The Classical Beat: Great Music at Tanglewood and Sevenars

This week Tanglewood presents "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" at Film Night, an all-Beethoven chamber fest,  a magical Ravel opera in concert and the festival-within-a festival: Tanglewood On Parade, showcasing the Boston Symphony, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and the Boston Pops.

With the arrival of August, we are at the apex of the music festival season. Programs at Tanglewood offer a diverse and intriguing mix of chamber music scored by Beethoven combined with two intimate chamber arrangements of his orchestral masterworks for three strings and piano; a concert performance with the TMC Orchestra and TMC vocal soloists of Maurice Ravel's masterpiece, the piquant opera-ballet "L'Enfant et les sortìleges" ('The Child and the Spirits - a lyric fantasy') and the not-to-be-missed summer highpoint Tanglewood On Parade, featuring the BSO, the Boston Pops and the TMC Orchestra led by conductors Keith Lockhart and Elim Chan. Here are the details:

• Friday, Aug. 1, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: The Boston Pops Orchestra, led by Damon Gupton, presents a live interactive concert version of the dynamic score by John Williams to the 1983 film "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" projected on the big screens in the Shed and on the lawn.
• Saturday Aug. 2, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Maestra Elim Chan, in her Tanglewood debut, leads the BSO in performances of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's heroic/lyrical Violin Concerto, with the spectacular soloist violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Composed for and premiered by Jascha Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony under conductor Vladimir Golschmann in 1945, the work is dedicated to Alma Mahler, the wife of the young Korngold's mentor. The program concludes with Rachmaninoff's enraptured Symphony No. 2.
• Sunday Aug. 3, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: A rare stellar artist chamber music concert in the Shed (Leonidas Kavakos, violin, Emanuel Ax, piano, Antoine Tamestit, viola and Yo-Yo Ma, cello) of three of Beethoven works, including the Trio No. 4 for violin, cello and piano in B flat, Op. 11, and quartet arrangements for these three instruments plus viola of the "Leonore" Overture No. 3 and the Symphony No. 3 ('Eroica.')
• Monday August 4, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Continuing the season-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Maurice Ravel, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Vocal Fellows will be performing the composer's 1925 miraculous opera-ballet "L'Enfant et les sortìleges," led by TMC Conducting Fellows. I cannot recommend highly enough this incredibly beautiful, tender and touching work; it is Ravel's masterpiece - the 'summa' of his art; don't miss this one.
• Tuesday, Aug. 5 – concert at 8:00 p.m. in the Shed – 'Tanglewood On Parade:' The annual 'Tanglewood on Parade," offering a full day of music and activities for all ages, culminating with a Shed concert showcasing the best of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, led by conductors Keith Lockhart, Elim Chan, Thomas Wilkins, Samy Rachid, and Na'Zir McFadden and featuring historian Heather Cox Richardson as Narrator in Aaron Copland's majestic and profound "Lincoln Portrait." This special program will conclude with Tchaikovsky's spectacular "1812 Overture." Fireworks will follow the performance.   

For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call (888) 266-1200, or go online at tanglewood.org. Check the online schedule for 'Tanglewood on Parade' events and performance times and locations.

Don't Miss Bach Cello Masterpieces at Sevenars

Music at Sevenars, the outstanding series of Sunday afternoon concerts, presented from mid-July through mid-August, continues this week.

• Sunday, Aug. 3 at 4:00 p.m.: You're invited to attend the performance of the three remaining of the six Bach Cello Suites cycle started in 2024 by world-renowned cellist Inbal Segev, who will perform Suites nos. 2, 4, and 6. Number six is especially revered for its profound "Sarabande," originally composed to be played on a 5-string instrument. These Suites were composed during the years 1717-1723; they were made famous by the internationally prominent cellist Pablo Casals, who brought them out from obscurity to the public's attention by performing them in the concert hall.

Cellist Inbal Segev has been called "a cellist with something to say" (Gramophone). In 2024 she thrilled the Sevenars audience with Suites Nos. 1,3, and 5 and now completes the cycle after a busy season that has included concerto appearances, a premiere with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and touring with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Inbal Segev's Bach performances have gained special attention, from New York's Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum, to the Shanghai Concert Hall and Jerusalem Theatre, as well as on recording for Vox Classics. She shows "complete dedication and high intelligence" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and is not to be missed!

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., is celebrating its 57th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy, 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.

Concerts are presented on consecutive Sundays at 4:00 p.m. until August 18. 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.

The Classical Beat: Tanglewood, Sevenars Offer Thrilling Music and Performers

By Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires
11:16AM / Wednesday, August 05, 2026

With the second week of August, Tanglewood continues its high energy and innovative classical programming with three powerhouse concerts in the Shed – with highlights being especially illuminating, spiritual programs curated by Yo-Yo Ma in the Shed and in Ozawa Hall. Read below for all the details and performing artists appearing in these outstanding programs:

• Friday, August 7, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: The Boston Symphony, led by Samy Rachlid, with Renaud Capucon, violin, Yo-Yo Ma, cello, and the Berkshire Lyric Chorus directed by Jack Brown present a program entitled "Gratitude and Friendship." Featured works by composers Gabriel Fauré ('Cantique de Jean Racine',) Brahms (String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op. 36,) and concluding with Brahms' rarely-performed Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, Op. 102.  
• Saturday, August 8, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed:  This very special concert presents a journey in words and music we all share in our co-mingled American present: the land, both our individual and collective stories, and the ideals that motivate us. Together with the BSO and special guest musicians and artists, this program reflects the triumphs, tragedies and possibilities of our country. Featured performers include conductors Teddy Abrams and Ken-David Masur, vocalists Aofie O'Donovan and Jennifer Kreisberg, and members of  "An American Journey," with Yo-Yo Ma and Friends.
• Sunday, August 9, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: A program entitled "Our Future Together" presents music by John Tavener, Kayhan Kalhor and Osvaldo Golijov. Featured performers include conductors Samy Rachlid and Anna Handler, cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Karen Ouzounian, and Christine Lee, vocalist Arooj Aftab, Kayhan Kalhor, karmancheh (an ancient traditional bowed Persian stringed instrument,) and the Boston University Tanglewood Chorus.
• Monday, August 10, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The Tanglewood Music Festival Orchestra, featuring TMC Conducting Fellows and TMC Vocalists, presents a program of American Opera, with works composed by Copland ('The Tender Land,') Tania Leon ('Scourge of the Hyacinths,') John Adams ('El Nino,') John Harbison ('The Great Gatsby,') Osvaldo Golijov ('Ainadamar,') Missy Mazzoli ('Proving Up') and Stravinsky ('The Rake's Progress'.)

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

Sevenars presents an electrifying piano virtuoso

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.

Sevenars is delighted to welcome back prizewinning virtuoso Junwen Liang, performing a stunningly varied American program entitled  "Echoes Across Horizons: American Voices in Classical Piano." 

Junwen graduated with a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, under the tutelage of Richard Goode. See Junwenliangpianist.com for more about this wonderful artist.

He'll bring Sevenars a stunningly varied program, including music of Amy Beach, Florence Price, Tan Dun, Stephen Dankner, and the rare and masterful Sonata by Paul Aurandt, (sometimes described as a musical successor to Rachmaninoff) - along with other surprises! 

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.