Post-Tanglewood, Area Chamber Concerts Blossom

The approach of Labor Day marks the conclusion of the summer music festival season, and so the local classical music scene coalesces, as regional presenters favor intimate spaces for chamber music during the upcoming fall.
This will become the dominant genre of music making to be found until next June, when the warm late spring weather invites us to share massed performances outdoors at Tanglewood and other venues, large and small.

Looking ahead, you'll find a variety of concerts presented in churches, chapels, small auditoriums, halls and the like throughout the region. Even Tanglewood's acoustically superb Ozawa Hall is really too big for a string quartet or piano trio to be heard to best advantage; 300 seats – or even smaller - is better.

This is good; chamber music sounds best in - what else - chambers, not enormous spaces, and flourishes, as the intimacy of small spaces invites us to listen ever more closely. The confessional nature of chamber music bestirs us to derive solace as it nourishes and invigorates our spiritual selves. Chamber music reminds me of the old aphorism: "Good things come in small packages."

Read about three splendid post-Tanglewood series that fill the bill admirably.

Concerts at Tannery Pond

Tannery Pond, that pristine series in New Lebanon, N.Y., bordering Pittsfield on Route 20, will be presenting their final program for the season. As always, this exemplary venue showcases amazing talent performing both classic and 20th-21st century music in a gorgeous and historic setting.

• Saturday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m.: Established in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has developed an undisputed reputation as one of the world's great ensembles. Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker, wrote, "I realized that the four musicians of the St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music-making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection." The quartet has been the ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University since 1998. The program will open and conclude with two quartets by Joseph Haydn, framing two powerful works by American master John Adams (his Second Quartet, composed for the SLSQ in 2014,) and Argentinean maestro Osvaldo Golijov ("Qohelet"), also written for the SLSQ. In 2011.

Tickets are $30 and $39. You may make a credit card purchase online or by calling 888-820-1696. This concert will be dedicated to the memory of Clair Van Ausdall, Tannery's beloved program annotator for many years who passed away early this year.

Tannery Pond is located on the grounds of Mount Lebanon Shaker Village and Darrow School, New Lebanon, N.Y., one and a half miles east of the town center on Route 20.

South Mountain Concerts

Only the most well-regarded ensembles are invited to perform at this revered institution. Perhaps only Music from Marlboro can lay claim to presenting such exalted and seasoned talent and, as well, attracting the most dedicated and knowledgeable audience in the Northeast for chamber music. Attending a South Mountain concert is always an unforgettable experience.

Here is the program listing of South Mountain's five concerts – each one a not-to-be-missed event for chamber music mavens:

• Sunday, Sept. 4: Pianist Wu Han, cellist David Finckel and violinist Philip Setzer perform Beethoven's "Archduke" Piano Trio, Op. 97 and Schubert's Piano Trio in E flat Major, Op. 100.

• Sunday, Sept. 11: The Juilliard String Quartet performs Haydn's Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5; Bartók's Quartet No. 1, Op. 7 and Beethoven's Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 ("Rasoumovsky").

• Sunday, Sept. 18: The young and exciting Dover String Quartet will perform Beethoven's Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1; Benjamin Britten's Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36 and the Quartet No. 2 in E Minor by Shostakovich.

• Sunday, Sept. 25: The Emerson String Quartet performs Mozart's Quartet in D Minor, K. 421; Quartet No. 10 by Shostakovich and Dvorák's Quartet in C Major, Op. 61.

• Sunday, Oct. 9: The Johannes String Quartet, with guest artist clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, performs Mozart's String Quartet in B flat Major, No. 22, K. 589; the Quartet No. 3 of Bartók and Brahms' Quintet for clarinet and string quartet in B Minor, Op. 115.

All concerts are on Sundays at 3 p.m. South Mountain is located two miles south of Pittsfield on Routes 7 and 20. Tickets are $40, except the Sept. 18 concert, which is $35. For more information, visit online or call 413-442-2106.

