Tanglewood — 2025/07/18

 I'm a bit pressed for time, so I'm only posting about this evening's concert now. I'll hope to get to the rest of the weekend tomorrow.

Tonight it's the Boston Pops, rather than the BSO. Here's what WCRB tells us:

Friday, July 18, 2025
8:00 PM

With Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster pay tribute to iconic stars Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett in a program inspired by the 1962 CBS special “Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall,” with music from The Great White Way and beyond, including favorites from Sutton and Kelli’s Tony Award-winning and nominated shows.

Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Sutton Foster
Kelli O'Hara

Broadway Selections

The BSO performance detail page puts it like this:

Enjoy a night with Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster inspired by the 1962 CBS special “Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall”— a tribute to The Great White Way and beyond. Together with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, Sutton and Kelli pay homage to icons of stage and screen Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett who teamed up for that memorable concert. You’ll hear favorites from Sutton and Kelli’s Tony Award winning and nominated shows and in between, lots of bubbly banter, laughter and stories you’ll love.

A bit different from the regular concert format. There are the usual links to performer bios, but no program notes that I could find for individual pieces.

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.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/08/15

Tonight's encore broadcast via WCRB is of the Tanglewood concert of Sunday, July 7, 2019. It features Anne-Sophie Mutter performing music of John Williams arranged for her, with the Boston Pops playing and himself sharing conducting duties. Here's what I wrote at the time:

Sunday brings a "guest appearance" by the Boston Pops. The performance detail page gives some details about the performance, although the Pops performs so many pieces that they don't list them all.

Join the Boston Pops for the first of three programs this summer, celebrating the art of John Williams. Drawing from her recent recording “Across the Stars,” the great violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs selections from Mr. Williams’ iconic scores, in brilliant new arrangements created especially for her. The program includes music from Star Wars, Dracula and Harry Potter, as well as the haunting melodies of Memoirs of a Geisha.

(Some emphasis added.)

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that David Newman shares podium duties with Maestro Williams.

Note the links both in my blurb and in WCRB's description.

I couldn't find a review in the Globe, but there is one in the Intelligencer that gives some good background information.

It should be interesting. Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2019/07/05-07

The Boston Symphony begins its Tanglewood Season this weekend. WCRB will broadcast and stream the Friday and Saturday concerts live at 8:00 p.m. each day and the Sunday concert by tape delay at 7:00 p.m. I don't know about the Tower piece, but the rest looks pretty mainstream. Enjoy!


Friday, July 5, 2019.  Opening night features Mozart and Mahler. Here's the synopsis from the orchestra's own program detail page:

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its Opening Night concert of the season with Tanglewood favorite Emanuel Ax performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, on a program with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

(Emphasis added.)

As regular readers of these blogposts know, the performance detail page has links to further information including program notes, audio previews, performer bios (click the thumbnail photos), and related media. There are also links to additional material on the WCRB homepage, as well as the button to listen "live" over the internet.

The Mahler Symphony was performed in Symphony Hall on November 17, 2018. My post at the time was highly abbreviated, so if you want reviews, you'll need to do your own digging in the Globe and the Musical Intelligencer. The piano concerto was given, with a different soloist and conductor, on January 26 of this year. My blogpost about the concert doesn't have anything to say about the Mozart, but it does have links to reviews.


Saturday, July 6, 2019.  On Saturday there are three pieces which were not performed in Symphony Hall during the past season. Again, the performance detail page gives some links and summarizes:

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program opening with Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1, followed by the BSO’s first Tanglewood performance of André Previn’s Violin Concerto, Anne-Sophie, featuring the dedicatee of the work, Anne-Sophie Mutter, as soloist; this program ends with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, July 7, 2019.  Sunday brings a "guest appearance" by the Boston Pops. The performance detail page gives some details about the performance, although the Pops performs so many pieces that they don't list them all.

Join the Boston Pops for the first of three programs this summer, celebrating the art of John Williams. Drawing from her recent recording “Across the Stars,” the great violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs selections from Mr. Williams’ iconic scores, in brilliant new arrangements created especially for her. The program includes music from Star Wars, Dracula and Harry Potter, as well as the haunting melodies of Memoirs of a Geisha.

