Tanglewood — 2018/07/27-29

For some reason WCRB will transmit the Friday evening and (by tape delay) Sunday concerts of  the BSO from Tanglewood, But instead of the BSO's performance of "West Side Story" on Saturday, they will give us a repeat of a Boston Pops performance of Bernstein's music from two months ago. I don't know why they are making the substitution on Saturday, but I'd guess the copyright holders of the film or the musical wouldn't allow the live concert to be broadcast.

At any rate, here's what you can hear over WCRB.

Friday, July 27,  2018.  The program detail page tells us:

Juanjo Mena conducts Britten, Mozart and Brahms with Garrick Ohlsson

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena leads the BSO in a program that begins with the Four Sea Interludes from Britten's opera Peter Grimes, a work of particular significance to Bernstein, who conducted the first American performances of the opera at Tanglewood in 1946 and also led the Four Sea Interludes to open the last concert he ever conducted, on August 19, 1990 in the Shed. Following the Britten, Garrick Ohlsson joins the orchestra as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, K.271, and the concert concludes with Brahms's marvelously energetic and compact Symphony No. 3.

(Some emphasis added.)

The usual background information is available via links on the detail page. (BTW, I think Garrick Ohlsson looks like Robert Bork in the pictures there.)


Saturday, July 28, 2018. In lieu of the "West Side Story" from Tanglewood, WCRB will give us the following, as described on their website:

Saturday night at 8, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops celebrate Leonard Bernstein's centennial in a program of his most celebrated works, including "West Side Story" and "Candide."

Saturday, July 28, 2018
8:00 PM

Recorded at Symphony Hall on May 30, 2018

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Matthew Anderson, Teresa Blume, Aimee Doherty, David McFerrin, and Andrew Tighe, vocalists

Overture to Candide
Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free
On the Town: New York, New York; Lonely Town; I Can Cook, Too; Lucky To Be Me
Love Theme and Finale from On the Waterfront
Wrong Note Rag from Wonderful Town
Wonderful Town: What a Waste; A Little Bit in Love; Conga!
West Side Story: Mambo
West Side Story: Something's Coming; One Hand, One Heart; Tonight
America
Candide: The Best of All Possible Worlds; Gliter and Be Gay; I Am Easily Assimilated; Make Our Garden Grow
Some Other Time
 WILLIAMS To Lenny! To Lenny!

(Some emphasis added.)

Actually, I think I'd rather hear this than a complete screening of "West Side Story" with live orchestra. Too bad the excerpts from "Candid will come during my brother's call from Japan.


Sunday, July 29, 2018.  We're back with the BSO at Tanglewood to hear the concert which they describe as follows on their performance detail page:

Gil Shaham plays Prokofiev

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Juanjo Mena returns for a second BSO performance to conduct works by Haydn and Mozart, as well as Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, with American virtuoso and frequent Tanglewood guest artist Gil Shaham as soloist. The concert begins with Haydn's Symphony No. 88, one of the composer's best-known works in the genre and a favorite of Bernstein's (including a Tanglewood performance in 1988), and completing the program is Mozart's dramatic Symphony No. 40 in G minor, one of Mozart's final trio of symphonies and one of only two that he wrote in a minor key.

(Some emphasis added.)

As usual, this will be transmitted on air and on line at 7:00 p.m., Boston Time, while Friday and Saturday's shows will begin at 8:00. This should make for some enjoyable listening.