Cellist Alisa Weilerstein (photo by Lucio Lecce)
(LENOX, Mass.) – This weekend’s highlights at Tanglewood include the Berkshires’ own Peter Serkin, the world-renowned concert artist, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra for an all-Brahms program on Saturday night. The weekend kicks off on Friday night with pianist Orion Weiss, filling in for the ailing Leon Fleisher, joining the BSO in a program of Mozart and Mahler, and concludes on Sunday with young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist for Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and a Boston Symphony performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
Details of the weekend’s program as follows:
FRIDAY, JULY 29—Orion Weiss In Mozart Concerto No. 25 and BSO Led By Hans Graf Performs Mahler’s Fifth Symphony
Pianist Orion Weiss
Pianist Orion Weiss will join conductor Hans Graf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Friday, July 29 at Tanglewood, replacing Leon Fleisher. Fleisher will not play as scheduled due to a temporary focal dystonic setback in his right hand. He expects to make a full recovery in the next few weeks and remains committed to the entire 2011-12 season. Weiss will perform Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503, replacing the Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414. The rest of the program remains as announced. Orion Weiss was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 2003. This is his BSO debut. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.
SATURDAY, JULY 30 – Christoph Eschenbach And Peter Serkin Join BSO for All-Brahms Program
Pianist Peter Serkin (by Kathy Chapman)
On July 30, National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Christoph Eschenbach wields the baton in the first of two performances with the BSO on consecutive days. An all-Brahms program, the July 30 concert features the Symphony No. 4 and soloist Peter Serkin in the Piano Concerto No. 1. A lengthy and weighty work for piano and orchestra, the Concerto No. 1 was originally intended to be Brahms’s first symphony, but the young composer — who was in his early 20s at the time — decided he wasn’t ready to compose a work in that genre. His Fourth (and final) Symphony, on the other hand, dates from the later portion of his career by which time he was the reigning master of the form.
SUNDAY, JULY 31 – Maestro Eschenbach Returns With Cellist Alisa Weilerstein
Maestro Christoph Eschenbach
On the second night of Maestro Eschenbach’s visit to the BSO podium, the program opens with Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1—with the young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist—and closes with a Boston Symphony performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Now frequently performed, Haydn’s delightful early cello concerto was lost from the repertoire until the fortuitous discovery of a manuscript in 1961 in a Prague museum. Mahler’s First Symphony is his most direct and immediately approachable, packaging his technicolor sonic palette in a dramatically taut and propulsive structure.
Tickets are available through Tanglewood’s website and through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200.