(Some emphasis added.)

What the synopsis doesn't mention is that David Newman shares podium duties with Maestro Williams.

Tanglewood — 2018/07/06-08, 13-15 —Double Post

The Boston Symphony's Tanglewood season opens this evening, July 6, and runs through August 26 — eight glorious weekends with major concerts* on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30. WCRB broadcasts and streams them all; Friday and Saturday concerts are transmitted virtually live, and the Sunday concerts are given a delayed transmission at 7:00 p.m.

*There are also many other performances given during the week by those who are attending as students or guest artists.

Since I'll be away from my computer late next week, I'll preview this weekend and next in this post. Here goes!


Friday, July 6, 2018.  On the orchestra's performance detail page we read:

Opening Night at Tanglewood with Lang Lang

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

The Robert and Jane Mayer Conert

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra open their 2018 Tanglewood season with a gala performance featuring global superstar pianist Lang Lang. Opening the concert is the overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute, followed by the composer's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491, featuring Lang Lang. Maestro Nelsons then leads the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5-a work Bernstein conducted three times at Tanglewood, including for his 70th-birthday weekend in 1988-which displays the composer's trademarks: an endless procession of memorable melodies, masterful and vivid use of the orchestra's full color palette, and a musical language of drama and energy.

(Some emphasis added.)

What's not to like?


Saturday, July 7, 2018,  brings only one work, "On the Town," with music by Bernstein and lyrics by Comden and Green. The Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart, is joined by the soloists listed on the performance detail page, which gives this synopsis:

Bernstein's On the Town

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

The Wacks Family Concert in celebration of the marriage of Greg Wacks and Sarah DeArakie  

A collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins and the writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Leonard Bernstein's On the Town-the story of three sailors on shore leave in New York City- arrived on Broadway in December 1944, when he was just twenty-six. Based on his popular ballet collaboration with Robbins, Fancy Free (being performed August 18), it was not only his first musical, it was a first for Comden and Green, who would become Broadway and Hollywood legends in their own right. Hit songs include "New York, New York" and "Some Other Time."

Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops in a complete, semi-staged performance of Bernstein's hit musical, directed by Kathleen Marshall with musical director David Chase. The all-star cast includes Tony-Award winning actor Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along, Hamilton) as Gabey, Christian Dante White (Hello Dolly, The Book of Mormon) as Chip, Andy Karl (Groundhog Day, On the Twentieth Century) as Ozzie, Megan Lawrence (Urinetown, Hair) as Claire, Tony Award-winning actress Andrea Martin (Pippin, Noises Off) as Madame Dilly, Laura Osnes (Cinderella, Bandstand) as Claire, Georgina Pazoguin as Ivy, and Marc Kudisch as Pitkin.

See the performance detail for the rest of the cast as well as the usual links.

It should be fun


Sunday, July 8, 2018.  The performance detail page tells us:

Andris Nelsons conducts Brahms and Shostakovich

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the BSO pay a special tribute to Bernstein by replicating the first full program Bernstein ever conducted with the orchestra in November 1944. On the first half of, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder joins the BSO for Brahms's ambitious and sprawling Piano Concerto No. 1. Bringing the concert to a close is Shostakovich's riveting Symphony No. 5, the composer's most accessible, popular, and controversial symphony. Bernstein conducted the work a total of eight times with the BSO, including five performances at Tanglewood.

(Emphasis added.)

The performance detail page also has the usual links to background information. I find it interesting that the Shostakovich symphony was led by Bernstein so early in his career and that he conducted it that often with the BSO — eight times suggests two or three different subscription series.


Now for the second weekend.


Friday, July 13, 2017.  Here's how the BSO performance detail page describes this evening's concert:

Tanglewood in the City - Free Event on Boston Common

Boston Symphony Orchestra 

Boston Common - Boston, MA 

Bring your lawn chair and picnic and head to the Common, Friday, July 13!

