From Porgy and Bess:Introduction and Jasbo Brown Blues, from Act I"Summertime," from Act I"I got plenty o' nuttin'," from Act II"Bess, you is my woman now," from Act II

The program notes, available by a link from the performance detail page, tell who will perform in which pieces.

I'll have to miss this one because my high school class, most of whom were born in 1942, is having a 75th birthday party that evening. Opera may not exactly be your cup of tea; and I must admit, the selections (other than the Entry of the Guests, which is magnificent) are not what I would have chosen. So I can understand if you decide to give it a pass. On the other hand, if you don't know the music, why not give it a try. I'd listen if I were at home.


Sunday, August 27, 2017.  For several years, the Beethoven 9th was the only piece performed at the Sunday afternoon season finale. Recently, there has been a curtain raiser to precede it, as is the case this year. Again, the performance detail page gives some particulars:

For the second year in a row, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its traditional season-ending performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Sunday, August 27. The performance features soprano Katie Van Kooten in her BSO and Tanglewood debuts; mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford; tenor Russell Thomas; and bass-baritone John Relyea, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Maestro Nelsons and the BSO open the program with Charles Ives's tribute to Western Massachusetts, "The Housatonic at Stockbridge" from Three Places in New England.

(Some emphasis added.)


As usual, you can hear it all via WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7:00 on Sunday, EDT. Enjoy.

Between now and the opening of the Symphony Hall season on September 22, they will rebroadcast concerts from last April. In addition, they will broadcast and stream Opening Night on Friday, September 22, beginning at 5:30. You can see the specifics at their Upcoming BSO page.