BSO celebrates Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary with free digital streams

Bringing the celebration of Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary beyond the BSO’s summer home in the Berkshires, the Boston Symphony Orchestra announces details of its first-ever 75 free digital streams program (complete list appears below), designed to offer music lovers around the globe a glimpse into the storied performance history of the famed music festival founded in 1937. The Tanglewood 75 free streams will be available through tanglewood.org, with one free stream being offered each day of the summer, June 20-September 2, starting at 8 a.m. EST; when the 24-hour stream has ended, the digital music will be available at www.tanglewood.org for purchase as a download. Most of the recordings featured have been digitized, re-mastered, and are being made available to the public for the first time ever, offered in MP3 and 128 or 256 kbps formats.

The repertoire for the 75 streams has been chosen from a vast array of programs and artists and will feature many of the greatest conductors, composers, and performers of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, many of whom went on to have major careers and perform in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses.

Program includes photos, program notes on works and performers

Starting with the first stream on June 20, visitors to the site will not only get to listen to some of the great performances from Tanglewood’s 75 years of audio archives, but they will also have access to photos, program notes on works and performers written by the distinguished former Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer, and other information designed to offer listeners a historical context for the conductors, performers, composers, and music chosen to be featured in this special project.
See also:

• 75 Free Streams Detailed Program Listing
• 75 Free Streams (Listed by Artist)
• 75 Free Streams (Listed by Composer)
• Essay by Anthony Fogg, BSO artistic administrator, about the sources, organization, and selection process behind the Tanglewood 75 Free Stream project

schedule of 75 free streams celebrating the Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary season

Week One, June 20-26, 2012:
Wednesday, June 20 – VERDI Otello. BSO/Leinsdorf/Cassilly, Niska, Milnes (July 26, 1969)
Thursday, June 21 – MOZART Sinfonia Concertante. BSO /Munch/ Posselt, dePasquale (July 11, 1958) KHATCHATURIAN Violin Concerto, 3rd movt. BSO/Burgin/Posselt (August 1, 1954)
Friday, June 22 – MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No. 1. BSO/Ozawa/ R. Serkin (July 18, 1975)
Saturday, June 23 – HARBISON Symphony No. 1, BSO/Harbison (July 19, 1984)
Sunday, June 24 – “An Evening with Danny Kaye.” BSO/Kaye (July 13, 1961)
Monday, June 25 – FOSS Introductions & Goodbyes. TMCO/Asbury/TMC singers (July 20, 2009)
Tuesday, June 26 – BRAHMS Clarinet Trio. Wright/Ma/Ax (August 2, 1990)

Week Two, June 27-July 3, 2012:
Wednesday, June 27 – BERLIOZ Beatrice and Benedict. BSO/Ozawa/von Stade, MacNair, Garrison (August 8, 1984)
Thursday, June 28 – ROUSSEL Symphony No. 3. BSO/Haitink (July 8, 2006)
Friday, June 29 – RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3. BSO/Leinsdorf/Cliburn (July 23, 1966)
Saturday, June 30 – BERIO Sinfonia. BSO/Berio/New Swingle Singers (August 22, 1982)
Sunday, July 1 – James Taylor and the Boston Pops. BPO/Williams/Taylor/TFC (August 30, 2009)
Monday, July 2 – KNUSSEN Symphony No. 3. TMCO/Schuller (August 5, 1981)
Tuesday, July 3 – BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas, No. 30 – 32. Ohlsson (July 20, 2006)

Week Three, July 4-July 10, 2012:
Wednesday, July 4 – GERSHWIN Concerto in F. BPO/Fiedler/Wild (1962/1967/1970)
Thursday, July 5 – BACH Suite No. 2 and Concerto No. 1 in c-minor, for two pianos. BSO/Munch/Dwyer, Foss, and Lipkin (July 8, 1955 and July 5, 1957)
Friday, July 6 – Excerpts from Inaugural BSO concert at Tanglewood and MOZART Symphony No. 25. BSO/Koussevitzky (August 5, 1937 and 1944)
Saturday, July 7 – MOZART “Ruhe Sanft” from Zaide, “Marten aller arten” from Entführung, “Exsultate Jubilate” K. 165, and “Ah se in ciel benign stelle” K. 538, BSO/Leinsdorf/Sills (June 6, 1968)
Sunday, July 8 – BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Divertimento. BSO/Bernstein (July 4, 1981)
Monday, July 9 – MESSIAEN Turangalîla-Symphonie. BSO/Ozawa/ Yvonne and Jeanne Loriod (August 16, 1975)
Tuesday, July 10 –DVO?ÁK Symphony No. 8. TMCO/Levine (June 30, 2008)

