There are two great evenings of music in store for us. (I'm sorry I missed last evening, but I had returned from several days away and it slipped my mind. If you checked it out without waiting for my preview, I'm sure you enjoyed the concert of music by Bach, Mahler, and Mendelssohn.)
July 26, 2025
This evening a world premiere awaits along with a well known symphony by Mahler.Here's WCRB's description: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-04-24/a-john-williams-world-premiere-with-emmanuel-ax-at-tanglewood
Saturday, July 26, 2025
8:00 PMMusic Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the world premiere of John Williams’s Piano Concerto, inspired by three legendary jazz pianists and written for soloist Emanuel Ax, part of a program that also includes the epic musical journey of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, pianoJohn WILLIAMS Piano Concerto (world premiere)
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 1To hear a preview of John Williams's Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
For more information on Tanglewood concerts, visit the BSO box office.
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Emanuel Ax. And Manny, thank you so much for a little of your time today. I appreciate it.
Emanuel Ax It's my pleasure to be here
The interview is interesting.
At the BSO's performance detail page https://www.bso.org/events/bso-july-26-emanuel-ax?performance=2025-07-26-20%3A00 we are treated to this synopsis by Robert Kirzinger:
A major new work by John Williams, a full-fledged Concerto for Piano and Orchestra composed for and premiered by Emanuel Ax with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at Tanglewood—it speaks for itself. This warm coming-together of artists who have a deep connection with Tanglewood, its history, and its future can only be topped by the performance itself on Saturday evening in the Shed. In this brilliant, virtuoso concerto, Williams draws on his lifelong love of the piano and some of its most individual talents: its three movements pay homage to jazz greats Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. The concerto shares the Saturday concert with Gustav Mahler’s powerful and lyrical Symphony No. 1. With its broad melodies, hints of birdsong, and its second-movement rustic dance, the symphony channels Mahler’s love of the outdoors and the countryside while also serving as a true orchestral showpiece.
There are also full program notes for the piano concerto https://www.bso.org/works/john-williams-concerto-for-piano-and-orchestra and for the symphony https://www.bso.org/works/mahler-symphony-no-1-in-d .
It should be interesting to hear a new piece by John Williams.
July 27, 2025
As always the Sunday afternoon concert is broadcast for us on Sunday evening at 7:00, in WCRB's usual "In Concert" time slot. They describe it thus: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-04-24/lang-lang-and-the-bso-play-saint-saens-at-tanglewood
Sunday, July 27, 2025
7:00 PMLang Lang is the soloist in the beautifully romantic Piano Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saëns in a program led by Andris Nelsons that also includes Gabriela Ortiz’s exuberant La Calaca, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lang Lang, pianoGabriela ORTIZ La Calaca, for string orchestra
Camille SAINT-SÄENS Piano Concerto No. 2Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Again, the BSO performance detail page for the weekend has a synopsis by Robert Kirzinger, as follows:
Sunday’s concert features another outstanding pianist, Lang Lang, playing Camille Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the best known of the composer’s works. Saint-Saëns, a virtuoso pianist himself, played its premiere in Paris in December 1868. The concert opens with Mexican composer and 2025 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music Director Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, a hypnotically rhythmic, dancing work whose title refers to the stylized, music-loving skeleton figures of Day of the Dead celebrations. Beethoven’s sunny Pastoral Symphony—complete with birdsong, a country dance, and a brief (musical) summer storm—completes the program.
At the page for this concert we find he program notes for the Ortiz work https://www.bso.org/works/ortiz-la-calaca , for the concerto https://www.bso.org/works/piano-concerto-no-2-saint-saens , and for the symphony https://www.bso.org/works/beethoven-symphony-no-6-pastoral .
All in all, it should be a very enjoyable pair of concerts.
