No blanket needed
Boston Symphony goes digital for Tanglewood 2020
Tanglewood’s magic comes from the mountains and trees and sky. Listening to the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform Mozart or Beethoven or Bernstein while surrounded by the glory of the Berkshire hills has no substitutions. And yet, the BSO must make substitutions in 2020.
To remain in contact with its audience and keep up with its substantial operating costs, the BSO took Tanglewood’s summer calendar digital this month.
Calling on its impressive inhouse talent and an A-list of outside stars (including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Joshua Bell), the orchestra has generated original, prerecord(WCRB ed performances to pair with past programs, master classes, conversations with musicians, maestros and historians.
I have picked a few standouts that show off the diversity in just the July programming, but make sure you spend some time at bso.org to find your favorites. And these are favorites you can afford: Some events are free, others range from $5 to $12, the whole Tanglewood summer slate is $100 99.5 FM Classical Radio Boston will broadcast archival Tanglewood performances, so check its listings too).
Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich, July 12
Recorded at Tanglewood in 2015, this program features the BSO ace leading his orchestra through Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and Beethoven’s Concerto in C for piano, violin and cello, Op. 56. It’s free and highlights pianist JeanYves Thibaudet, violist Renaud Capucon and cellist Gautier Capucon
Beethoven’s Music and the Emerging Viennese Popular Style, July 14
The Tanglewood Learning Institute celebrates Ludwig with Erica Buurman, the director of the
Beethoven Center at San Jose State University and editor of the Beethoven Journal. For $5, you can watch the prerecorded show and enjoy a new live Q&A.
A master class in cello, July 22
For $5, you can learn from the best. This prerecorded class with a live Q&A will be hosted by Tanglewood Music Center associate director Michael Nock and led by Astrid Schween, a Tanglewood Music Center faculty member and part of the Juilliard String Quartet.
Tanglewood Online Gala: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Isaac Stern’s birth, July 23
The late violinist was one of classical music’s greatest champions. As a player, he cheered for a wide range of composers. Off the stage, he was instrumental in saving Carnegie Hall. Using archival footage of Stern and new tributes and reminiscences of the giant from violinists Vadim Gluzman, Midori and Nancy Zhou, the gala will gladly accept donations but is free to watch.
The Roaring Twenties, July 27
The Tanglewood Learning Institute dives into the “deafening developments in classical and popular music and a century’s social reverberations” that came out of the 1920s. The event costs $5, features prerecorded content and a live Q&A with University of Michigan musicologist, gender-sexuality and class theorist, and cultural historian Nadine Hubbs and institute director Sue Elliott.