FRIDAY, AUGUST 24 – BOSTON POPS CELEBRATE GERSHWIN AND THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
The final week of the BSO’s Tanglewood 2012 season kicks off Friday, August 24, at 8:30 p.m., with the Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart performing music in celebration of George Gershwin and the creators of the Great American Songbook, including Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. ThisGershwin and Friends program will feature Broadway favorites Maureen McGovern and Brian Stokes Mitchell, as well as pianist Ilya Yakushev, who will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Composed in 1924 on commission from band leader Paul Whiteman for an experimental concerto-like work fusing jazz and classical idioms, Rhapsody in Blue—described by its composer as “a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness”—has been a favorite of jazz and classical audiences alike ever since.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25 – BSO PLAYS SPANISH MUSIC WITH RAFAEL FRÜHBECK DE BURGOS
On Saturday, August 25, at 8:30 p.m., conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos presides over a BSO program of music from his native Spain. The concert begins with Maestro Frühbeck’s own arrangement of Albéniz’s Suite española, but the main event is a complete concert performance of Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve (Life is Short), an opera about the doomed love of a gypsy woman for an upper-class man, complete with Flamenco dancing and a Spanish folk singer—a program which was very well received when it was first performed under Maestro Frühbeck in 2003. The two lead roles are sung by mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and tenor Vicente Ombuena. The cast also includes mezzo-sopranos Cristina Faus and Cátia Moreso, tenor Gustavo Peña, baritonesAlfredo García Huerga and Josep Miquel Ramón, cantaor Pedro Sanz, Flamenco dancer Núria Pomares Rojas, and guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 26 – BSO CONCLUDES ITS 2012 TANGLEWOOD SEASON WITH HARBISON AND BEETHOVEN
On Sunday, August 26, at 2:30 p.m., the BSO’s 2012 Tanglewood season comes to a close with its traditional performance of Beethoven’s transcendent Symphony No. 9, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. This year, however, the final concert also offers a significant new-music event as Maestro Frühbeck and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus open the program with the world premiere of Koussevitzky Said:,a BSO-commissioned new work by Boston-based American composer John Harbison.

The traditional season-ender then completes the program, as the orchestra and chorus—joined by soprano Leah Crocetto, mezzo-soprano Meredith Arwady, tenor Frank Lopardo, and bass-baritone John Relyea—bid Tanglewood 2012 goodbye.

John Harbison felt the connection to Serge Koussevitzky seemed essential for a piece commissioned for the 75th anniversary of Tanglewood. In honor of Tanglewood’s founder, Mr. Harbison began by working with some of Koussevitzky’s formal addresses to the Tanglewood family, often at Opening Day ceremonies. But after writing the third or fourth surging climax, Mr. Harbison said, “I suddenly heard what I was doing in terms of the whole program, and experienced a discouraging overdose of uplift.  In prelude to the matchless animation of Beethoven Nine, I did not want to hear the piece I was writing.” Not wanting to let go of this idea, Mr. Harbison began to incorporate some of the things that Maestro Koussevitzky was reported to have said informally, while teaching, rehearsing, and conversing. Mr. Harbison commented, “my research daily increased my sense of wonder at Koussevitzky’s force, manifest in gestures large and small. This short piece Koussevitzky Said: is a way for someone who never saw or knew him to enjoy the time with him.”

Koussevitzky Said:, performed by the BSO and Tanglewood Festival Chorus with conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, will be paired on a program with Tanglewood’s now-traditional season closer, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, bringing to end an anniversary season honoring the festival’s past, present, and future.

PERFORMANCES IN OZAWA HALL AUGUST 25 AND 26

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25 – CLASSICAL TANGENT PRESENTS TANGLEWOOD’S ANNUAL FAMILY CONCERT
Tanglewood’s annual Family Concert, featuring Classical Tangent, a group made up in part of BSO players who perform many different styles of folk music for classical audiences, will take place at 2:30 p.m. on August 25. The program will include traditional tunes arranged by Ms. Bewick for the ensemble, including “Oh, When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” and “L’Chaim Rebbe,” as well as original works, including “Tunes with Friends” and “Mad Lib Song,” an interactive piece about Tanglewood.

Pre-concert activities including crafts and an instrument playground will take place from 12:30-2 p.m. in the Hawthorne Tent, located on the hill above Ozawa Hall.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 26 – CHICK COREA, GARY BURTON, AND THE HARLEM STRING QUARTET PERFORM IN OZAWA HALL
Following the annual matinee Boston Symphony performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on Sunday, August 26, the legendary Chick Corea will take the stage of Ozawa Hall, joined by Gary Burton and the Harlem String Quartet at 8 p.m.

Chick Corea and Gary Burton appear at Tanglewood as part of their “Hot House tour, exploring their expansive take on the “standards.”

The tour is in support of their upcoming album, Hot House, to be released on September 4.

One Day University at Tanglewood, August 26, 2012
One Day University, the acclaimed adult education series, is returning to Tanglewood on Sunday, August 26, presenting three lectures by professors from Columbia, Brown, and Vanderbilt. Topics to be discussed include “FDR and the Path to WWII: What We Know Now That We Didn’t Know Then” with Columbia University’s Richard M. Pious; “Where Are My Keys? Understanding How Memory Works” with Brown University’s John J. Stein; and “The Beatles and Beethoven: Hearing the Connection” with Vanderbilt University’s Michael Alec Rose. The cost for One Day University at Tanglewood is $149, and includes VIP parking and lawn admission for the 2:30 p.m. BSO season-finale performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Advance purchase is required. For more information or to register for One Day University at Tanglewood, call Symphony Charge at 888-266-1200 or visit www.tanglewood.org/onedayu.