The Boston Symphony Orchestra presents "Tanglewood in the City," on a giant screen on Boston Common, featuring Moritz Gnann conducting a program of Wagner, Mozart and Schumann transmitted live from Tanglewood, the BSO's summer home in the Berkshire hills. This event will give music lovers in Boston a chance to experience Tanglewood without having to leave the city. The screen will be positioned near the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets.

The live video transmission of the July 13 concert from Tanglewood is made possible by a generous gift from Virginia Simpson Aisner and James E. Aisner.

Acclaimed English pianist Paul Lewis, who has given several memorable performances with the BSO in recent seasons, joins the orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, K.595, the composer's final work in the genre. BSO Assistant Conductor Moritz Gnann, who conducts the performance, also leads the orchestra in Wagner's  Siegfried Idyll and Schumann's Symphony No. 3,Rhenish. The symphony's subtitle refers to the mighty Rhine, the river that has inspired so many great works throughout music history, and the piece contains some of Schumann's most colorful and exuberant music, as well as some of his most accomplished writing for full orchestra.

(Some emphasis added.)

So if you're in the Boston area, you not only have the option of listening on WCRB, you can also watch the concert on Boston Common.

The Mozart piano concerto has been a favorite of mine ever since I chose it to play on the new record player a great aunt gave us in the mid 1950's. Even without that sort of connection, though, I think it's a delightful piece. Unfortunately, I won't be around to hear this concert. Maybe I'll listen to the Mozart on my car radio.


Saturday, July 14, 2018,  will be a night at the opera: "La Bohème" by Puccini. Again, the BSO tells us more on the performance detail page:

Andris Nelsons conducts Puccini's La bohème

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Semi-staged performance sung in Italian with English supertitles

The Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Concert

Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus-under the direction of Tanglewood Festival Chorus Conductor James Burton -continue their series of opera performances with a concert-staged performance of Puccini's La bohème, directed by Daniel Rigazzi and featuring soprano Kristine Opolais as Mimì, tenor Jonathan Tetelman  as Rodolfo, soprano Susanna Phillips as Musetta, baritone Franco Vassallo as Marcello, baritone Davide Luciano as Schaunard, and bass- baritone Luca Pisaroni as Colline. Perhaps the world's most popular opera, La bohème is an immortal story of love and loss set amidst the charming poverty of bohemian Paris. Though Bernstein never performed the work with the BSO, it was one of his favorite operas and one of the few he recorded.

See the performance detail for the cast. As I type this, there is no link to program notes, so if you're not familiar with the opera you'll need to do your own research for a summary of the action and for the libretto, if you want it. I suppose Ron Della Chiesa will give a summary of the plot before each section of the concert.

I find this opera and "Madama Butterfly" moving, but I don't care much for Puccini's music, so I may skip this one, but the performance detail page is correct in saying that this is among the world's most popular operas. So don't let me discourage you from listening. I was just making conversation.


Sunday, July 15, 2018.  A couple of "warhorses" (or maybe a warhorse and a police horse) precede a less familiar work:

Andris Nelsons conducts Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Bernstein with Yuja Wang

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

The Nathan and Marilyn Hayward Concert

Pianist Yuja Wang joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO as soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, published before but written after the Piano Concerto No. 2. The work bears the marks of the highly original genius Beethoven would soon become, but is a natural progression from the Classical style of Mozart and Haydn. To begin the program, Maestro Nelsons leads the orchestra in Mendelssohn's elegant and fiery Symphony No. 4, Italian. Boy soprano Rafi Bellamy Plaice and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus joins [sic] the BSO for the concluding work, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, an uplifting work with Hebrew text, composed for a 1965 music festival at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, England

(Some emphasis added.)

The above quote is, as you may have guessed from the orchestra's performance detail page, which also has the usual links to background information, except that it doesn't have notes or audio preview for the Bernstein, which I don't recall ever hearing. We're on our own for text and analysis. The wiki article looks pretty good, and there are performance videos and other articles available.

I'm definitely looking forward to hearing this concert on Sunday evening over WCRB. As I've mentioned other times, they have a lot going on in addition to these concert broadcasts,  so check out their web page for other offerings as well.

Tanglewood — 2017/08/18-20

Three orchestras in three days at Tanglewood.