Close Encounters With Music

Close Encounters' artistic director and cellist Yehuda Hanani began presenting thematic concerts of chamber music with commentary 25 years ago - at the time a novel and innovative format that has since become ubiquitous in the concert hall. This premiere series is one of the crown jewels of classical concert life in the Berkshires. The series offers six concerts in Great Barrington, including a special concluding concert/luncheon event at Blantyre in Lenox. The series continues from October 2016 through June 2017.

All CEWM programs are unequaled for their diversity of thematic programming. Cellist/Artistic Director Hanani is a master of thematic invention, combining composers and their works in innovative, yet logically meaningful and satisfying ways to create a uniquely well-rounded concert and intellectual experience for his devoted audience.

CEWM concerts this season, from fall to next spring are:

Tanglewood

The final week of classical programming at Tanglewood offers a not-to-be-compared plethora of musical riches: from solo piano (the amazing Jeremy Denk performing music across eight centuries!) to Baroque opera in concert; from the Boston Pops accompanying one of the greatest adventure films ever made (directed by Steven Spielberg, of course,) and culminating with three concert works by the great John Williams composed for superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will, of course take center stage, (and also Respighi's spectacular "Pines of Rome," Leonard Bernstein's film score to “On the Waterfront” and more;) to the closing concert, with BSO Music Director/conductor Andris Nelsons performing the traditional Tanglewood farewell magnum opus – Beethoven's grandiose and uplifting Ninth Symphony. Talk about ending on a high note! Read on for the details:

• Wednesday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The astounding pianist Jeremy Denk will perform an eight-century span of keyboard music. The recital, titled "Medieval to Modern," charts the history of Western music from the Medieval age, through the Renaissance worlds of Guillaume Machaut (b. ca. 1300) through Francoise Couperin to Girolamo Frescobaldi; then on to the Baroque era (after 1600) to the Classical and Romantic eras, with music by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Mr. Denk traverses our own era as well, with performances of Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Györgi Ligeti and John Adams. The recital ends with a return to the music of Machaut. As the ancient musical aphorism goes, "In my end is my beginning." Indeed, this promises to be an incredible concert in many ways.

• Thursday, Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m. (note the early time) in Ozawa Hall: Conductor Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra perform Alessandro Scarlatti's recently rediscovered "La gloria di primavera," an elaborate serenata (a sort of mixture of opera, oratorio, and cantata) that Scarlatti wrote in 1716 to celebrate the birth of Archduke Leopold, the heir to the throne of Habsburg and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is joined by vocalists including soprano Suzana Ograjenšek, mezzo-soprano Diana Moore, countertenor Clint van der Linde, tenor Nicholas Phan, and Douglas Williams, and members of the Philharmonia Chorale.

• Friday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops will bring Indiana Jones and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to life with a live presentation of John Williams' 1981 epic score, performed by the orchestra alongside the iconic Steven Spielberg movie, in celebration of the classic film's 35th anniversary. In recent years the Boston Pops has performed the entire film scores to "The Wizard of Oz" and "Singin' in the Rain," as well as a newly-composed score to the classic 1922 silent vampire film "Nosferatu," composed expressly for the orchestra by students at the Berklee College of Music. This will certainly be a thrilling summer highlight, and fun for the entire family. Don't miss it!

• Saturday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m. in the Shed: Tanglewood favorite and global musical celebrity Yo-Yo Ma joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Stern. Mr. Ma performs Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major, three pieces written for Mr. Ma by John Williams: "Heartwood" for cello and orchestra, plus the two solo cello works "Rosewood" and "Pickin'." The program also includes the Symphonic Suite from Leonard Bernstein's Academy Award-winning score to the 1954 American film classic "On the Waterfront." The prpgram concludes with Ottorino Respighi's scintillating orchestral showpiece, "The Pines of Rome."

• Sunday, Aug. 28, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in its final concert of the 2016 Tanglewood season. The BSO closes the summer season with its traditional valedictory performance of Beethoven's overwhelming and inspiring Symphony No. 9, a work that never fails to awe listeners. Joining Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra are vocal soloists soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen, mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose, tenor Joseph Kaiser, bass Wilhelm Schwinghammer, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The program opens with Copland's atmospheric "Quiet City," featuring BSO principal players trumpeter Thomas Rolfs and English hornist Robert Sheena.

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.

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