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Great Music at Tanglewood, Manchester and Glimmerglass
11:21AM / Wednesday, July 20, 2016
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Pianist Vassily Primakov will join a program of Russian and Armenian music by Aram Khachaturian at the Manchester Music Festival on July 21.

Tanglewood enters its third week, and the highlights abound. Performances of music by great Classical, Romantic and 20th Century composers, i.e. Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Dvorák and Vaughn Williams, take center stage, featuring outstanding examples of chamber and orchestral music by these iconic masters.

Why go? Add to the above the Festival of Contemporary music that contributes some modern-day spice to the mix and you have a week of future musical memories that define what Tanglewood is all about - the best of older and newly composed music.

And, if the offerings at Tanglewood aren’t enough to pique your musical interest, there are also outstanding performances to be enjoyed at the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont and the Glimmerglass Festival in historic Cooperstown, N.Y. All three venues present great music performed in bucolic settings by marvelous performers. Read below for the details.

 

Tanglewood

• Wednesday, July 20, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Oboist Francois Leleux, pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, violist Kim Kashkashian and cellist Lynn Harrell — all internationally distinguished soloists —collaborate in a chamber recital of works by Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Debussy, and Benjamin Britten. Saint-Saëns’ Oboe Sonata in D, Op. 166, opens the program, which also includes two works by Mozart: duets from The Magic Flute, for oboe and violin, and the Oboe Quartet in F, K.370. Also, Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor and Britten’s “Phantasy,” Op. 2 for oboe, violin, viola, and cello.

• Friday, July 22, 8 p.m. in the Shed: English maestro Sir Andrew Davis — Music Director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra—returns to the Shed for the first time since 2008. To open the program, he leads the Boston Symphony in Vaughan Williams’s haunting “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” Renowned Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili joins the orchestra for Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, and Maestro Davis and the BSO close the program with Sibelius’ soaring Symphony No. 5, composed in 1915 on commission from the Finnish government in celebration of the composer’s 50th birthday.

• Saturday, July 23, 8 p.m. in the Shed: Spanish maestro Juanjo Mena, chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, begins a two-night residency leading the Boston Symphony. The celebrated American pianist and frequent BSO and Tanglewood guest artist Garrick Ohlsson joins Mr. Mena in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s rhapsodic and beloved Piano Concerto No. 1. Spanish soprano Raquel Lojendio, making her BSO debut, joins the orchestra for the second half of the program, featuring a performance of the complete score of Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-cornered Hat,” a ballet based on Pedro Antonio comic novella, “El sombrero de tres picos”. Falla wrote the score in 1919 for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the impresario and company that were responsible for commissioning many of the 20th century’s greatest ballet music from composers Stravinsky, Ravel, Poulenc, Auric, Milhaud, Rieti, et al.

• Sunday, July 24, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: The young German violinist Veronika Eberle makes her BSO and Tanglewood debuts with maestro Mena and the orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4. Also on the program is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, (‘Pastoral’,) and Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones Concertantes.”

• Thursday-Monday, July 21-25 in Ozawa Hall, “The Festival of Contemporary Music”: One of the most highly anticipated events of the 2016 Tanglewood season and Festival of Contemporary Music is the U.S. premiere of “Dream of the Song,” for countertenor, women’s voices (the Lorelei Ensemble), and orchestra, a TMC- 75th anniversary commission by English composer George Benjamin, who has had an ongoing relationship with Tanglewood and the Tanglewood Music Center. The Festival will also feature the world premiere of a new TMC commission by American composer Erin Gee for voice, violin, viola, and double bass. In addition, the 2016 FCM will include the U.S. premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ String Quartet No. 1 and the East Coast premiere of Steven Stucky’s Chamber Concerto.

This year’s Festival of Contemporary Music spotlights composers featured for the first time in the festival’s history, including American composers Sebastian Currier, Erin Gee, Arthur Levering, Harold Meltzer, Joseph Phibbs, and Barbara White, as well as Australian composer Brett Dean, Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy, and Swedish composer Anders Hillborg. In addition, the works by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, British composer Jonathan Harvey, and Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, along with those by American composers Donald Crockett, Pierre Jalbert, and Elizabeth Ogonek will all be new to Tanglewood. There will also be a special focus on 20th-century masters Pierre Boulez, Franco Donatoni, Witold Lutosławski and Olivier Messiaen.

Tickets for all Tanglewood events can be purchased online, via SymphonyCharge, 888-266-1200 or 888-266-1200, and at the Tanglewood box office located at the main gate, on West Street in Lenox. For further information, call 413-637-1600.

 

Manchester Music Festival

This week the Manchester Music Festival presents a program of Russian and Armenian music by Aram Khachaturian (Trio for clarinet, violin and piano,) Mikhail Glinka (Grand Sextet in E flat Major) and Modest Mussorgsky (“Pictures at an Exhibition”) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21. The stellar performers include violinists Joana Genova and Jesse Mills, violist/MMF Artistic Director Ariel Rudiakov, cellist Thomas Landschoot, pianist Vassily Primakov, double bassist Steve Moran and clarinetist Alexey Gorokholinsky.

Why go? The Glinka and Khachaturian works are rarely heard and are large-scale Romantic and 20th century blockbusters. In the hands of powerhouse pianist Primakov, the perennially popular “Pictures at an Exhibition” will explode from the stage. Don’t miss this one!

For tickets and complete information, visit the Manchester Music Festival’s website or contact the MMF by phone at 802-362-1956. The concerts are presented on the campus of the Southern Vermont Arts Center, 930 Southern Vermont Arts Center Drive, Manchester Center, Vt.

 

The Glimmerglass Festival: Opera and Musical Theatre

The Glimmerglass Festival opened on July 8, with Puccini’s powerful and tragic “La bohéme.” For the best opera and musical theatre in the region, be sure to include Glimmerglass on your list of this summer’s “must-see/hear” musical events.

Located in historic Cooperstown, N.Y. – about one and half hours from the Berkshires - the Glimmerglass Festival season runs until Aug. 27. The excursion to Cooperstown, perhaps combined with a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a stroll in the ancient country church graveyard to contemplate the resting place of James Fenimore Cooper, along with Glimmerglass, makes for a perfect day’s outing.

Additionally, Glimmerglass’ beautiful scenic lakeside grounds invite you to stroll, picnic and relax in an environment that’s dedicated to music and the arts. The unspoiled beauty of Central New York’s rural landscape provides what The Sunday Times of London has called “the most magical of settings.”

Why go? This summer The Glimmerglass Festival will present four new fully staged productions, including three operas and one work of American musical theater – all performed with orchestra, large cast and un-amplified sound. These four productions are supplemented by special performances, concerts, lectures and symposiums throughout the season.

The repertoire features new productions of Puccini’s “La bohéme.” Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie (“La Gazza Ladra”,),” Robert Ward’s  “The Crucible” and Stephen Sondheim’s beloved and scintillating “Sweeney Todd.”

All productions are staged in the magnificent Alice Busch Opera Theater. The theater’s casual elegance, beautiful surroundings and excellent acoustics provide an intimate, one-of-a-kind operatic encounter. All of the theater’s 914 seats are less than 70 feet from the stage, and every production utilizes supertitles in English projected above the stage, which is a welcome aid to the audience in understanding the sung text.

Glimmerglass tickets for single or group performances or by subscription can be purchased at the box office at the Theatre or at 18 Chestnut St. in center Cooperstown. For telephone orders, call the box office at 607-547-2255. For more information, visit www.glimmerglass.org.

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