Tanglewood — 2024/07/26-28

 A little while ago the announcer on WCRB said that this weekend marks the midpoint of the BSO' Tanglewood season. Let's see what's in store.

First is WCRB's description of this evening's concert:

Friday, July 26, 2024
8:00 PM

In celebration of Serge Koussevitzky’s 150th birthday, Andris Nelsons leads a concert that includes Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto, with soloist Edwin Barker, as well as spectacular works by Steven Mackey, Sibelius, and Scriabin.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Edwin Barker, double bass
Will Liverman, baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus,
James Burton, conductor

Steven MACKEY Urban Ocean
Serge KOUSSEVITZKY Double Bass Concerto
Jean SIBELIUS The Origin of Fire
Alexander SCRIABIN Prometheus, Poem of Fire

To hear a preview of Scriabin's Prometheus, Poem of Fire with pianist Yefim Bronfman, listen to this interview from April 6, 2024. Use the player above, and read the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Sympho

So there is an interview accessible from the WCRB page either audio or transrcipt.

As always, the description on the BSO's performance detail page is fuller:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Yefim Bronfman, piano 
Edwin Barker, double bass 
Will Liverman, baritone 
Tanglewood Festival Chorus 
 James Burton, conductor

Steven MACKEY Urban Ocean 
KOUSSEVITZKY Double Bass Concerto
-Intermission-
SIBELIUS The Origin of Fire for baritone, male chorus, and orchestra 
SCRIABIN Prometheus, Poem of Fire, for piano, chorus, and orchestra

Tonight’s concert is generously supported by Eitan and Malka Evan.

This evening's performance by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.

In tribute to Serge Koussevitzky’s legacy, Andris Nelsons and the BSO dedicate this concert series to the trailblazer, opening with Koussevitzky’s virtuosic Double Bass Concerto performed by the BSO’s own Edwin Barker.  

Baritone Will Liverman and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus join the program for two impassioned works: Sibelius’ The Origin of Fire and Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire, which Koussevitzky led the 1925 Boston premiere of. 

As always, there are links to performer bios and program notes, which you might like to read. (Side note: When Edwin Barker joined the BSO back in the 70's he looked so much like my kid brother that when my mother first saw him on stage she wondered, "What's Jerry doing here?" Now they aren't lookalikes any more.)

Next we come to Saturday, and WCRB says:

Saturday, July 27, 2024
8:00 PM

Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Khachaturian’s vibrant, colorful Piano Concerto, part of a program that also includes Tania León's Pulitzer prize-winning Stride and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Tania LEÓN STRIDE
Aram KHACHATURIAN Piano Concerto
Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

From the BSO we get the following:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Tania LEÓN Stride 
KHACHATURIAN Piano Concerto
-Intermission-
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

In tribute to Serge Koussevitzky’s legacy, Andris Nelsons and the BSO dedicate this concert series to the trailblazer. In the spirit of Koussevitzky’s passion for promoting contemporary music and composers, this concert features Tania León's STRIDE, a Pulitzer prize-winning work of resilience and surprise. 

Jean-Yves Thibaudet also joins for Khachaturian’s vibrant, colorful Piano Concerto, and the concert ends with Tchaikovsky’s moving, yearning Pathétique Symphony. 

Tonight’s concert is generously supported by Bonnie and Terry Burman.

Tonight's performance by Jean-Yves Thibaudet is generously supported by Stephen Bardfield in memory of his mom, Gisele Klein Wolfson.

Finally on Sunday at 7:00 we get the usual rebroadcast of the matinee concert. Per WCRB:

Sunday, July 28, 2024
7:00 PM

This program, focusing on the wide variety and rich tapestry of 20th century music, explores themes of spirituality and liberation, blending American sounds and European traditions much as Koussevitzky did during his life. 

In a reflection of Koussevitzky’s commitment to new music, Thomas Warfield is the narrator in James Lee III’s Freedom’s Genuine Dawn, a piece based on the great Fredrick Douglas text “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”. Paul Lewis is the soloist in the Piano Concerto by Aaron Copland, whom Koussevitzky brought to the Berkshires to launch what’s now the Tanglewood Music Center, one of the world’s premiere academies for early-stage professional musicians, and for which Randall Thompson wrote his Alleluia, still sung at the TMC to begin of every summer. And the Tanglewood Festival Chorus also sings one of Koussevitzky’s most significant commissions, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
Thomas Warfield, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
James Burton, conductor

James LEE III Freedom’s Genuine Dawn
Aaron COPLAND Piano Concerto
Randall THOMPSON Alleluia
Igor STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms

Read the entire text of "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" from PBS and learn more about the speech from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

Hear composer James Lee III describe the genesis of Freedom's Genuine Dawn using the audio player above and reading the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath from WCRB with James Lee III who is back in Boston for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the second time. 

