Tanglewood and Sevenars: Classical Music Heaven

Tanglewood enters its third week, and the highlights are many; indeed, every concert will be memorable. The legendary Emerson String Quartet present a musico-theatric "Russian Fantasy," followed by an all-Schubert evening. Deeply moving symphonies by Bernstein and Tchaikovsky ensue, with heroic piano concertos by Beethoven and Prokofiev to follow. Orchestral masterworks by Kernis, Britten and Sibelius, and a celebration of early-20th century French vocal music conclude this week's listing of stellar performances of great and amazingly diverse musical offerings.

If, for whatever inexplicable reason the bounteous musical fare at Tanglewood isn't enough to pique your interest, there’s also the captivating Sevenars Chamber Music Festival, in South Worthington, Mass. This week, expect a rich musical palette showcasing stylistic diversity, with a program of classics by Brahms, Fauré, Kreisler and Bartók.

Both venues present wonderful music performed at magnificent venues in pristine, bucolic settings by marvelous performers. Read below for the details.

Tanglewood

The Emerson String Quartet is coming to Tanglewood.

• Wednesday, July 19, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The astounding Emerson String Quartet visits Ozawa Hall for the first of two consecutive programs. Accompanied by an ensemble of seven actors, including David Strathairn and Jay O. Sanders, the Quartet presents "Shostakovich, Stalin, and the Dream of a Second Chance—A Russian Fantasy." The program, written and directed by James Glossman, weaves the tale of Dmitry Shostakovich's obsessive 50-year quest to create an opera from "The Black Monk" - Anton Chekhov's theatrical chamber masterpiece about love, art, madness and freedom. Through music — including a complete performance of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 14 — supported by the actors and multimedia projections, we view Shostakovich himself attempting, over decades, to retell Chekhov's haunting and heroic story of a writer struggling for his sanity, only to be sidetracked again and again by the composer's own struggle to survive as an artist amid the ever-changing difficulties and anxieties of Stalin's Soviet regime. Don't miss this performance; it's certain to be a Tanglewood highpoint.

• Thursday, July 20, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: For the second program in Tanglewood's six-part "Schubert's Summer Journey" concert series, BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès and Italian baritone Andrè Schuen, in his U.S. debut, open the program with five night-inspired songs by Schubert — "Auf der Bruck," D. 853 ("At the Brook"); "Der Wanderer an den Mond," D.870 ("The Wanderer Speaks to the Moon"); "Nachtstück," D.672 ("Nocturne"); "Wanderers Nachtlied II," D.768 ("Wanderer's Nightsong"); and "Willkommen und Abschied," D.767 ("Welcome and Farewell"). As the centerpiece of the program, the Emerson Quartet performs Mark-Anthony Turnage's "Shroud" for string quartet, which memorializes two of the composer's close friends. Closing the program, Mr. Adès and BSO principal bassist Edwin Barker join the Emerson Quartet for Schubert's "Trout" Quintet for piano and strings, D. 667, which the composer completed when he was just 22 years old, and which is one of the most beloved works in the chamber music repertoire.

• Friday, July 21, 8 p.m. in the Shed: The charismatic French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the BSO and conductor Gustavo Gimeno — who returns to the Tanglewood podium after making his debut with the orchestra last summer — for Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 (with Mr. Thibaudet as soloist,) subtitled "The Age of Anxiety," after W.H. Auden’s poetic masterpiece - a work dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1949. Maestro Gimeno concludes the program with Tchaikovsky's bravura Symphony No. 4.

• Saturday, July 22, 8 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Artistic Partner composer/conductor/pianist Thomas Adès opens this Boston Symphony program leading his own "…but all shall be well," a composition inspired by poetry of T.S. Eliot. The program also features pianist Emanuel Ax as the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"), the last and most prodigious of Beethoven's five piano concertos, and also the dramatically expressive "Sinfonia da Requiem" of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976).

Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky

• Sunday, July 23, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur is joined by Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky for Prokofiev's iridescent Piano Concerto No. 3. Maestro Masur opens the afternoon program with Aaron Jay Kernis' (b. 1960) moving "Musica Celestis" ("Heavenly Music"), completed by the Grawemeyer Award-winning composer in 2000. Concluding the concert is Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, ("Little Russian").

For tickets, call 888 266-1200, or go to the website. Music lovers can follow Tanglewood via its new social media accounts on Facebook, on Twitter @TanglewoodMA, and on Instagram @TanglewoodMusicFestival. The Boston Symphony is on Facebook, on Twitter @bostonsymphony, and on Instagram @bostonsymphony. The Boston Pops is on Facebook, on Twitter@thebostonpops, and on Instagram @thebostonpops.