Week Four, July 11-July 17, 2012:
Wednesday, July 11 – COPLAND El Salón México and Clarinet Concerto. BSO/Copland/Wright (July 5, 1980)
Thursday, July 12 – HAYDN Symphony No. 98 and KRENEK Die Nachtigall. BSO/Tilson Thomas/Beardslee (July 5, 1980)
Friday, July 13 – MOZART Piano Concerto No. 9. BSO/Haitink/Ax (August 25, 1996)
Saturday, July 14 – BEETHOVEN Fidelio. BSO/Leinsdorf/Kuhse/Shirley/Krause (August 5, 1967)
Sunday, July 15 – STRAVINSKY L’Histoire du soldat. Carter/Babbitt/Harbison/TMC fellows (July 25, 2006)
Monday, July 16 – Performance by popular artist
Tuesday, July 17 – BRAHMS Liebeslieder Waltzes. Frank/Kallir/TMC singers (August 3, 1965)

Week Five, July 18-July 24, 2012:
Wednesday, July 18 – WAGNER Die Walküre, Act 1, and Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde. BSO/Munch/Harshaw, daCosta, Pease (July 2, 1956 and August 1, 1958)
Thursday, July 19 – GRIEG/ELLINGTON Peer Gynt Suite. BSO/Ozawa/Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra/Marsalis (July 25, 1999)
Friday, July 20 – STOCKHAUSEN Gruppen. TMCO/Knussen/de Leeuw/Spano (August 25, 1993)
Saturday, July 21 – MOZART Piano Concerto No. 17. BSO/Bernstein (July 4, 1975)
Sunday, July 22 – WEBER Konzertstück. BSO/Leinsdorf/Bolet (July 26, 1968)
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2. BSO/Munch/Frager (July 28, 1963)
Monday, July 23 – WILLIAMS Angela’s Ashes. BPO/Williams/McCourt (July 20, 2000)
Tuesday, July 24 – French and Latin American works. Curtin/Edwards (August 18, 1964)

Week Six, July 25-July 31, 2012:
Wednesday, July 25 – MOZART Requiem. BSO/Davis/Valente, Wolff, Riegel, Hale, TFC (August 8, 1971)
Thursday, July 26 – BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra. BSO/Monteux (July 22, 1956)
Friday, July 27 – ELGAR Cello Concerto. BSO/Barenboim/Jacqueline du Pré (August 3, 1969)
Saturday, July 28 – SCHULLER Spectra. BSO/Schuller (August 21, 1970)
Sunday, July 29 – HINDEMITH Mathis der Maler. TMCO/Alsop (August 20, 1989)
Monday, July 30 – Silk Road Ensemble
Tuesday, July 31 – BEETHOVENSeptet. Boston Symphony Chamber Players (July 13, 1965)

Week Seven, August 1-August 7, 2012:
Wednesday, August 1 – BERLIOZ The Damnation of Faust. BSO/Munch/Steber, McCollum, Singher (August 4, 1960)
Thursday, August 2 – MAHLER Symphony No. 8 and VARÈSE Amériques. BSO/Levine (July 8, 2005)
Friday, August 3 –BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1, BSO/Monteux/Fleisher (July 20, 1958)
Saturday, August 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, BSO/Koussevitzky/Vreeland, Kaskas (August 8, 1938)
Sunday, August 5 – ANJO, ICHIYANAGI, YAMAMOTO Three Spaces – Ten, Chi, and Jin: Heaven, Earth, and Humankind. BSO/Ozawa (August 22, 1975)
Monday, August 6 – MOZART g-minor Piano Quartet and KIRCHNER Music for 12. BSCP/Previn/Volkov (1980 and 2001)
Tuesday, August 7 – CARTER Concerto for Orchestra. TMCO/Knussen (July 23, 2008)

Week Eight, August 8-August 14, 2012:
Wednesday, August 8 – MOZART The Magic Flute BSO/Leinsdorf/Flagello, Sills, Berberian (August 6, 1966)
Thursday, August 9 – BEETHOVEN Overtures. BSO/Steinberg, (1967 – 1970)
Friday, August 10 – BRAHMS Violin Concerto. BSO/Monteux/Stern (July 24, 1959)
Saturday, August 11 – KIRCHNER Music for Orchestra I. TMCO/Kirchner (August 7, 1985)
Sunday, August 12 – RODGERS and HAMMERSTEIN Carousel.BPO/Lockhart/Eichenberger, Lazaar, TMC singers (July 10, 2007)
Monday, August 13 – STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier Finale. TMC Orchestra and singers/Leinsdorf (July 27, 1982)
Tuesday, August 14 – BEETHOVEN Quartet Op. 132. Juilliard String Quartet (July 8, 2004)

