ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS Two BSO performances will reprise complete programs presented in that first summer of 1937: an all-Beethoven season-opener under Christoph von Dohnanyi on July 6, and that meteorologically infamous all-Wagner program, to be played under Asher Fisch on July 21. The official 75th anniversary gala concert takes place July 14, with BSO and the Pops joined by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The night’s conductors will include John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons, with soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, and James Taylor.
BSO CONCERTS Among the more enticing BSO programs, Charles Dutoit will lead the orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and vocal soloists (Susan Graham, Paul Groves, Willard White, and Christopher Feigum) in Berlioz’s “Damnation of Faust” (July 28). And many ears will be listening for signs of chemistry when the gifted young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 and Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” (July 15).
SOLOISTS Easy to miss among the parade of familiar celebrity soloists this summer will be three less frequently spotted pianists: Paul Lewis making his BSO debut in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 under the baton of Christoph von Dohnanyi (Aug. 12), Nelson Freire in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with the BSO under Marcelo Lehninger (July 27), and Gerhard Oppitz traversing Brahms’s complete works for piano over four recital programs in Ozawa Hall (July 18-26).
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER Among the most adventurous of the regular TMC programs is an Ozawa Hall concert led by Charles Dutoit and TMC conducting fellows, featuring works by Varese, Messiaen, Stravinsky, and Lindberg (July 30). Anyone drawn to those composers may also want to be there when Stefan Asbury and conducting fellows lead the TMC Orchestra in works by Ives and Stravinsky alongside Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, with soloist Emanuel Ax (July 23). The TMC’s banner event, the Festival of Contemporary Music, will take place Aug. 9-13, and will be co-directed this year by Oliver Knussen and John Harbison.
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PREMIERES Premieres of new works will be the most Koussevitzkian aspect of the anniversary festivities, with nine in total, most of them to be performed by the BSO or the TMC Orchestra. Among the new works will be Gunther Schuller’s “Dreamscape” (July 8 and Aug. 13); John Harbison’s “Koussevitzky said:” (Aug. 26); Michael Gandolfi’s “Night Train to Perugia” (Aug. 5); and André Previn’s “Music for Boston” (Aug. 11).
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