The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2019 summer season in the Berkshires, which includes a three-concert celebration of John Williams, a Wagner weekend with soprano Christine Goerke, and much, much more.Hear a preview with Director of Tanglewood Anthony Fogg and WCRB's Brian McCreath:
Since 1937, the BSO has made the Berkshires a center of its musical life, a tradition that continues in 2019, from June 15 through Labor Day weekend. Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in several major works through the course of the first month, including a BSO Opening Night performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5, as well as Dvorák's "New World" Symphony, Copland's Third Symphony, and Ravel's complete Daphnis et Chloé.
During the fourth weekend (July 26-28), Nelsons conducts the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, highlighted by soprano Amber Wagner as Sieglinde, soprano Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde, tenor Simon O'Neill as Siegmund, and bass Ain Anger as Hunding.
The summer also includes concerts devoted to music by legendary composer and Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is the soloist in "Across the Stars," a program on Sunday, July 7, and Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops in a live orchestral accompaniment to Star Wars: A New Hope on Friday, Aug. 16. And on Saturday, Aug. 24, Williams himself returns to Tanglewood, with conductor David Newman, for Film Night, a perennial favorite of Tanglewood audiences.
Soprano Renée Fleming is the 2019 Koussevitzky Artist, and in that role she will sing the world premieres of two works co-commissioned by the BSO. On July 20, Nelsons leads the BSO in The Brightness of Light, a piece by Kevin Puts based on letters by artist Georgia O'Keefe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Then, on July 24, Fleming sings Penelope, by André Previn and Tom Stoppard, with the Emerson String Quartet.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs three times during the festival. On Wednesday, Aug. 6, it's an All-Beethoven program with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos. On Sunday, Aug. 11, Ma performs all six of Bach's Suites for solo cello. And on Sunday, Aug. 18, he is the soloist in Schumann's Cello Concerto with the BSO and conductor François-Xavier Roth.
For more details, listen to the preview above with Director of Tanglewood Anthony Fogg, and for complete information about the 2019 season, visit the Tanglewood box office.