Lenox — The BSO’s final weekend at Tanglewood begins with Bruce Liu performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on Friday evening, led by emerging American conductor Ryan Bancroft. On the same program, the BSO will perform Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations, a work that contains some of the most sublime music ever written. On Saturday, it is Beethoven, Brahms, Chausson, and Ravel, closing with the French composer’s sensually ravishing “Daphnis et Chloé,” Suite No. 2 (with chorus). On Sunday, it is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which means the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will be present to help several thousand people experience transcendence.
As winner of the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, 27-year-old Bruce Liu is in a league with people like Garrick Ohlsson and Martha Argerich. So it goes without saying that his performance of Chopin’s first piano concerto will be dazzling.
If you have never thought of Beethoven as a composer of music for ballet, you will want to hear his “Creatures of Prometheus Overture,” which opens Saturday’s program, to be conducted by Karina Canellakis. After “Creatures” will come Brahms’ “Schicksalslied,” a setting for chorus and orchestra based on a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin. If you love Brahms’ “German Requiem,” you will be pleased with “Schicksalslied” for its lush harmonies and haunting melodies.
Filling in for an injured Leonidas Kavakos, James Ehnes will perform “Tzigane,” for violin and orchestra, Maurice Ravel’s dalliance with gypsy-flavored music. What the piece lacks in authenticity it makes up for in fiery intensity and startling color, all delivered with an almost improvisational feel: sassy, spicy, gypsy.
James Ehnes has won 11 Junos, two Grammys, and two Gramophone Classical Music Awards. He has performed with every major orchestra in America.
The headline act on Saturday evening is Ravel’s masterpiece “Daphnis et Chloé,” Suite No. 2, as magical a piece of music as you are likely to hear at Tanglewood or anywhere else. Serge Koussevitzky championed it in 1938, and the orchestra has been playing it regularly ever since. They nail it every time, and so does the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
James Burton, BSO choral conductor and conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, will take the podium on Sunday to conduct Bruckner’s “Ecce sacerdos magnus,” a sacred motet scored for three trombones, organ, and chorus.
Hannu Lintu, the originally scheduled conductor for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, had to withdraw because of an injury. Fortunately, one of the BSO’s favorite guest conductors was available on short notice. Having served as the orchestra’s assistant conductor in 2007 after holding the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship in conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2001, Ludovic Morlot is certain to receive a warm welcome from the musicians of the BSO this week, because he is a prime example of the type of young conductor James Gaffigan was referring to in a recent interview with The Edge. Although Morlot has worked with the BSO a combined total of 48 times at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, this will be his first time leading the orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform popular works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Chausson, Elgar, Ravel, and Bruckner on August 23, 24, and 25 at Tanglewood. Tickets are available here.
Watch The Edge for news about popular artist shows at Tanglewood on the last weekend of August.
