The Classical Beat 

By

Stephen Danker

The Classical 'High Season' Approaches its Zenith

Classical and Contemporary Festivals at Tanglewood and Bach at Sevenars showcase musical excellence

During late-July, the classical music festival "high season," anchored by concerts at Tanglewood in Lenox and at the Sevenars Festival in South Worthington approaches its zenith, with both sure-fire and innovative programming. Offerings this week include revelatory chamber and orchestral works in Ozawa Hall and in the Shed. Boston Symphony performances include both classic and rarely heard works by Sibelius and Copland as well as masterpieces by Russian masters Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Khachaturian, and Stravinsky. Celebrating the great and historic BSO Russian/American maestro Serge Koussevitsky's 150th birthday, double bass virtuoso Edwin Barker, Principal double bass with the Boston Symphony, will perform the great conductor/composer's landmark Concerto for Double Bass, Op. 3, composed in 1904.   

For a similarly musically rewarding change of pace, be sure to check out the performance of three of the Bach solo cello Suites by the phenomenal Israeli cellist Inbal Segev, on Sunday, July 28, located in the historic and intimate Academy at the Sevenars Music Festival in bucolic South Worthington, MA.

As always, the place to be for great classical and stimulating new music is right here in our own intimate corner of the world - the Berkshires - a so-designated "cultural capital," where artistic boundaries are nonexistent.

Read on for concert details for all of the above, covering the week from July 24-30:

Tanglewood

This is the week for celebration at Tanglewood. Here are the highlights:

• Wednesday, July 24, Ozawa Hall, at 8:00 p.m. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, with special guest artist pianist Paul Lewis, will perform  a RECITAL SERIES program of Mozart (a masterpiece: the Quintet in E flat for piano and winds, K. 452), Brahms (the String Sextet, Op. 36) and a work for solo flute, "Homeland," by contemporary composer Allison Loggins.

• Friday, July 26, Shed, at 8:00 p.m. - KOUSSEVITSKY 150 Celebration: BSO Maestro Andris Nelsons conducts the Orchestra and guest artists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and powerhouse pianist Yefim Bronfman in a program of Steven Mackey, ("Urban Ocean") Sibelius ("The Origin of Fire") and Alexander Scriabin ("Prometheus, Poem of Fire") for piano, chorus and Orchestra).

• Saturday, July 27, Shed, at 8:00 p.m.: Andris Nelsons returns to lead the Boston Symphony, with the thrilling piano soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, performing the scintillating Khachaturian Piano Concerto, and concludes with Tchaikovsky's impassioned Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique"). The program opens with the supercharged curtain-raiser "Stride," by resident composer Tania León.

• Sunday, July 28, Shed, at 2:30 p.m.- KOUSSEVITSKY 150 Celebration: Focusing on Maestro Serge Koussevitsky's commissions to composers and premiere performances, Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in a program of Copland (his 1926 jazz-tinged Piano Concerto), Randall Thompson's beloved choral masterwork, "Alleluia," and Stravinsky's eloquently inspired neoclassical magnum opus, "Symphony of Psalms," composed for the BSO to celebrate the Orchestra's 50th  anniversary in 1930. The concert opens with James Lee's "Freedom's Genuine Dawn."

SPECIAL EVENT: The five-day 'Festival of Contemporary Music'

Tanglewood's 2024 Festival of Contemporary Music, Thursday, July 25-Monday, July 29, will be jointly curated by composers Tania León and Steven Mackey, and will feature several of these major composers' works, as well as compositions by others, with a special focus on showcasing up-and-coming, path-finding, and groundbreaking new composers whose works may well define the evolution of classical music.

As the Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) is one of the world's most prominent showcases for works from the current musical landscape, landmark pieces from the new music vanguard of the 21st century will be performed during the five-day Festival.

Additionally, the FCM affords Tanglewood Music Center Fellow performers the opportunity to explore and learn unfamiliar repertoire and to experience the value of direct collaboration with individual living composers - performing their music composed across a wide stylistic spectrum.

Concerts and related events will occur in Ozawa Hall and at Studio E, the Linde Center for Music and Learning. For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call (888) 266-1200, or go online at tanglewood.org.

Sevenars Music Festival