By Dave Read, July 6, 2025 performance – Today’s program, the first matinee of the Tanglewood season, was an all-Beethoven one, performed mere hours after last night’s all-Rachmanioff program. Knowing that the season finale will be Beethoven’s Ninth, which we delight to exhaust all our powers of concentration on, and the weather being ideal, we enjoyed this concert on the lawn.
Such is the luxury of life in the Berkshires, that one can take a casual approach as one of the world’s best orchestra’s performs a couple hour’s worth of the best music ever composed!
Pianist Yefim Bronfman, a long-time favorite soloist at Tanglewood, delighted the audience with his performance of Beethoven’s Piano concerto in C minor. Called back for an encore, he played a piece by Rachmanioff.
To conclude the opening of the season, the rejuvenated BSO music director Andris Nelsons led a breathtaking rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth. Despite its familiarity, especially its ominous opening quartet of notes, which the composer described as “fate knocking at the door,” this performance felt like a brand new thing.
With a rapt audience contributing to a distraction-free ambiance on lawn, not only may one bask in the sunshine of an ideal summer afternoon, but also set the imagination afloat in a musical sea.