Tanglewood — 2025/08/08-10

 A mix of the familiar,  the not-so-familiar, and the new is being presented tonight and Sunday, with two of the greatest string players of ouur time as soloists. In between, we can hear John Williams Film Night on Saturday. We turn once more to WCRB for the basics and the BSO page for fuller descriptions.

August 8, 2025

WCRB tells us: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-05-27/orozco-estrada-conducts-dvoraks-new-world-at-tanglewood

Friday, August 8, 2025
8:00 PM

Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Italy, makes his Tanglewood debut conducting Dvořák’s much-beloved Symphony No. 9, From the New World. The inimitable Joshua Bell, who has performed at Tanglewood every year since 1989, is the soloist in Lalo’s spirited Symphonie espagnole.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin

Édouard LALO Symphonie espagnole
Antonín DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9, From the New World

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

Now for the link to the orchestra's performance detail page:

https://www.bso.org/events/bso-august-8-joshua-bell?performance=2025-08-08-20%3A00

There you find links to the program notes. Among other things they note that the melody of the slow movement of the Dvořák is the composer's own invention, not a Negro spiritual.

August 9, 2025

Again we look to WCRB for the basics, as well as an interview with the composer which should be interesting reading: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-05-27/lockhart-leads-the-pops-in-john-williams-film-night

Saturday, August 9, 2025
8:00 PM

A cherished Tanglewood tradition, John Williams’ Film Night returns with a fabulous program of film music highlights specially curated by Maestro Williams himself and featuring Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. It’s a special evening of magical music that you won’t want to miss!

Boston Pops Orchestra
John Williams, curator
Keith Lockhart, conductor

Film Night!

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

In an interview with Brian McCreath from 2016, John Williams discusses what led him to become a composer, why conducting The Boston Pops is so special, and why he believes Star Wars resonates so profoundly with humanity. Listen with the audio player above, and follow the transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT (Note: The Star Wars film discussed here is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, from 2015.):

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall. I'm with John Williams, and it is a great pleasure to have the chance to speak with you, John.

Need I say more?

Here's the link to the performance detail page. There are no program notes for individual pieces, but you can find those for the performer bios.

https://www.bso.org/events/boston-pops-august-9?performance=2025-08-09-20%3A00

August 10, 2025

Sunday evening brings us the afternoon concert from Taanglewood, described here by WCRB: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2025-05-27/yo-yo-ma-samy-rachid-and-pepins-un-monde-nouveau-at-tanglewood

Sunday, August 10, 2025
7:00 PM

Following his highly acclaimed Tanglewood debut last summer, BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid leads an exciting program featuring the American premiere of French composer Camille Pépin’s Un Monde nouveau, Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, and Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Yo-Yo Ma. It will be the first time that Ma performs this cello concerto at Tanglewood, the piece he performed with the Boston Pops in his 1971 Symphony Hall debut as a 15-year-old prodigy.

Samy Rachid, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Camille PÉPIN Un Monde nouveau (American premiere)
Camille SAINT-SÄENS Cello Concerto No. 1
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, Scottish

I highly recommend going to the performance detail page https://www.bso.org/events/bso-august-10-yo-yo-ma?performance=2025-08-10-14%3A30 and following the link to the notes for Un monde nouveau. I wonder why they didn't program the New  World Symphony on the same evening. Of course the other program notes are also worthwhile.

It promises to be an enjoyable weekend.

BSO/Classical New England — 2017/09/02

Sorry to be so late. I've been busy. Here are the essentials from the WCRB website.
http://classicalwcrb.org/post/all-french-program-alain-altinoglu#stream/0

Saturday, September 2, 2017
8:00 PM

This is an encore broadcast originally recorded on April 1, 2017.

Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Renaud Capuçon, violin

BERLIOZ Roman Carnival Overture
LALO Symphonie espagnole
DUTILLEUX Symphony No. 2, Le Double
ROUSSEL Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No. 2

Hear the concert on demand

Hear a preview with Alain Altinoglu on The Answered Question:

TAGS: 

BSO — 2017/04/01

This week we have a French guest conductor leading an all French concert. See the BSO's performance detail page for the usual links to background information. There, the program is described as follows:

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, making his BSO debut, leads this all-French program and is joined by his countryman, the violinist Renaud Capuçon, for Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, written for the great Spanish virtuoso Sarasate in 1874 and a brilliant concerto in all but name. Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, by turns romantic and exuberant, opens the program. Albert Roussel's Suite No. 2 from his 1930 ballet Bacchus et Ariane was strongly championed with the BSO by Charles Munch. It was also Munch who introduced Henri Dutilleux's music to the orchestra and called for the commission of his atmospheric Symphony No. 2, Le Double, to commemorate the BSO's 75th anniversary.

(Some emphasis added.)

The reviews are favorable. The Globe finds no fault. The Boston Musical Intelligencer, with no space limitations, goes into more detail, but only has a couple of minor faults to find. I didn't go because I seemed to have a bit of a cold, but I'm looking forward to hearing the first half this evening, before my brother calls from Japan, and the rest in the rebroadcast on Monday, April 10.

As always, you can hear it tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST over WCRB on line or on air. And there is the usual rebroadcast at 8:00 p.m. on April 10. Their website has much information about their programming, including this page devoted to the concert, with a link to a podcast.

Enjoy.

Tanglewood — 2014/07/18(belated)-20

I'm sorry to be late with this. The Friday concert has already been completed, of course; but since it will be available for listening on demand, it might be still worthwhile for me to include the information about it.

Friday, July 18  From the BSO's performance detail page, we get the usual program notes, audio previews of some of the works, and performer bios, as well as the following blurb:

Edward Gardner joins the BSO at Tanglewood in his BSO debut for Strauss's musical joke about the German peasant, folk hero and trickster, Till Eulenspiegel. Baritone Thomas Hampson, dubbed "the ambassador of American song," performs Aaron Copland's deceptively plain Old American Songs. Beethoven's Symphony 7 rounds out a program that is in turns, dark, joyful, nostalgic and hopeful.

(Emphasis added)

They also note:

Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi has been forced to cancel his upcoming concerts at Tanglewood because of serious illness in his family. The concert on Friday, July 18 will now be led by British conductor Edward Gardner  in his BSO debut. The concerts on Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26 will be conducted by Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck in his Tanglewood debut. Programs and soloists remain unchanged.

Saturday, July 19  The concert, which begins at 8:30 p.m., Boston Time, includes the Brahms Symphony No. 3; Rolf Martinsson's "Bridge," Trumpet Concerto No. 1, with Håkan Hardenberger as soloist; and Capriccio Italien by Tchaikovsky: all under the baton of Andris Nelsons. Instead of describing the concert, the performance detail page gives information about procedures for area residents to obtain tickets for this Berkshire Night concert. It also gives the usual links to background material.

Sunday, July 20  Andris Nelsons returns to the podium for Rapture, by Christopher Rouse, Lalo's Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra — with Joshua Bell as soloist — and the ever popular Fifth Symphony of Beethoven to close the program and evoke a standing ovation. Go to the performance detail page for the usual links.

The Sunday Concert begins at 2:30. Both it and the 8:30 Saturday concert will be broadcast and streamed approximately live (a few seconds delay) by WCRB, whose own BSO page includes a link to an interesting-sounding interview with Maestro Nelsons as well as brief descriptions of all three concerts for this weekend, the schedule for this summer's remaining Tanglewood broadcasts, and other links and information. They have a sort of preview show beginning ½ hour before the scheduled concert time. (The BSO, in my experience, never actually starts on time. They always begin at least 5 minutes late, which provides a little grace period for audience members who might have been on time but for some slight delay.)

I'm not familiar with the Martinsson, Rouse, or Lalo pieces, but I'm curious to hear them. I don't care much for Brahms, but I'm sure the Tchaikovsky and the Beethoven will be good. Enjoy.