Friday, August 18, 2017.  It's an Underscore Friday, with introductory remarks from Principal Trombone Toby Oft. The Boston Symphony plays this evening. On the performance detail page we read:

On Friday, August 18, British baritone Simon Keenlyside makes his Tanglewood debut performing selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Rückert-Lieder with conductor David Afkham and the orchestra. Mr. Afkham also leads the BSO in Brahms's energetic Symphony No. 2. Patrons will hear comments about this program from BSO Principal Trombone Toby Oft.

(Some emphasis added.)

The page has the usual links.


Saturday, August, 19, 2017.  The Boston Pops are in the Shed for John Williams' Film Night. Andris Nelsons and John Williams share the podium. From the performance detail page:

John Williams' Film Night has long been established as one of the Tanglewood calendar's most consistently popular evenings. Sharing the podium this summer for what surely will be an historic concert is BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. The program will feature classic cinema scores by Erich Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, and Alex North, as well as music by Mr. Williams himself, including selections from the Harry Potter series, E.T., and Far and Away. Also on the program will be music from Mr. Williams' score to Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with a special guest trumpet soloist.

(Some emphasis added.)


Sunday, August 20, 2017,  brings the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert, performed by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The performance detail page tells us,

Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert on Sunday, August 20, in the Shed. Brilliant English pianist Paul Lewis joins Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra for Beethoven's dramatic and tumultuous Third Piano Concerto. Strauss's large-scale An Alpine Symphony, the composer's last tone poem, depicting an eleven-hour hike of an Alpine mountain, closes the program.

(Some emphasis added.)


Hear it all on line or on air via WCRB at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7:00 p. m. on Sunday.

Tanglewood — 2017/07/07-09

The BSO's Tanglewood season begins this weekend. With a couple of exceptions, when other groups such as the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra will be on stage, they will play concerts every Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 from July 7 through August 27. WCRB will stream and broadcast the Friday and Saturday concerts live, and they will present the Sunday concerts at 7:00 p.m. In addition to their homepage (previously linked), with its Listen Live button, WCRB also has a Tanglewood page, which gives highlights of the season and links a half-hour podcast preview with the orchestra's Artistic Administrator, Tony Fogg.

Since the programs aren't [resented earlier in the week, there are no reviews available. Sometimes I may have thoughts of my own. Some of the pieces to be played were included in concerts in Symphony Hall over the winter. In that case, there may be a review of the earlier concert.


Friday, July 7, 2017.  The opening night gala gives us a single work, described as follows by the orchestra's program detail page:

JUL 7

 2017 

FRIDAY, 8:00 PM

Opening Night at Tanglewood
MAHLER Symphony No. 2, Resurrection

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra open their 2017 Tanglewood season Friday, July 7, with a gala performance of Mahler's grand, deeply emotional, and ultimately triumphant Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. Soprano Malin Christensson (in her Tanglewood debut) and mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink join Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra, along with the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

(Some emphasis supplied.)
The program detail page also includes links to performer bios (click on the thumbnail pictures), program notes, and audio previews.


Saturday, July 8, 2017.  The first, non-BSO concert of the season brings the Boston Pops and singers for this program of Sondheim. Once more, the program detail page tells us about it:

JUL 8

 2017 

SATURDAY, 8:00 PM

Sondheim on Sondheim at Tanglewood
Boston Pops Orchestra

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Hailed as "a funny, affectionate, and revealing tribute to musical theater's greatest living composer and lyricist," the symphonic Sondheim on Sondheim  with the Boston Pops is not to be missed! This retrospective of the life and work of America's finest contemporary musical theater creator is told through his own words via film, live performers, and his amazing music. Experience this acclaimed sampling of Sondheim's extraordinary output, now for the first time with lush new arrangements for full orchestra.

(Some emphasis supplied.)

Sunday, July 9, 2017.  The Boston Symphony "returns." Of course, since there is considerable overlap in the membership of the BSO and the Pops most of them were not away on Saturday evening. This time, as the BSO program detail page tells us, it's for Mozart and another Mahler Symphony. There also links as described in the discussion of Friday's concert.