Week Nine, August 15-August 21, 2012:
Wednesday, August 15 – SCHOENBERG Gurrelieder. BSO/Levine/Brewer, Meier, Botha, TFC (July 14, 2006)
Thursday, August 16 – Excerpts from WAGNER Götterdämmerung, BSO/Leinsdorf/Horne (August 20, 1967)
Friday, August 17 – TAKEMITSU riverrun. BSO/Ozawa/P. Serkin (July 12, 1985)
BERNSTEIN Three Meditations from Mass. BSO/Ozawa (July 5, 1996)
Saturday, August 18 – FOSS Time Cycle. BSO/Foss/Addison (August 19, 1962)
Sunday, August 19 – SHERMAN Peter and the Commissar. BPO/Fiedler/Sherman (July 22, 1964)
Monday, August 20 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5. TMCO/Masur (July, 8 2003)
Tuesday, August 21 – MOZART c-minor Fantasy and Sonata. Arrau (July 21, 1964)

Week Ten, August 22-August 28, 2012:
Wednesday, August 22 – Performance by popular artist
Thursday, August 23 – DVO?ÁK Piano Trio No. 4 “Dumky.” Beaux Arts Trio (July 28, 1964 and August 20, 2008)
Friday, August 24 – STRAUSS Don Quixote. BSO/Munch/Piatigorsky, dePasquale (August 9, 1953)
Saturday, August 25 – STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements. BSO/Knussen/TMCO (August 23, 1995)
Sunday, August 26 – LERNER/WILLIAMS My Fair Lady. Ensemble/Williams/Reeves, Stokes Mitchell (August 8&9, 2004)
Monday, August 27 – COPLAND Orchestral Variations. TMCO/Fleisher (July 7, 1994)
Tuesday, August 28 – Opening Exercises Speech

Week Eleven, August 29-September2, 2012:
Wednesday, August 29 – BACH Chorale and Magificat. BSO/Ozawa/TFC (July 7, 1994)
Thursday, August 30 – BRAHMS Alto Rhapsody and RAVEL Daphnis and Chloé Suite No.2. BSO/Koussevitzky/Brice (July 27, 1946)
Friday, August 31 – Excerpts from BERLIOZ Les Troyens. BSO/Levine (July 5 & 6, 2008)
Saturday, September 1 – BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique. BSO/Davis (August 8, 1980)
Sunday, September 2 – BIZET Symphony in C Major No. 1 and THOMPSON Alleluia. BSO/Ozawa (August 16, 1964 and July 14, 2002)

Tanglewood schedule week 1, July 6-12, 2012

Tanglewood schedule week 1, July 6-12, 2012 features the BSO and Christoph Von Dohnányi opening the 75th Tanglewood Season on July 6 with an All-Beethoven program that replicates the Orchestra’s first program on the Tanglewood grounds in 1937. On July 7, Joshua Bell and Edgar Meyer present the world premiere of Meyer’s Double Concerto For Violin, Double Bass, and Orchestra. On July 8, Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops with Bernadette Peters. On July 11, Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn appear together in Recital.

In the winter of 1936, Mrs. Gorham Brooks and Miss Mary Aspinwall Tappan offered Tanglewood, the Tappan family estate, with its buildings and 210 acres of lawns and meadows, as a gift to Music Director Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The offer was gratefully accepted, and on August 5, 1937, what was then the Berkshire Symphonic Festival’s largest crowd assembled under a tent for the first Tanglewood concert, an all-Beethoven program including the Leonore Overture No. 3 and the Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6. To open the 75th Tanglewood season, revered conductor and Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 1952 Christoph von Dohnányi and the BSO reprise that program on Friday, July 6.

The following night, Kansas City Symphony Music Director Michael Stern makes his BSO and Tanglewood debuts in a concert featuring popular violinist Joshua Bell, a Tanglewood guest every year since 1989, and bassist-composer Edgar Meyer, who last appeared at Tanglewood in 2000. The program will include the world premiere of Mr. Meyer’s Double Concerto for violin, double bass, and orchestra, a nod to Tanglewood’s founder and BSO Music Director 1925-1949, Serge Koussevitzky, himself a virtuoso bass player, as well as Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a work performed on the second-ever Tanglewood concert, August 7, 1937. On Sunday, July 8, the Boston Pops Orchestra gives its first Tanglewood 2012 performance in a concert led by conductor Keith Lockhart and featuring Broadway superstar Bernadette Peters, who has dazzled audiences with performances on stage and screen and will present selections such as Let Me Entertain You, Fever, and Some Enchanted Evening.

