Tanglewood 2013
Five Pops But No James Taylor
By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 27, 2012
In January the Boston Symphony Orchestra will announce its Popular Artists series. This is widely viewed as the populist icing on the cake for the Tanglewood Music Festival which is renowned for its adherence to tradition as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Because three Pops concerts last summer drew audiences of 10,000 each the number is upped with two more this coming season. The kickoff on June 23 will feature comic and banjo player Steve Martin. On the all important and yet to be fully announced July 4th weekend Keith Lockahrt will conduct Pops with guest artist, the Country singer, Vince Gill. Michael Feinstein and Audra MacDonald are also penciled in for Pops as well as the perennial John Williams Film Night and the epic Tanglewood on Parade.
This season there were be big shoes to fill as James Taylor is taking the summer off to work on a new album. That's not to rule out a pop up performance with Pops. But he won't headline the multiple sellouts that have balanced the books for Tanglewood the past few years.
Mark Volpe often adheres to the notion of if it ain't broke don't fix it. He presented the teeniebopper rock band Train for the last two years and will we find that three's a charm. Or yet another appearance by Diana Krall? Last summer we enjoyed great jazz with Chick Corea/ Gary Burton, Chris Botti, Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis. Let's hope more top tier jazz artists are scheduled this year.
Sure to be a sellout will be David Newman conducting the score of West Side Story with the remastered film projected in the Shed on July 13. It has already been presented at other venues and is a perfect fit for a summer night in the Berkshires.
Mark Morris will make his annual appearance in Ozawa Hall July 31, and August 1. Before retiring from performing Morris was renowned for his role of Dido. It will be a pleasure to see a restaging of his Dido and Aeneas set to music of Purcell. Britten's Curlew River is also on the program.
Opera lovers will delight in the July 20 concert with Lothar Koenigs, conducting Wagner's Die Walküre, Act 3 (concert performance). Cast to include Katarina Dalayman, soprano, Amber Wagner, soprano, Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone.
For yet another year, since the resignation of James Levine, the BSO/ Tanglewood will be without a music director. There will be a revolving door of guest conductors and another look at the short list of candidates for the post.
In that regard discerning listeners will pay particular attention on July 27 when the much coveted Andris Nelsons, conducts
the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Verdi's Requiem.
Can I hear an Amen.
TANGLEWOOD 2013 SCHEDULE
Unless otherwise noted all performances are in The Shed; Friday and Saturday concerts are at 8:30 p.m., weeknights at 8 p.m, Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 23
Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers and Edie Brickell
Saturday, June 29, 5:45 p.m.
A Prairie Home Companion
Thursday, July 4, 7 p.m.
Popular artist TBA
Friday, July 5,
Opening Night
BSO, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 5
Saturday, July 6,
BSO, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Woman of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3
Sunday, July 7
Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart, conductor
with Vince Gill
Monday, July 8 Ozawa Hall
TMC Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Conducting Fellows
Turina: Danzas fantásticas, Op. 22
Kodaly: Dances of Galanta
Beethoven:Symphony No. 5
Thursday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music
Ryan Turner, artistic director and conductor
Harbison: The Great Gatsby (Concert performance)
Friday, July 12,
BSO, Kazushi Ono, conductor
Leon Fleisher, piano
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Ravel: Piano Concerto in D for the left hand
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Saturday, July 13,
BSO, David Newman, conductor
Bernstein: West Side Story
Film screening with live orchestral performance
Sunday, July 14,
BSO, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Lynn Harrell, cello
Stravinsky: Suite from Pulcinella
Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8
Wednesday, July 17, Ozawa Hall
Borodin String Quartet
Brahms: Quartet No. 3 in B-flat, Op. 67
Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30
Thursday, July 18, Ozawa Hall
Bryn Terfel, baritone
Natalia Katyukova, piano
German and English art songs
Friday, July 19
BSO, Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Wagner : Prelude to Die Meistersinger
Liszt : Totentanz
Beethoven: (orch. MAHLER:) Symphony No. 3, Eroica
Saturday, July 20
BSO, Lothar Koenigs, conductor
Wagner: Die Walküre, Act 3 (concert performance)
