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The Classical Beat: Thrilling Music at Tanglewood
By Stephen Dankner, Special to iBerkshires
09:33PM / Tuesday, August 04, 2015
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Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Emanuel Ax on Thursday at Tanglewood.

With the arrival of August, we are at the height of the music festival season.

Programs at Tanglewood offer a diverse and intriguing mix of chamber music by Brahms featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax; violin concerti by Sibelius and Glazunov; 20th century and contemporary vocal music; ballet music of Stravinsky; Schubert’s immortal song cycle “Winterreise,” and much more.

 

At Tanglewood this week

• Thursday, Aug. 6, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The three timeless piano trios (violin, cello and piano) of Brahms comprise this program. The stellar ensemble showcases the impeccable matching of three supreme talents: cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Emanuel Ax. These Brahms masterpieces will be undoubtedly be performed to perfection. Only lawn tickets are available; it doesn’t matter. This will be a Tanglewood season highlight.

• Friday, Aug. 7, 8:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Charles Dutoit leads the BSO in a program of Ravel (the stunningly beautiful ‘Mother Goose Suite’,) the rapturous Sibelius Violin Concerto, with the magnificent soloist Leonidas Kavakos, and to conclude, Stravinsky’s miraculously colorful score – full of orchestral fireworks - to the 1911 version of the ballet ‘Petrushka” - a dazzling orchestral showpiece.

• Saturday, Aug. 8, 8:30 p.m. in the Shed: The Tanglewood Music Center 75th Anniversary Gala Concert. BSO Music Director/Maestro Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Festival Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Chorus and the American Boychoir in the preeminent season highlight - a performance of the cosmic Mahler Eighth Symphony. This gala concert is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Bernstein and celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. The exceptional vocal soloists in this gargantuan work are: sopranos Erin Wall, Christine Goerke and Erin Morley; mezzo-sopranos Lioba Braun and Jane Henschel; tenor Klaus Florian Vogt; baritone Matthias Goerne and bass Ain Anger.

• Sunday, Aug. 9, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Charles Dutoit directs the BSO, with guest artist the poetic violinist Joshua Bell the soloist in the Glazunov Violin Concerto. Mussorgsky’s creepy and exhilarating "Night on Bald Mountain" opens the program, and the concert concludes with Hector Berlioz’s astounding, audacious and over-the-top ‘Symphonie Fantastique.’ This program is awesome, spine chilling ... and fun. Bring the kids; they’ll love it!

• Sunday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. in the Shed: 2015 Koussevitzky Artists cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax will – incredibly - perform all five of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. Chamber music aficionados, you won’t hear the likes of this again. Don’t miss these unique performances.

• Tuesday, Aug. 11, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: 20th century vocal music, performed by Tanglewood Music Center vocal Fellows make up this attractive program. Contrabassist Edwin Barker will be the featured performer. Music by Fred Lerdahl (a TMC 75th anniversary commission premiere) will take center stage. Music composed by Lucas Foss, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Jacques Ibert round out this fascinating concert. There will be an intermission panel discussion with TMC 75 composers.

• Wednesday, Aug. 12, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: A solo recital by the stupendous violinist Christian Tetzlaff will be another in the series of stellar, can’t-miss concerts at Tanglewood this week. Energetic, powerful and commanding are three adjectives that come to mind when I think of this great artist. He will perform masterworks by Ysaÿe, Bach (the solo Sonata No. 3 in C, BWV 1005,) Gyorgy Kurtag, and Bartok (the magisterial ‘Sonata for unaccompanied Violin’). Commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin and composed in 1944 while the composer was undergoing treatment for leukemia in Asheville, North Carolina, this solo Sonata is one of the greatest works for violin in music history. Seldom performed in public, it will be a rare treat to hear it, especially as interpreted by Christian Tetzlaff.

Tickets for all Tanglewood events can be purchased online at tanglewood.org, via SymphonyCharge, 888-266-1200 or 888-266-1200, and at the Tanglewood box office located at the main gate, on West Street in Lenox. For further information call 413-637-1600.

 

Music & More

• Saturday, Aug. 8, 4:30 p.m.: Music & More will present the opening concert of their 2015 season at the historic Meeting House on the Village Green, 154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road, New Marlborough.

Returning to Music & More after a incredible performance last year, the married team of Boston Symphony violinist Tatiana Dimitriades and pianist Jonathan Bass will perform a stylistically varied and electrifying program of sonatas by Beethoven (Op. 30 No. 3 in G Major, No.8,) Martinu (Sonata No. 3, H.303 [1944],) Brahms ‘Sonatensatz,’ and Faure (Sonata Op. 13 in A Major). A reception for the artists will follow at the Meeting House Art Gallery.

The Boston Duo has been delighting Boston and Berkshire audiences for more than 20 years. Tatiana Dimitirades has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1987 and frequently appears in chamber groups at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood. Jonathan Bass is Chair of the Piano Department at the Boston Conservatory where he has been on the faculty since 1993. He has appeared with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players both in Boston and at Tanglewood.

For more information and tickets, call 413-229-2785 or go online at www.newmarlborogh.org.

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