The Classical Beat: A Profusion of Music at Tanglewood and Sevenars

The Bob Sparkman Quartet concludes Sevenars' 57th festival season.

LENOX, Mass. — Come mid-August, classical aficionados are grateful for the cornucopia of extraordinary musical riches the Boston Symphony bestows to rapt audiences within the incomparably bucolic setting that is Tanglewood.

During this busy, penultimate week of the Tanglewood Festival's classical programming, the spotlight will focus on a wide range of audience-favorite orchestral music and solo concertized works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Sibelius, Liszt and Bartók, where the range of musical expression and stylistic and national diversity is spread far and wide.

For a huge, 180-degree contrast, be sure to check out the cool, refreshing change of pace, with a tincture of jazz to buoy the spirits at the storied Sevenars Festival, in South Worthington.

Tanglewood

• Wednesday, Aug. 13, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The groundbreaking string quartet Brooklyn Rider makes its Ozawa Hall debut with a deft blend of traditional and new repertoire. The quartet is composed of founding violinist Colin Jacobsen, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas. Contemporary works by Reena Esmail and Jacobsen combine with Philip Glass's "Third Quartet, "based on music written for the 1985 biopic of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma closes the concert by joining the Quartet for a performance of Schubert's sublime String Quintet in C Major, which has a part for a second cello.

• Thursday Aug. 14, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, the British vocal ensemble "The Sixteen" makes its Tanglewood debut, joined by founding director and conductor Harry Christophers. The program, entitled "A Deer's Cry," features sacred music by William Byrd, ThomasTallis, and Arvo Pa?rt, includes the Estonian composer's mesmerizing "Nunc dimittis" This performance is in conjunction with the vocal ensemble's weeklong residency with the Tanglewood Music Center, in which members of the group also present a Prelude Concert with music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and J.S. Bach on Aug. 16.

• Friday, Aug. 15, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Audience-favorite maestro Dima Slobodeniouk returns to Tanglewood to conduct three programs over the course of four days, beginning with Caroline Shaw's "Entr'acte," for string orchestra, Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" for cello and orchestra, with soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras, and concluding with Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.

• Saturday, Aug. 16, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Handler makes her Tanglewood and BSO debuts conducting three major works from the stolid classical tradition: Brahms' ‘Tragic' Overture, Schumann's Symphony No. 4, and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with GRAMMY-winning German-American supremely lyrical violinist Augustin Hadelich.

• Sunday, Aug. 17 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Slobodeniouk leads the BSO on a program that also features two works by Sibelius (Valse triste and Symphony No. 3), Liszt (Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring superstar pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet) and "Threnody," an homage to the Finnish Sibelius by the American composer William Grant Still.

• Monday, Aug. 18, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: For his final program, Maestro Slobodeniouk will conduct the TMC Orchestra alongside two TMC Conducting Fellows in works inspired by dance: John Adams' "The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra," and Bela Barto?k's "Dance Suite." The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky's tumultuous Symphony No. 4.

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, Aug. 17, 4:00 p.m.: For its season finale, Sevenars is delighted once again to present its traditional festival-concluding favorite, the Bob Sparkman Quartet.

Now in its third season at Sevenars, the sensational Sparky Quartet, formed in tribute to late master clarinetist Bob Sparkman, has long roots at Sevenars starting from Bob's collaborations with treasured pianist and composer Clifton J. "Jerry" Noble,  Jr  With wonderfully versatile bassist Kara Noble, their jazz trio wizardry became a tradition as a Sevenars finale - no season could end without them! In 2023, after Bob left this world, they brought on board the inimitable Chris Devine on violin and flute and the extraordinary  Jon Van Eps on percussion and became officially the Sparky Quartet. Together they make magic! Clifton J. "Jerry" Noble, Jr. is admired as composer and pianist throughout the United States and internationally, both as a classical artist and in jazz improvisation. Kara Noble brings her miraculous gifts on guitar, vocals, and just about everything else. Chris Devine, brilliant violinist/flutist plays in a multitude of styles and instruments (and whose bio includes collaborating with Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple), and rounding off the quartet is John Van Eps, multifaceted marimba virtuoso/composer, and producer

For Sevenars tickets, and general contact information, call: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for return call). On the Web: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments are included. Sevenars Concerts is located at the Academy in South Worthington, Mass., located at 15 Ireland Street, just off Route 112.

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Postscript: As this is the celebratory year of the French composer Maurice Ravel's 150^th birth (1875-1937,) here's my take on explaining his brilliant though eclectic style, in the form of a recipe. The main ingredients are Debussy-an Impressionism, with a dash of Russian exoticism by way of Mussorgsky; then add to the mix a generous amount of Prokofiev's piquant harmonies and child-like playfulness. For good measure, blend in a soupçon of Fauré's neo-classicism and a sprinkling of Gershwin's jazz-inspired  "blue" notes and syncopated Charleston rhythms…and voilà…Ravel! But, morphology aside, I don't mean to imply that Ravel, despite these influences, was not sui generis. We are, each of us, influenced by others. It is always the case that a creative genius is unique, and the resultant art, then, is necessarily original. Maurice Ravel was a Basque-born bon vivant who lived in the world and was of the world. The most humane of composers, his remarkable talent elevated him to a higher and wider plane of creative existence, from which he bountifully bestowed his astonishingly gorgeous music to us. Merci beaucoup, maître Ravel!

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