During late-July, the classical music festival "high season," anchored by concerts at Tanglewood and at other regional venues approaches its zenith, with both sure-fire and innovative programming. Offerings this week include Boston Symphony performances of both classic and rarely heard works by Berlioz, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler and Rachmaninoff, as well as by two of today's prominent composers — Richard Danielpour and Pierre Jalbert.

 

Not to be outdone, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams is continuing its ongoing three-week Summer Music Festival of new music, curated by renowned Bang on a Can (BOAC) composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe.

 

For a charming and musically rewarding country getaway, be sure to check out the performances on Sunday in the historic Academy by the Sevenars Music Festival in charming South Worthington, MA. As always, the place to be for great classical and stimulating new music is right here in our own intimate corner of the world — the Berkshires — a so-

designated "cultural capital," where artistic boundaries are nonexistent. Read on for concert details for all of the above:

 

Performances in the Shed

 

• Friday, July 22, 8 p.m., Karina Canellakis, conductor: Wagner: Prelude to "Lohengrin," Act 1; Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, with Emanuel Ax, soloist; Rachmaninoff: "Symphonic Dances."

 

• Saturday, July 23, 8 p.m.: Andris Nelsons conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra with Christine Goerke, soprano, performing Berlioz: "The Death of Cleopatra"; Mahler: Symphony No. 5

 

• Sunday, July 24, 2:30 p.m.: Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony, with soloists Latonia Moore, soprano and Seong-Jin Cho, piano performing William Grant Still's "In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy," and George Walker's "Lilacs" for orchestra. The program concludes with Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2. Talks and performances in the Tanglewood Learning Institute and Ozawa Hall

 

• Wednesday, July 20, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Linde Center, Studio E: Open French horn workshop with Richard Sebring.

 

• Thursday, July 21, 1-2 p.m.: In conversation – to be determined.

 

• Thursday, July 21, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Linde Center, Studio E: Pre-concert talk with Richard Danielpour, Rita Dove and Michael Boriskin – artists who created "A Standing Witness."

 

• Thursday, July 21, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall – Music from Copland House: Music of Aaron Copland, Pierre Jalbert and Richard Danielpour. For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200. TDD/TTY: (617) 638-9289. For local information, call (413) 637-1600. Online: tanglewood.org.

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts Inc. is showcasing its 54th anniversary season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy in the historic village of South Worthington, located at 15 Ireland St., just off Route 112.

 

• Sunday, July 24, 4 p.m., will feature Hayan Sun in an all-Schubert piano recital. The program will include an opening "March" in E Major, followed by three sonatas and, after intermission, the great "Fantasie in C Major."

 

Sevenars' press release announces: "Back by popular demand, powerhouse pianist Hayan Sun regaled Sevenars last season with his tremendous all-Beethoven program, and we are so excited now to hear him playing Schubert, in the 225th anniversary year of Schubert's birth. As Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, he has shared his compendious repertoire in recital, presenting in close succession a complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas and eight concerts of Schubert's piano music. We are thrilled to have him back!"

 

Concerts are presented on six consecutive Sundays at 4 p.m., from July 10-Aug. 14. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call). Online: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments will be available.

 

If you think that this three-week summer music festival is your typical "high modern," cerebral celebration of head-in-your-hand, academic musical experimentation divorced from our daily lives and popular culture, think again; this is not your father's (or grandfather's) festival of modern music. Instead, it's a joyous, pop inflected, "what if" carnival of musical

merriment, and yes, passion, where caution is thrown to the winds. Think music on the cutting edge and beyond. As the BOAC Festival organizers themselves describe it: "Brilliant musicians and composers inhabit the Mass MoCA campus for three rollicking weeks of innovative, unexpected, and ear-expanding music."

 

Recitals are held throughout specific MoCA galleries are ongoing most days until July 27 at 1:30 p.m. (BOAC composer/performer Fellows) and at 4:30 p.m. (BOAC music faculty). All daily gallery concerts are free with

paid MoCA admission. Bang on a Can's gallery concerts lead up to LOUD Weekend on July 28–30 with a fully "loaded" eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental, and electronic music over three days throughout the museum's expansive

campus.

 

For complete BOAC Summer Music Festival information and related events, including performers, composers and joint art/music presentations at MoCA and in venues within the city of North Adams, go online or call for tickets, museum hours and both general and specific event information: info@massmoca.org or 413-662-2111.