The Classical Beat: A Profusion of Music at Tanglewood and Sevenars

The TMC Orchestra will perform Brahms' Second Symphony August 14 in Ozawa Hall

Come mid-August, classical aficionados are grateful for the cornucopia of extraordinary musical riches the Boston Symphony bestows to rapt audiences within the incomparably bucolic setting that is Tanglewood.

During this seventh week of the Tanglewood Festival's classical programming, the spotlight will focus on a range of music in varied genres: from the brilliant cellist Alisa Weilerstein's commissioned "Fragments 2" – all newly-composed simulacra to Bach's six cello Suites movements, to music resurrected from the agonies of the Terezin concentration camp: "Our Will to Live," to the sonorous glories of Richard Strauss' revelatory sonic canvas "Death and Transfiguration" - musical history from time immemorial to the present will be hovering over Tanglewood's arcadian meadows.

And there's much more: John Williams' Violin Concerto No 2, commissioned and here performed by the stellar Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maurice Ravel's swirling, dizzying recreation of a sumptuous ball in 1850s Vienna, "La Valse," and Béla Bartók's astonishing "Concerto for Orchestra." On Sunday, August 13 Yo-Yo Ma takes center stage with Shostakovich's intensely powerful Cello Concerto No. 1, and Stravinsky fans will relish his joyous, fun-loving "Petrushka." Classicists will not want to miss Brahms' Symphony No. 2, and opera fans, invoked by Benjamin Britten's rapturous "Four Sea Interludes," will have visions of the resplendent and tumultuous ocean. For classical music enthusiasts, it is a great gift that such a profusion of glorious masterworks will be on the boards this week.

Looking ahead to the closing weeks of the 2023 festival, Tanglewood offers a wealth of musical and non-musical events, highlighted by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons; the family-oriented Keith Lockhart and the Pops in two movie-themed concerts; and appearances by some of today's most celebrated artists from the worlds of jazz, Broadway, and popular music, as well as thought-provoking discussions and award-winning drama. Read on for the particulars.

Tanglewood Shed Concerts                           

•   Friday, Aug. 11, 8 p.m.: Music Director Andris Nelsons returns to the podium to lead the BSO in Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration," Ravel's "La Valse," and John Williams' Violin Concerto No. 2 with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who performed the world premiere of the work to great acclaim in July 2021, and who will join the BSO on its tour of Europe.  

•   Saturday, Aug. 12, 8 p.m.: Guest conductor Susanna Mälkki is joined by pianist Seong-Jin Cho for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, K.271 on a program also featuring a BSO-commissioned historic signature work, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. 

• CANCELED: Sunday, Aug. 13, 2:30 p.m.: Andris Nelsons leads Julia Adolphe's "Makeshift Castle" (a BSO co-commission premiered in 2022 at Tanglewood), Stravinsky's "Petrushka" (1947 version), and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with audience favorite, the luminary Yo-Yo Ma as soloist.  

Tanglewood Ozawa Hall Events

•   Wednesday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m.: Acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein presents "FRAGMENTS 2," a multi-sensory experience in which new music by composers of our time is integrated into movements from a single Bach cello suite, enhanced with stagecraft provided by Elkhanah Pulitzer, Seth Reiser, and Carlos Soto.  

•  CANCELED: Thursday, Aug. 10, 2 p.m.: TLI Open Cello Workshop features the incomparable Yo-Yo Ma and TMC Fellows (joint presentation of TLI and TMC). 

•   Friday, Aug. 11, 6 p.m.: The program for this Prelude Concert with BSO members includes the renowned Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla's "Histoire du Tango" and John Williams' "La Jolla Quartet" for clarinet, harp, violin, and cello.

•   Sunday, Aug. 13, 10 a.m.: Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Music includes works by Grisey ("Tempus ex Machina"), Brahms (Horn Trio in E-flat, Op. 40), Daniel Zlatkin ("Requiem"), and Schumann (Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47). 