Cast to include Katarina Dalayman, soprano, Amber Wagner, soprano, Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone
Sunday, July 21
Members of the BSO
Pinchas Zukerman, conductor, violin, and viola
Concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Telemann
Monday, July 22, Ozawa Hall
TMC Orchestra, Stéphane Denève, conductor
Conducting Fellows
Debussy: Jeux, Danses sacrées et profanes, La Mer
Wednesday, July 24, Ozawa Hall
Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Harding, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
Dean: Testament
Schumann: Symphony No. 2
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Thursday, July 25, Ozawa Hall
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Works of Beethoven, Schubert, Griffes, Chopin
Friday, July 26
BSO, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor and piano
Christine Schäfer, soprano
Mozart: “Ch’io mi scordi di te…” Concert aria
Piano Concerto No. 12 in A
Symphony No. 41, Jupiter
Saturday, July 27
BSO, Andris Nelsons, conductor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Verdi: Requiem
Sunday, July 28
BSO, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Dvorak: Carnival Overture
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, From the New World
Wednesday, July 31, 7:30 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Thursday, August 1, 7:30 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Mark Morris Dance Group
TMC Fellows
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Britten: Curlew River
Fully-staged productions
Friday, August 2
Koussevitzky Memorial Concert
BSO, Stéphane Denève, conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Poulenc: Stabat Mater, for soprano, chorus, and orchestra
Saturday, August 3
BSO, Charles Dutoit, conductor
Lang Lang, piano
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (complete)
Sunday, August 4
BSO, Charles Dutoit, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Stravinsky: Fireworks
Dvorak: Cello Concerto
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Tuesday, August 6,
Tanglewood on Parade
Program to include
Borodin: Polovetsian Dances from Prince Igor
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture
Wednesday, August 7, Ozawa Hall
Christian Zacharias, piano
Works of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann
Festival of Contemporary Music, August 8-12
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Festival Director
Thursday, August 8, Ozawa Hall
Chamber Orchestra
Carter: Instances
Stroppa: “Let Me Sing Into Your Ear”
Lachenmann: “…zwei Gefuhle…”
Mason: New Work
Friday, August 9, Ozawa Hall
Chamber works TBA
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
TMC Fellows
Sunday, August 11 10 a.m. Ozawa Hall
Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Works for piano by Ligeti and Nancarrow
Monday, August 12, Ozawa Hall
Benjamin: Written On Skin (Concert performance)
Friday, August 9
BSO, Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Saturday, August 10
BSO, Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Carter: Sound Fields
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Sunday, August 11
BSO, Christian Zacharias, conductor and piano
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Piano Concerto No. 2
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Wednesday, August 14, Ozawa Hall
Emerson String Quartet
Music of Haydn, Britten, Beethoven
Thursday, August 15
The Goat Rodeo Show
Yo-Yo Ma, cello, Edgar Meyer, bass, Chris Thile, mandolin, and Stuart Duncan, fiddle, Aoife O’Donovan, vocalist.
Friday, August 16
Boston Pops Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, conductor
with Michael Feinstein
Saturday, August 17
BSO, Bernard Haitink, conductors
Isabelle Faust, violin
Camilla Tilling, soprano
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Sunday, August 18
Bernstein Memorial Concert
TMC Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, K.271
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Tuesday, August 20, Ozawa Hall
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Menahem Pressler, piano
Carter: Wind Quintet,
Copland: Appalachian Spring
Kurtag: Impromptu
Mozart: Piano Quartet in E-flat
Thursday, August 22, Ozawa Hall
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Works of Scriabin, Liszt, Chopin
Friday, August 23
BSO, Andris Poga, conductor
Peter Serkin, piano
Poulenc: Sinfonietta
Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Winds
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
Saturday, August 24
John Williams’ Film Night
Boston Pops Orchestra
John Williams and David Newman, conductors
Audra McDonald, vocalist
Sunday, August 25
BSO, Bernard Haitink, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Sunday, August 25, Ozawa Hall
Monty Alexander Trio
Sunday, September 1
Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins, conductor