JUL 9

 2017 

SUNDAY, 2:30 PM

Andris Nelsons conducts Mozart and Mahler

Tanglewood 

Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA - View Map

Andris Nelsons returns to the podium for his second concert of the season on Sunday, July 9, for an afternoon program featuring 15-year-old Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich in his BSO and Tanglewood debuts performing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, and Mr. Nelsons' second Mahler symphony of the weekend-Symphony No. 4 featuring soprano Kristine Opolais. 

(Emphasis supplied.)

Remember, WCRB delays the broadcast/webstream until 7:00 p.m.

Tanglewood — 2016/08/12-14

Friday, August 12.  Here's how the BSO's performance detail page — with its usual links — describes the program:

On Friday, August 12, at 8 p.m., Swiss maestro Charles Dutoit, one of the BSO's most popular guest conductors since his debut with the orchestra in 1981, conducts his first performance of the season as Tanglewood's 2016 Koussevitzky Artist-an honorary title reflecting the BSO's deep appreciation for his generous commitment to Tanglewood and for his extraordinary 30-plus-year dedication to the BSO at Tanglewood, in Boston, and on the orchestra's 2014 tour to China and Japan. The program opens with the overture to Nicolai's charming, witty operetta The Merry Wives of Windsor, a piece the BSO hasn't performed since 1984. Following the overture is Mozart's warm Piano Concerto No. 22, a personal favorite of American pianist and annual Tanglewood guest Emanuel Ax. Maestro Dutoit also leads the BSO in Debussy's La Merand Ravel's Bolero, music of which Maestro Dutoit is a foremost interpreter, and which has a special place in the BSO repertoire.

(Some emphasis added.)

This time, they've actually listed the pieces  in the order they'll be performed. The music is fairly familiar, although I can't at this moment call to mind any tune from the Nicolai or the Mozart, but I'm especially looking forward to the first half. The Debussy is tolerable and it's always interesting to hear the music build in "Boléro."


Saturday, August 13.  Saturday brings us Film Night with the Boston Pops instead of the BSO. John Williams himself shares the podium with Richard Kaufman in a program about which we read, on the performance detail page:

A beloved summer tradition continues on Saturday, August 13, at 8 p.m., with John Williams' Film Night, featuring conductors John Williams and Richard Kaufman with the Boston Pops. John Williams' Film Night has long been established as one of the Tanglewood calendar's most consistently appreciated evenings. The second half of the concert will feature John Williams leading the Boston Pops in the unforgettable themes he composed for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back,and Return of the Jedi, as well as Rey's Theme and The Jedi Steps & Finale from the franchise's latest film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For the first half of the program, Richard Kaufman leads music from iconic cinematic flight sequences-with music from movies including Hook, Out of Africa, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Superman.

(Some emphasis added.)

Need I say more?


Sunday, August 14.  On Sunday, we get Beethoven and Schumann. This is the concert I'm most looking forward to this weekend. The program detail page informs us:

For The Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Memorial Concert on Sunday, August 14, at 2:30 p.m., German conductor David Afkham and Russian-German pianist Igor Levit both make their Boston Symphony Orchestra debuts in an afternoon program of Beethoven and Schumann in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Mr. Afkham leads the BSO in Beethoven's dramatic, foreboding Coriolan Overture, written for Heinrich Joseph von Collin's 1804 play; as well as Schumann's ambitious and innovative Symphony No. 4, a lyrically powerful work that proceeds through all four movements without pause. Mr. Levit performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, the stormiest of the composer's five essays in the genre, as the centerpiece of this program.

(Some emphasis added)

The Beethoven precedes intermission, and the Schumann concludes the concert. These may not be the most performed of the composers' works in each genre, but they're all fine pieces, well worth hearing, IMO.


The Friday and Saturday concerts can be heard via WCRB radio or web at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time, and the Sunday program will be aired and streamed at 7:00, p.m. (not live at 2:30). Their home page, in addition to the link for listening over the web, gives information about other special programming which may be of interest. Their BSO page, in addition to listing the works to be played on Friday and Sunday and giving a short blurb about Film Night, gives similar information about the remaining Tanglewood concert broadcasts and various other interesting items and links.

Enjoy.