Tanglewood, one of the world's most beloved music festivals and the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, celebrates its 75th anniversary season, June 22-September 2, with a spectacular lineup of musical guests and programs that spotlight Tanglewood's rich tradition of presenting summertime concerts at their best since 1937.
In addition to replicating some of the greatest musical moments of the last 75 years and presenting eight new works in their world premiere performances, Tanglewood's 75th Anniversary celebration will reach out to a worldwide audience by way of international radio broadcasts and first-ever recording and educational programs presented through tanglewood.org, including an extraordinary offer of 75 Free Digital Streams featuring many of the most memorable musical events from the BSO's rich archive of recorded Tanglewood performances since 1937. These digital streams will be available free of charge for 24 hours on the day of the release, after which they will be available as a download for purchase.
Tickets to the 2012 Tanglewood season, priced from $9 to $117 for regular season concerts, go on public sale Sunday, January 29, through tanglewood.org or by calling SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200. Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under and a 50% discount on lawn tickets to college and graduate students.
TWO STAR-STUDDED GALAS, JULY 14 AND AUGUST 18, FRAME TANGLEWOOD'S 75TH CELEBRATION
Stars from the classical music world and beyond will join in the Tanglewood 75th celebration by taking part in two special gala concerts on July 14 and August 18. The July 14 gala will feature the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center orchestras, with performances by Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Peter Serkin, longtime Tanglewood friend James Taylor, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and other special guests, led by conductors John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons. This program will be made available to a worldwide audience through a series of international broadcasts, details of which will be announced at a later date.
Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams, arguably the most well-known composer of his generation with many of the most memorable film scores of the 20th and 21st centuries to his credit, will be feted on the occasion of his 80th birthday year with a Boston Pops concert featuring classical music luminaries Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, Jessye Norman, and Leonard Slatkin, along with performances by several Boston Symphony soloists who will be featured in Mr. Williams's concert works.
BSO'S ALL-BEETHOVEN OPENER ON JULY 6 AND ALL-WAGNER CONCERT ON JULY 21 REPLICATE PROGRAMS FROM BSO'S FIRST TANGLEWOOD SEASON IN 1937
The Boston Symphony's opening night concert of the 2012 Tanglewood season will set the tone for the 75th anniversary season with a program, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi-himself a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1952-that replicates the very first BSO concert that took place on the Tanglewood grounds on August 5, 1937: an all-Beethoven program, opening with the Leonore Overture No. 3, followed by Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, and Symphony No. 5. This program will be made available to a worldwide audience through a series of international broadcasts, details of which will be announced at a later date.
A Boston Symphony all-Wagner program on July 21, featuring some of the best-known orchestral excerpts from Tristan und Isolde, Siegfried, Die Walküre, Parsifal, and Tannhäuser, under the direction of Wagner specialist Asher Fisch, will harken back to one of the most storied concerts from the orchestra's first Tanglewood season in 1937, when a torrential downpour caused the August 12, 1937 all-Wagner concert to be interrupted three times, necessitating a shortening of the program due to leaks in the tent where the orchestra performed its first season. This seemingly disastrous event triggered a happy outcome when funds raised immediately on the spot and soon thereafter were pledged toward building a permanent performance structure for the BSO-the historic Tanglewood Music Shed, which opened in the summer of 1938, and was rechristened the Koussevitzky Music Shed on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 1988.
