The first week in August is always the most exciting week of the Tanglewood season, and 2012 is no exception. Those lucky enough to be able to get to Tanglewood on Sunday can hear a very brief, but very exciting new musical work inspired by the CERN particle accelerator, and perhaps even spot a Higg’s Bosun.

On Tuesday, the BSO pulls out all stops and welcomes families to Tanglewood on Parade and a vast array of activities to mark the annual celebration. Keith Lockhart and John Williams will be there with the Boston Pops while three additional conductors will lead the BSO itself, Making his Tanglewood debut is Stéphane Denève.

Then on Sunday, Augusst 5, the incredible Chris Botti returns to Tanglewood with his crack ensemble.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 – GERALD FINLEY JOINS LORIN MAAZEL AND BSO FOR MUSIC BY MOZART AND RAVEL
Following his August 2 recital, baritone Gerald Finley moves from Ozawa Hall to the Shed Friday, August 3, at 8:30 p.m., to join revered maestroLorin Maazel, a TMC fellow in 1951 and ’52, and the BSO for Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée—the last work Ravel completed before succumbing to the debilitating neurological condition that silenced him in his final few years—and arias from Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni by Mozart, a composer in whose music Mr. Finley is especially respected. The program also includes Ravel’s colorful Alborada del gracioso and Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2—a BSO specialty and a work that was performed in the first Tanglewood season in 1937—as well as Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, Prague.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 – CHRISTOPH VON DOHNÁNYI CONDUCTS SCHUMANN AND IS JOINED BY YEFIM BRONFMAN FOR BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2
The BSO welcomes conductor Christoph von Dohnányi and dynamic pianist Yefim Bronfman on Saturday, August 4, at 8:30 p.m. Mr. Bronfman takes center stage in Brahms’s sweeping Piano Concerto No. 2, a prototypically Brahmsian work in its combination of formal mastery and expressive ingenuity, as well as typically monumental in scale and scope, stretching to almost an hour and requiring four movements instead of the typical three. To conclude the program, the orchestra shows its muscle in Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, originally composed in 1841 during one of the happiest periods of his life, but only completed in its final revision ten years later.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 – MAAZEL AND BSO GIVE WORLD PREMIERE OF GANDOLFI’S NIGHT TRAIN TO PERUGIA
Mr. Maazel once again takes the podium Sunday, August 5, at 2:30 p.m., to lead the BSO in a program featuring the world premiere of Night Train to Perugia, a new BSO-commissioned work by Michael Gandolfi, who was a TMC Fellow in 1986 and has been a member of the TMC Faculty since 1997. The elegant and engaging French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is soloist in Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian, nicknamed for the fact that it was written in that country and was influenced by the music of its region. The concert concludes in thrilling fashion with Berlioz’sSymphonie fastastique, another work at the heart of the BSO repertoire and which the orchestra first performed in 1885.

The title for Michael Gandolfi’s brief and fast-paced Night Train to Perugia came to him with the assistance of Boston-based writer Dana Bonstrom, who suggested a number of titles based on experiments carried out at the CERN particle accelerator. Mr. Gandolfi said that “the image of a neutrino beam traveling at light-speed underground from Switzerland through Perugia, Italy, among a host of cities, and ultimately to the Gran Sasso laboratory, to empirically test the boundaries of physics, aligned perfectly with the abstract imaginings of my piece.” Upon further investigation, Mr. Gandolfi says he became awestruck by humankind’s ability to conceive of and then construct the equipment required to realize the CERN experiments. He also notes that while he believes the creativity and ingenuity exhibited in the scientific community intersects with the creative requirements of musical composition, there is one major difference: “if a scientific experiment is not construed and executed with absolute precision, it simply fails, whereas a musical composition doesn’t ‘fail’ under similar conditions; it wobbles, and sometimes the wobble produces results that outshine those of the original design! I don’t intend for Night Train to Perugia to ‘run off the track,’ but if it does, the piece will exist; albeit with a few surprises and perhaps, unforeseen improvements.” The BSO was involved in the commissioning of hisImpressions from ‘The Garden of Cosmic Speculation’ and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players premiered his Plain Song, Fantastic Dances in 2005. He is currently composing a work for organ and orchestra—a BSO commission to be premiered in 2015.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 – TANGLEWOOD ON PARADE
Tanglewood on Parade, Tuesday, August 7, one of the festival’s most beloved traditions and a chance to see all its orchestras perform in a single extended concert. The festivities begin at 2 p.m. when gates open to brass fanfares. Chamber, piano, and vocal music performances by the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and members of the BSO, take place around the grounds throughout the afternoon. Face painters and chair massagers will be located on the lawn, and Bonaparte, Boston’s premier magician, will roam the grounds providing impromptu family entertainment. At 8:30 p.m., Mr. Maazel, Mr. Dohnányi, Stéphane Denève in his Tanglewood debut, Keith Lockhart, and John Williamsshare the podium for a program that will include Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and recent film scores by Mr. Williams, as well as the traditional TOP finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. This lively evening features performances by the BSO, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Boston Pops, culminating in a dazzling fireworks display.

PERFORMANCE IN OZAWA HALL ON AUGUST 5
SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 – CHRIS BOTTI RETURNS TO TANGLEWOOD

Three-time Billboard chart-topper and five-time Grammy Award nominated trumpeter Chris Botti—who last performed at Tanglewood in 2009 with the Boston Pops—brings his crack ensemble and trademark populist style of jazz to Ozawa Hall Sunday, August 5 at 8 p.m. The program will feature a selection of Botti and his band’s favorite jazz standards.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF TANGLEWOOD

Tanglewood, one of the world’s most beloved music festivals and the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, celebrates its 75th anniversary season, June 22-September 2, with a spectacular lineup of musical guests and programs that spotlight Tanglewood’s rich tradition of presenting summertime concerts at their best since 1937. Tickets, priced from $9 to $117 for regular season concerts, are available at tanglewood.org or at 888-266-1200; tanglewood offers free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under and a 50% discount on lawn tickets to college and graduate students.

TANGLEWOOD CONCERT LISTING, AUGUST 3-7 
All programs and artists are subject to change
*connotes Tanglewood debut

Friday, August 3, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Gerald Finley, baritone
MOZART Symphony No. 38, Prague
MOZART Arias from Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni
RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
RAVEL Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, for baritone and orchestra
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2º

ºPerformed on the program of August 7, 1937

Saturday, August 4, 9:30 a.m. Shed
Pre-Rehearsal Talk

Saturday, August 4, 10:30 a.m. Shed
Rehearsal, Sunday program

Saturday, August 4, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 

Sunday, August 5, 2:30 p.m. Shed
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
GANDOLFI Night Train to Perugia (world premiere; BSO commission)
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5, Egyptian
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Sunday, August 5, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Chris Botti, trumpet
   and his band

Tuesday, August 7, 8:30 p.m. Shed
Tanglewood on Parade
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Stéphane Denève*, Keith Lockhart, Lorin Maazel, 
Christoph von Dohnányi, and John Williams, conductors
Program to include
BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture
STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)
Recent film scores by John WILLIAMS
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture

Fireworks to follow the concert