On Wednesday, July 11, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist-composer André Previn, whose Tanglewood history dates back to 1977, give the US premiere of Mr. Previn’s Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano, as well as perform his Tango Song, and Dance, and works by Mozart and Franck. Ozawa Hall then welcomes Sequentia, directed by Benjamin Bagby, one of the world’s most respected and innovative ensembles for medieval music, who conjure a different time on Thursday, July 12, with The Rheingold Curse: A Germanic Saga of Greed and Vengeance, which draws its inspiration from the medieval Icelandic saga, the Edda.

Tanglewood schedule Week 3, July 20-26, 2012

Tanglewood schedule Week 3, July 20-26, 2012 is highlighted by two BSO programs that recall historic moments in Tanglewood history: the July 21 All-Wagner program replicates the notorious rained-out from the first season in 1937; the July 25 All-Mozart program repeats a popular model from Tanglewood’s early seasons.

The BSO plays music by one of Tanglewood’s most important alumni on Friday, July 20, when National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Christoph Eschenbach, whose Tanglewood history dates back to a 1969 appearance as piano soloist, and young violinist Dan Zhu join the orchestra for Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”) for violin and orchestra, a seldom-heard work representing some of the legendary conductor-composer’s most intriguing music. This performance of Bernstein’s Serenade recalls Midori’s historic 1986 performance of the same work, when at age 14 she shocked and inspired audience, orchestra, and conductor as she continued playing with great poise after breaking not one, but two strings during her performance, each time having to trade violins with a member of the BSO’s violin section and having to make immediate adjustments going from a three quarter size instrument to full-size instrument with each trade. As on that 1986 concert, concluding the program is Tchaikovsky’s cherished Symphony No. 6, Pathétique.

The following night marks the season’s second recreation of a seminal concert in Tanglewood’s history. At the all-Wagner concert that opened the 1937 festival’s second weekend, rain and thunder twice interrupted the Rienzi Overture and necessitated the omission altogether of the Forest Murmurs from Siegfried, music too delicate to be heard through the downpour. At the intermission, Miss Gertrude Robinson Smith, one of the festival’s founders, made an appeal to raise funds for a permanent structure, and soon thereafter, plans were underway for a “music pavilion.” On Saturday, July 21, conductor and Wagner specialist Asher Fisch makes his BSO and Tanglewood debuts conducting the BSO in the very same all-Wagner program-which also includes the Prelude and Love-death from Tristan und Isolde, the Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre, and the Prelude to Parsifal, this time sheltered by the Koussevitzky Music Shed.

In another nod to history on Sunday, July 22, the BSO presents an all-Mozart program-a popular model in the early years of the festival-led by Kurt Masur (a Tanglewood guest more than 25 times) and featuring pianist Gerhard Oppitz in the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491. Also on the program are the Symphony No. 36, Linz, and one of Mozart’s most enduringly popular works, Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

Mr. Oppitz completes his remarkable four-recital transversal of Brahms’s complete works for solo piano in Ozawa Hall on Wednesday, July 25, and Thursday, July 26. The highlights of the July 25 performance include the Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118, and the Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Books 1 and 2. The July 26 recital features the Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 2, the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, and more.

Tanglewood schedule week 4, July 27-August 2, 2012

Highlights on the Tanglewood schedule week 4, July 27-August 2, 2012 include Marcelo Lehninger leading Pictures At An Exhibition On July 27, and Charles Dutoit leading Berlioz’s Damnation Of Faust On July 28.

On Friday, July 27, BSO Assistant Conductor Marcelo Lehninger joins the orchestra along with his fellow Brazilian Nelson Freire, who performs as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466, and Momoprecoce for piano and orchestra by Villa-Lobos, whose music featured regularly during the early years of the festival. The concert will also include Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which was a specialty of Koussevitzky and has a long Tanglewood history.

The following evening’s performance also provides historical Tanglewood significance alongside spectacle as the Shed is illuminated by the otherworldly light of Berlioz’s Le Damnation de Faust, a work that had its memorable Tanglewood premiere in 1954 with Charles Munch and was last performed at the festival in 2007. The July 28 performance is led by eminent Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit and features mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, tenor Paul Groves, baritone Sir Willard White, bass-baritone Christopher Feigum, the PALS Children’s Chorus, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Mr. Dutoit returns to lead the BSO Sunday, July 29, in a program of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Emanuel Ax, who has performed at Tanglewood more than 30 times and every season since 1985.

Thursday, August 2, brings the long-awaited Tanglewood debut of distinguished baritone Gerald Finley, best known for creating the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s 2005 opera Doctor Atomic, in an Ozawa hall recital featuring songs by Loewe, Schumann, and Britten.