The BSO performance detail page, in addition to the usual links, offers this synopsis:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
Thomas Warfield, narrator
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 James Burton, conductor

James LEE III Freedom’s Genuine Dawn
COPLAND Piano Concerto
-Intermission-
THOMPSON Alleluia, for unaccompanied chorus
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms

In tribute to Serge Koussevitzky’s legacy, Andris Nelsons and the BSO dedicate this concert series to the trailblazer. 

This program, focusing on the wide variety and rich tapestry of 20th century music, explores themes of spirituality and liberation, blending American sounds and European traditions, much as Koussevitzky did during his life. Performing artist Thomas Warfield joins as the narrator for James Lee’s Freedom’s Genuine Dawn, a piece based on the great Fredrick Douglas text “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”, which makes the audience grapple with the legacy of slavery being intertwined with the founding of the country. 

This afternoon’s performance by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is supported by the Alan J. and Suzanne W. Dworsky Fund for Voice and Chorus.

This looks like an interesting series of concerts. Apart from the Tchaikovsky, there are no "warhorses" of the orchestral repertory, but nothing really far from the mainstream. I can't vouch for the new music, but the rest shouldn't be excessivelychallenging — all in all a worthy tribute to the long-time maestro, so I give it a "thumbs up."

Tanglewood — 2024/07/20-21

 This evening we get Wagner at his most tedious (except for Siegfried's funeral march) and tomorrow we get interesting, beautiful, and popular selections. First, here's WCRB telling us about this evening:

Saturday, July 20, 2024
8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO and an all-star cast, featuring soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Michael Weinius, in the epic conclusion of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, Act III of Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried)
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen)
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, Catherine Martin (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdamerung, Act III

The BSO performance detail page has this to say:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
John Matsumoto Giampietro, staging coordinator
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried) |
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen) 
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, and Annie Rosen (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)

WAGNER Götterdämmerung, Act III

Sung in German with English Supertitles

Please note that there is no intermission in this concert. Duration is about 90 minutes.

Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a masterpiece of art that weaves a fabric of passion, beauty, betrayal, tragedy, and redemption into the tapestry of myth and legend, all set to some of the most stirring, powerful music ever composed.

Join Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and an all-star cast for the peerless conclusion of Wagner’s massive, epic opera Götterdämmerung.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by Rabbis Rachel Hertzman and Rex Perlmeter.

The program note tries to give the whole story of the Ring cycle, which is probably necessary to understand the action of tonight's show. Unfortunately, they don't give the actual text. You'll have to find that for yourself somehow if you want it.

When i say "Wagner at his most tedious," I mean the whole Ring cycle is pretty tedious, but "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung" are especially so in my personal opinion — along with "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal." Opinions may vary. Maybe you'll like it. But one evening I was listening to the whole opera and was nearly jolted out of my chair by the beginning of the funeral march. You'll recognize it if you listen.

Then we come to Sunday evening's broadcast of the afternoon concert of the Tanglewood Center Orchestra (not the BSO). Again WCRB gives the outline:

Sunday, July 21, 2024
7:00 PM

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’s Three Places in New England. Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a musically complex work that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

Charles IVES Three Places in New England
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Richard STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

See also the BSO performance detail page for the links to the program notes (especially the Ives) and this overall description:

Tanglewood

Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA 

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra 
Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Emanuel Ax, piano

IVES Three Places in New England 
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Intermission
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work of intense emotionality and complex musicality that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’ palatial Also sprach Zarathustra, and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’ textured Three Places in New England, which tells three very different stories of historic events and landmarks throughout the region.

The 2024 Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert is supported by generous endowments established in perpetuity by Dr. Raymond and Hannah H. Schneider, and Diane H. Lupean

 Ives is kind of "quirky" and maybe not your proverbial cup of metaphorical tea, but I've become fascinated with much of his stuff, and I definitely want to hear the "Three Places in New England" again. With the Beethoven and Strauss, we're in a more familiar musical style. (I could do without the Strauss, but that's just me. Most concert-goers seem to like it.)

So give it all a try, despite my negativity. I'll be listening.

Tanglewood — 2024/07/19

 This evening's Tanglewood concert consists of two symphonies, one with piano and one without. Here's WCRB's synopsis:

Friday, July 19, 2024
8:00 PM

Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name, featuring piano soloist Conrad Tao. The concert closes with Brahms’s dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3, which explores the happiness—and—loneliness of freedom.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

The BSO performance detail page gives a slightly longer introduction to the concert and has links to performer bios and to program notes for the pieces on the program.

Boston Symphony Orchestra 
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor 
Conrad Tao, piano

BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
-Intermission-
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk leads the BSO in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, a piece inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem of the same name. The music's shape is meant to closely mirror the poem, which tells the story of four young strangers who meet in a bar during WWII. Young virtuoso Conrad Tao joins as the piano soloist for Bernstein.