Sevenars Music Festival

Sevenars Concerts, established in 1968, was selected one of the six best small music festivals in the USA by Time Magazine. Founded by internationally known pianist Robert Schrade and his composer/songwriter/pianist wife Rolande Young Schrade, it was founded in 1968 with performances in the Methodist Church in the idyllic village of South Worthington, Mass. - now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, concerts are held at the Academy, located at the junction of South Ireland Street and Route 112, in South Worthington.

• Sunday, July 23, 4 p.m.: Sevenars welcomes Alexis Kende Walls, violinist, and Lynelle James, pianist, in a program of violin/piano masterpieces: Brahms' Sonata in A Major; Fauré's Sonata in A Major; Bartók's "Roumanian Dances" and Kreisler's "Praeludium and Allegro."

You can order Sevenars tickets and get general information by phone at 413-238-5854 (please leave a message for return call), on the website or by email. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments are included.

The Classical Beat: Tanglewood and Sevenars Showcase Stunning Diversity

02:46PM / Wednesday, August 12, 2026

The Sparky Quintet plays at Sevenars.

LENOX, Mass. — This week, as Tanglewood embarks upon its bold mid-August schedule of events, the diversity of programming maximizes themed exploratory expression – from solo piano remembrances of personal loss to massed strings recounting the heroism of historic aviator Amelia Earhart; from concert classics by Beethoven (the "apotheosis of the dance" Seventh Symphony) and Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" choreographed by Martha Graham and performed by the BSO - the entire program danced by her eponymous Dance Company, to a career-celebration/tribute to John Williams with live orchestra (the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart) performing a broad selection of excerpted film clips/scenes composed by maestro Williams, to the Tanglewood Music Center Festival Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop performing Gustav Mahler's emotionally overpowering Symphony No. 5…all this and much more is in store for eager audiences this week, from August 12-18. Read below for the details of five of these concert highlights.

• Wednesday, August 12, 8:00 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center: Pianist Adam Tendler, in a themed program entitled "Inheritances" transforms personal loss into luminous art with a collection of 16 commissioned solo piano works. The pianist invited composers Laurie Anderson, Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly and Missy Mazzoli to create pieces in dialogue with his own reflections.
• Thursday, August 13, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Composer/vocalist/violinist and electronics performer Laurie Anderson performs "Amelia" – a work celebrating aviator America Earhart, scored  for string orchestra, with text from the pilot's log from her final trip around the world. Strings from the Boston Symphony and guest artist Martha Mooke will be conducted by Dennis Russel Davies. 
• Friday, August 14, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Conductor Anna Handler leads the Boston Symphony in a program with dance, featuring the Martha Graham Dance Company, Janet Eilber, Artistic Director. Featured works include the glorious Martha Graham-commissioned Aaron Copland score "Appalachian Spring," Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and Christopher Rountree's "For Martha – Variations on a Theme of Leonard Bernstein."
• Saturday, August 15, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Conductor/Music Director Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops in "A Tribute to John Williams – Maestro of the Movies." The Pops celebrates maestro Williams in an ultimate aural feast of his film scoring career, with more than 50 minutes of specially-edited scenes and film clips taken from John Williams' best-loved films, projected in HD and synchronized to his spectacular music.
• Sunday, August 16, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Conductor Marin Alsop leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a program of composers Anna Clyne ("Masquerade,") Max Bruch (Violin Concerto No. 1,) with featured soloist Ray Chen, and Mahler (Symphony No. 5.)

For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call (617) 266-1200 or (413) 637-5180; online: tanglewood.org or customerservice@bso.org. In Lenox, visit the Tanglewood box office at the Main Gate located at 297 West Street.

Sevenars Music Festival

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., is celebrating its 58th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy - now air-conditioned – a building designated "an acoustic gem in an idyllic setting," located in the  historic village of South Worthington,15 Ireland Street, off MA Route 112.

• Sunday, August 16, 4:00 p.m.: For a totally fun season Sevenars Music Festival season closer, head to the country – specifically South Worthington, MA., for a great time with Sevenars' longtime friends: The Sparky Quintet:, consisting of piano, voice, guitar, violin, flute and percussion.?

Now in its fourth season at Sevenars, the inimitable Sparky Quartet - now expanded to a Quintet! - formed in tribute to late master clarinetist Bob Sparkman – has deep roots at Sevenars, beginning with Bob's collaborations with treasured pianist and composer Clifton J. "Jerry" Noble, Jr. ("Bob and Jerry"), later joined by the wonderfully versatile Kara Noble for bass and vocals. In 2023, after Bob departed this world, they added the inimitable Chris Devine on violin and flute and the extraordinary Jon Van Eps on percussion and thus became officially the Sparky Quartet. This year, guitarist Bob Ferrier joins to make it the Sparky Quintet, so please come and enjoy this newly expanded ensemble! Their playing, banter, and camaraderie are amazing and are always a big hit - so come enjoy the magic!

Sevenars concerts are presented on consecutive Sundays at 4:00 p.m. until August 16. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call). Online: www.sevenars.org. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments will be available at no charge.