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Ensemble

A Total Delight

The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood,
heard by LAWRENCE BUDMEN

 

Despite a rain-swept evening, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's concert version of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio on 23 July 2010 at Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Music Shed in northwestern Massachusetts, USA, was a total delight. Actor Will Lebow provided a witty, modernized narration by Simon Butteriss (commissioned for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) in lieu of the singspiel's spoken dialog that helped to move the evening along. Originally planned by BSO music director James Levine (with a hand picked cast), the production fell to the young German conductor Johannes Debus after Levine had to withdraw from the entire Tanglewood season to recuperate from back surgery.

Based in Toronto by way of Frankfurt, Debus is a first rate Mozart conductor. Unencumbered by period instrument mannerisms, his direction of a chamber-sized ensemble was delightfully bubbly and effervescent...

Copyright © 29 July 2010 Lawrence Budmen,
Miami Beach, USA

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On Friday 30 July 2010, Charles Dutoit leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 with Gilmore Award winner Kirill Gerstein at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, USA.

Juanjo Mena conducts Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra, Strauss' Four Last Songs (with soprano Hei-Kyung Hong) and Mahler's Symphony No 4 on Saturday 31 July.

On Sunday 1 August Dutoit directs Sibelius' Karelia Suite, the Musorgsky-Ravel Pictures at An Exhibition and Elgar's Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma.

On 1, 2 and 4 August the Tanglewood Vocal Fellows and Music Center Orchestra present Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, directed by Ira Siff, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi (1 and 2 August) and Keitaro Harada (4 August 2010). For information, see www.bso.org

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TANGLEWOOD

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

MASSACHUSETTS

JOHANNES BRAHMS

RICHARD STRAUSS

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

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