Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival Begins This Week

The Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival is a groundbreaking digital series of audio and video streams featuring newly created content being recorded at Tanglewood's Linde Center in July alongside previously recorded material from Tanglewood being released for the first time. The Boston Symphony Orchestra's first-ever Tanglewood digital festival-designed to capture the beauty and spirit of the Tanglewood grounds-will feature artists and programs of the originally announced 2020 Tanglewood season, among other content. Click here to view a quote from BSO Artistic Administrator and Director of Tanglewood Anthony Fogg.

In addition to the Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival free-of-charge offerings, other online programs ranging in price from $5 to $12 for a single stream, to $15 to $90 for multiple stream packages, are available for purchase via www.tanglewood.org.

The Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival is being offered in response to continuing concerns over the spread of COVID-19 and official crowd restriction policies that have necessitated the cancellation of the festival's live performance series.

GREAT PERFORMERS IN RECITAL FROM TANGLEWOOD SERIES: GIL SHAHAM, VIOLIN

Friday, July 1, 9:10 p.m. - Hosted by Nicole Cabell, $12 for single video stream, $80 for series
Twenty-seven years after making his Tanglewood debut, violinist Gil Shaham performs a new program for unaccompanied violin that reflects the imaginative range of his musical interests. Shaham plays works by three living American composers, including two written for him: Boston-based composer Scott Wheeler's Isolation Rag, written at Shaham's request as a response to daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic; and two stylish dance movements from William Bolcom's Suite No. 2 for solo violin. Chicago Symphony Orchestra violist Max Raimi's Anger Management is a short and virtuosic etude. Anchoring this program is Bach's Partita in E, one of his six solo violin works from early 1720s that are still considered the wellspring of the solo violin literature. Concluding the program, Prokofiev's charming and lively 1947 Sonata for solo violin was composed for young students of the instrument of music.

BSO MUSICIANS IN CONCERT FROM TANGLEWOOD SERIES

Friday, July 1, 8 p.m. - Hosted by Lauren Ambrose, $5 for single video stream, $28 for series
In addition to working together in their usual large-ensemble setting, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's individual musicians frequently perform as soloists or together in chamber music, a pursuit requiring a different, more intimate mode of musical collaboration. BSO Associate Principal Flute Elizabeth Ostling performs two American works. Aaron Copland's 1967 Duo features both the pastoral lyricism and the rhythmic bounce so characteristic of the composer. The Michigan-born composer James Lee III drew on his strong relationship with Brazil's music and musicians for his Chôro sem tristeza, "lament without sadness." Johannes Brahms's F minor piano quintet began life as a string quintet before Brahms realized he needed the contrasting power of his own instrument, the piano, to bring the piece to its full potential. It today stands as one of the great chamber music works in the repertoire. For this performance, guest pianist Jonathan Bass joins BSO players Alexander Velinzon and Bracha Malkin, violins; Cathy Basrak, viola; and Blaise Déjardin, cello.

TLI SHOPTALKS

Thursday, July 2, 1 p.m. - Juilliard String Quartet violinist Areta Zhulla and cellist Astrid Schween, $5 for single video stream, $32 for series
Thursday afternoon ShopTalks feature candid, informal discussions on life, music, and the future of the field with conductors, composers, soloists, and unsung heroes. For this week, host and Tanglewood Learning Institute Director Sue Elliott interviews the newest members of the Juilliard String Quartet--violinist Areta Zhulla and cellist Astrid Schween--about their careers, struggles and successes, and their visions for the artform. Video available July 2, 2020 at 1 p.m. through July 9, 2020.

From a June 25, 2020 recording session at the Linde Center for Music and Learning
(Photo credit by Hilary Scott) Click here for high-res version.

TLI MASTERPASS

Wednesday, July 1, 1 p.m. - TMC Conducting Class with BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, $5 for video stream, $32 for series
Recorded last July for a packed audience at the Linde Center for Music and Learning, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows in a master class. Repertoire includes portions of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and the opening movement of Brahms' Second Symphony No. 2. TMC Associate Director Michael Nock hosts the video stream, which includes new content of Maestro Nelsons being interviewed by BSO Artistic Administrator and Director of Tanglewood Anthony Fogg.

BSO ENCORE PERFORMANCES FROM TANGLEWOOD SERIES

Sunday, July 5, 2:30 p.m. - Hosted by Jamie Bernstein FREE video stream
Canadian conductor Jacques Lacombe leads this all-American program to open the BSO's 2015 season at Tanglewood. He is joined by pianist Kirill Gerstein, a frequent BSO guest and an alumnus of Boston's Berklee College of Music with an affinity for both classical and jazz idioms, for Gershwin's exuberant, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in F. The Obie-award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson narrated Aaron Copland's tribute to the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Opening this concert is Boston-based Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison's Remembering Gatsby, a jazzy orchestral score that was the basis of the overture for this opera The Great Gatsby. Duke Ellington's impressionistic, blues-tinged tone painting of New York City's Harlem neighborhood completes the program.

TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER CHAMBER CONCERTS

Sunday, July 5, 10 a.m. - Hosted by Norman Fischer with special guest Astrid Schween FREE audio stream
Each summer, TMC String Fellows begin their Tanglewood journey with the String Quartet Seminar, an intensive workshop exploring landmarks of the repertoire through coachings, master classes, and a marathon performance of three concerts over two days-the quality of which belies the fact that these musicians have been playing together for little more than a week. Featuring performances from 2016 to 2019, this broadcast exhibits the seminar's comprehensive scope, from Haydn, who established the basic syntax of the genre, and Beethoven, who redefined its narrative capabilities; through the Romantic era to Alban Berg's pithy modernism, and including an example of more recent vintage in Pulitzer Prize-winning TMC faculty member John Harbison.

Board Members and Friends to Match Contributions Made to the BSO, May 15-August 31, in Support of Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival
Several generous BSO Board members and friends have joined together in these unprecedented times to match contributions made to the Boston Symphony Orchestra from May 15 through August 31, 2020. The matched funds apply to new annual contributions and ticket donations, both of which are tax-deductible. The matched funds enable the BSO-the non-profit organization that owns and operates Tanglewood-to share the joy of music online through the Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival and other virtual programming, and to ensure that the BSO and Tanglewood are ready and able to welcome concertgoers in person when the time is right. Donors of $100 or more will receive complimentary access to all programs in the Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival. Those who want to make a gift and have it matched can visit tanglewood.org/givetoday. Gifts of all sizes are vital and appreciated. For more information, please email customerservice@bso.org or call 888-266-1200.