Also on the program, Brahms’ dramatic, sweeping Symphony No. 3 explores the ideas of freedom, happiness, and loneliness.

Tonight's concert is generously supported by R. Martin Chavez.

I'm curious to hear the Bernstein.

I'l give previews of the Saturday and Sunday concerts later (maybe this evening, maybe tomorrow).

Tanglewood — 2024/07/13-14

 I didn't get a chance to include last evening's concert in this post. Here's what we have to look forward to today and tomorrow.

Here's WCRB's synopsis of tonight's concert:

    Saturday, July 13, 2024

8:00 PM

Andris Nelsons conducts a Boston Symphony program that includes Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, with soloist Yuja Wang, as well as two pieces by Duke Ellington and Carlos Simon’s “Warmth from Other Suns.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

Carlos SIMON Warmth from Other Suns, for string orchestra
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
Duke ELLINGTON Three Black Kings

    ELLINGTON A Tone Parallel to Harlem 

 

If you want to read up on the music, here's a link to the BSO's performance detai page, which has links to the program notes for the various pieces: https://www.bso.org/events/bso-simon-beethoven-featuring-yuja-wang?performance=2024-07-13-20:00

For Sunday, here's the program, per WCRB:

Sunday, July 14, 2024
7:00 PM

Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in a Boston Symphony concert led by Andris Nelsons that also features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light, a meditation on “perseverance, bravery, and alliance.”

Sunday, July 14, 2024
7:00 PM

Augustin Hadelich is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in a Boston Symphony concert led by Andris Nelsons that also features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light, a meditation on “perseverance, bravery, and alliance.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin

Sarah KIRKLAND SNIDER Forward into Light 
Sergei PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 2
Antonín DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7

Here's the linkf or the performance detail page forr Sunday: https://www.bso.org/events/snider-prokofiev-dvorak?performance=2024-07-14-14:30

Note the earlier start time on Sunday.

Some of this is familiar and should be very good. Some of it is new and unfamiliar, so your guess is as good as mine. Enjoy what you can.

Tanglewood — 2024/07/05-07

 The BSO is back live at Tanglewood this weekend and WCRB is bringing us the concerts from the Music Shed as in previous years. Here's what we have to look forward to this weekend.

Here's WCRB's synopsis of tonight's concert:

Friday, July 5, 2024
8:00 PM

The 2024 Tanglewood season kicks off with a romantic tour de force: an all-Beethoven program headlined by violinist Gil Shaham in the composer’s Violin Concerto. Andris Nelsons also leads the BSO in the Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica” Symphony, an emotionally expansive piece that redefined what a symphony was by transforming the heroic journey into symphonic form.

Andris Nelsons, conductor 
Gil Shaham, violin

ALL-BEETHOVEN program
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 3 Eroica

Clearly, this is a program worth hearing. I'll listen to this rather than the Red Sox game.

Tomorrow it will be the Boston Pops, rather than the BSO. Of course, there is considerable overlap in the rosters of the organizations. WCRB tells us:

Saturday, July 6, 2024
8:00 PM

Keith Lockhart leads the Pops and a cast of Broadway superstars in selections from such Tony-winning musicals as Hamilton, In the Heights, The Light in the Piazza, Kimberly Akimbo, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, The Band's Visit, and Dear Evan Hansen.

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Victoria Clark
Mandy Gonzalez
Joshua Henry
Darius de Haas
Bryce Pinkham
Scarlett Strallen
Jason Danieley, director
Georgia Stitt, music supervisor

Broadway Today!: Broadway’s Modern Masters

I'm not familiar with this music. Doubtless it will be very good, but I just might listen to the Sox instead.

On Sunday we get an "encore broadcast," described as follows by our friends at WCRB:

Sunday, July 7, 2024
7:00 PM

Christina and Michelle Naughton are the soloists in Poulenc’s firecracker Concerto for Two Pianos, and Earl Lee leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and “Pulse,” by Brian Raphael Nabors.

Earl Lee, conductor
Christina and Michelle Naughton, pianos

Brian Raphael NABORS Pulse
Francis POULENC Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, Scottish

This concert was originally broadcast on August 5, 2022 and is no longer available on demand.

Hear an interview with Christina and Michelle Naughton, recorded at Symphony Hall in October 2021. https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2021-10-05/twin-dynamism-with-the-naughton-sisters

For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.

This is a bit of a surprise, since there is a live concert (all Strauss) on Sunday afternoon with the BSO and Renee Fleming under the baton of Andris Nelsons. But the rebroadcast should be good. For whatever reason, WCRB isn't telling us yet what they plan to do next week. While they play it close to the vest, we'll just have to wait and see if this is going to be normal operating procedure (I hope not.) or what our British cousins call a one off.

At any rste they're following their pattern from past years of broadcasting the Friday and Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m. and delaying the 2:30 Sunday concert to 7:00 p.m. Lenox Time.