• Monday, Aug. 14, 8 p.m.: In her Tanglewood debut, conductor/scholar Dame Jane Glover and TMC Conducting Fellows lead the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Dvorák's "The Wood Dove, "Four Sea Interludes" from Benjamin Britten's great opera "Peter Grimes," and Brahms' Symphony No. 2.  

Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) and Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) Activities in Studio E of the Linde Center

•Wednesday, Aug. 9, 1:30 p.m.: TLI Open Conducting Workshop with Andris Nelsons and TMC Fellows (a joint presentation of TLI and TMC).

•   Thursday, Aug. 10, 1 p.m.: A TLI In Conversation with Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki, who also leads the August 12th BSO concert and the August 20th TMCO concert.

•   Friday, Aug. 11, 4:30 p.m.: In the first of two events, TLI Immersion: "Defiant Music" presents Terezín Music Foundation director (and former BSO violist) Mark Ludwig exploring Nazi "cultural cleansing" in "Degenerate Music—Voices That Could Not Be Silenced." 

•   Saturday, Aug. 12, 3 p.m.: In the second TLI Immersion: Defiant Music, Terezín Music Foundation director Mark Ludwig presents "Our Will to Live—Music and Art in Terezín," a journey into the cultural community of Terezín, where the Nazis imprisoned numerous musicians and artists. 

•   Saturday, Aug. 12, 6 p.m.: Prelude Concert by TMC musicians, featuring chamber music by Heinrich Schütz ("Fili mi, Absalom"), Jesse Jennings (world premiere of "Reservoir": Dvorák (String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat).

•   Sunday, Aug. 13, 10:30 a.m.: The second of Circle Round's Tanglewood events is a performance/live podcast recording, featuring host Rebecca Sheir and composer Eric Shimelonis, plus BSO players Clint Foreman, flute; Suzanne Nelsen, bassoon; Rachel Childers, horn; and Ben Levy, bass.  

•   Sunday, August 13, 8 p.m.: TMC musicians perform music by Bach, including two cantatas (No. 133, "Ich freue mich in dir" and No. 20, "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort") and Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.   

For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call (617) 266-1200. TDD/TTY: (617) 638-9289. Online: tanglewood.org.

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, Aug. 13, 4:00 p.m.: Sevenars is proud to welcome the musical trifecta of Carol Wincenc, Rebecca Young, and Joy Cline Phinney. 

Carol Wincenc, dubbed "Queen of the flute" (New York Magazine), is just that, winner of Naumburg First Prize, National Society of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music, Diapason d'Or Award, and more. She has appeared as soloist with the finest orchestras (Chicago, London, et al.) and has taught for over a half century combined on the faculties of Juilliard and Stony Brook. 

Rebecca Young, Associate Principal Violist of the NY Philharmonic (and former Principal of the BSO), is sought-after internationally as performer, recording artist (with Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax, etc. on Sony), teacher (Shanghai and the US), and host of the Philharmonic's Very Young Peoples Concerts. 

Pianist and collaborator extraordinaire Joy Cline Phinney has appeared across the US and Europe, on recordings (Albany, Delos), on radio and television, with members of the BSO, NY Philharmonic, Cleveland, and Met Opera orchestras, as faculty artist for Cremona International Academy in Italy, and more. 

These superb musicians will perform sonatas by Francis Poulenc and Johannes Brahms, "Legends" by Grammy-winner Valerie Coleman, Jacques Ibert's "Interludes," a "Duo" by François

 Devienne, Amy Beach's "Romance," Op. 23, Gabriel Fauré's "Morceau de Concours," and Béla Bartók's "Roumanian Dances."

For Sevenars tickets, and general contact information, call: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for return call). On the Web: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments are included. Sevenars Concerts is located at the Academy in South Worthington, Mass., located at 15 Ireland Street, just off Route 112.

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