The upcoming Boston Pops July 4 broadcast is not all reruns. It will also feature newly created content, including the entire Pops viola section playing "Over the Rainbow" and a virtual performance of Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams' “Summon the Heroes.”
The BSO is also releasing certain performances at the same times as they would have been heard live, with complete online recordings of BSO concerts taking place Sundays at 2:30 p.m. as an example of such scheduling.
The problem with making a list of Tanglewood summer highlights is that almost nothing on the schedule qualifies as a lowlight, not even soloists or composers we've never heard of.
"Brightness of Light" combines traditional recitative with an orchestral score reminiscent at times of a blockbuster movie. One Shed patron was actually heard to whisper, "Star Wars!" when the orchestra rose to full force early in the piece.
Had composer and conductor Oliver Knussen not died in Suffolk last year at the age of 66, he would have presided over this year’s Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. It seemed fitting as well that the first sounds to put the new hall to test were Knussen’s stunning 'Prequel to Opening Signal.'
Sixty-two BSO appearances later, Ann-Sophie takes the stage at Tanglewood Saturday, July 6, to celebrate the life and work of her former husband and creative partner, conductor/composer André Previn.
Most impressive was how conductor Andris Nelsons held the orchestra still long after it at had ceased playing for what the audience perceived as an odd, even uncomfortable, period — silence is a sound, too.
Savvy audiences know that when the BSO signals its intention to “go all out” with a production, they attend to every detail in the grandest style, engaging the world’s most accomplished performers.
“Conducting to a film that has already been made is a really big challenge. It’s really one of the toughest things that I’ve had to do as a conductor.”
--- Keith Lockhart, musical director of the Boston Pops
