UPDATE:Regrettably, guest conductor Zubin Mehta has had to withdraw for personal reasons from the BSO Open Rehearsal on Saturday, August 23 and performance on Sunday, August 24. He is especially saddened to miss his return to Tanglewood, where he has fond memories from his early days as a Conducting Fellow during the summer of 1958. We are grateful that former BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee is able to conduct on short notice. The repertoire will remain unchanged.
LENOX — Time flies when you’re having fun.
That must explain why the end of the season is rapidly approaching at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Popular music concerts continue at Tanglewood through the end of August and include Lynyrd Skynyrd (Aug. 30) and Bonnie Raitt (Aug. 31) as well as a live taping on Aug. 28 of the NPR quiz program “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me” featuring special guest Paul Giamatti.
But if you’re a fan of classical music, don’t wait much longer to make the trek out to Tanglewood in the Berkshires. This weekend is the last weekend to hear the BSO and other classical musicians perform this summer, including the always-popular final weekend performance of Beethoven’s Ninth.
The classical music season at Tanglewood kicked off on July 5 with an all-Rachmaninoff concert featuring conductor and BSO music director Andris Nelsons and pianist Daniil Trifonov.
Since then, it’s been one fantastic weekend after another.
And part of that’s due to one of the stars of the summer didn’t even appear on stage — the weather.
“The first thing I must say is we’ve been blessed with incredible weather this summer, which always helps with everyone’s spirits and attendance,” said Anthony ‘Tony’ Fogg, vice president of artistic planning for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, during a recent interview. “So we’ve had some tremendous crowds here.”
“Starting with the all-Rachmaninoff program that Andris conducted through (the opera) ‘Tosca’… to the beautiful chamber music program with Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, it’s been a fantastic season,” he added.
Fogg also praised the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, which features talented, young, pre-professional musicians who spend the summer at Tanglewood as part of one of the world’s greatest music academies, where they work and study with the BSO and other outstanding musicians.
“I must say, the work of our fellows in the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra has been on an extraordinary level,” Fogg said. “Right from the very first concert that they gave in which they performed Brahms’ Second Symphony with Andris Nelsons, you could just tell that this was a very, very special group of young musicians and they have sustained that high level right throughout the summer.”
Another highlight of this summer’s season was the world premiere of John Williams’ Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax. “It was so wonderful to see John here on the stage after an absence of a couple of years,” Fogg said. “It was absolutely a great night in Tanglewood’s history.”
This coming weekend, classical music fans will be treated to several final performances.
Friday night features two concerts — the 6 p.m. prelude concert in Ozawa Hall featuring chamber music performed by members of the BSO, followed at 8 p.m. by Keith Lockhart’s 30th Anniversary Celebration concert with the Boston Pops.
“We’re doing a big celebration of Keith’s 30th year with a real galaxy of stars coming in with a specially devised program that highlights all of Keith’s great achievements and the many musical styles that he’s championed over the years with the Pops,” Fogg said.
Lockhart has been leading the Boston Pops since 1995. The conductor’s 30th anniversary concert will feature many special guests, including Lynn Ahrens, Jason Danieley, Ben Folds, Mandy Gonzalez, Bernadette Peters, Guster’s Ryan Miller, John Pizzarelli, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Time for Three.
The next day, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the BSO will perform Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria” under the direction of conductor Kazuki Yamada.
The conductor “is something of a protege of (former BSO director and conductor) Seiji Ozawa and a very prominent emerging conductor, works with many of the great orchestras of the world, most recently with the Berlin Philharmonic,” Fogg said. “He’s doing one of the great orchestral show pieces, ‘The Planets’.”
Fogg added that the BSO originally commissioned Poulenc’s “Gloria,” which was first performed in 1961. “It’s a great work for chorus, orchestra and soprano.”
Finally, on Sunday at 2:30 pm, the BSO will perform the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s “Words and Prayers of My Fathers” followed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, under the direction of the legendary conductor Zubin Mehta.
Sunday’s performance will mark the first time ever that the 89-year-old conductor and former director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has conducted the BSO.
“He’s one of the most celebrated conductors of our time, but just purely coincidentally, has never actually conducted the Boston Symphony,” Fogg said. “He was a fellow here at the Tanglewood Music Center back in 1958 and has been here subsequently as conductor of other orchestras. So, I’m sure it’ll be one of the great moments… coming to conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”
Fogg added that Simon, the inaugural Composer Chair for the BSO, “has written a very, very beautiful work for unaccompanied chorus based on the writings and poetry of his father and grandfather, both of whom were ministers of the church. This is a very personal work, and I think it’ll be incredible to hear the world premiere.”
Tanglewood is located at 297 West St. in Lenox. The summer season at Tanglewood runs through Aug. 31. For more information about these concerts or other upcoming performances at Tanglewood, visit the BSO’s website at www.bso.org/tanglewood
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