Dave Read

The Tanglewood 2009 season offers a rare opportunity to delve deeply into the works of a range of seminal composers. Including the opening night all-Tchaikovsky program (July 3), eight single-composer concerts provide the chance to experience the creative evolution not just of familiar titans like Beethoven (July 5, 7, & 9), Haydn (June 28), and Mozart (July 19), but also composers such as Sibelius and Stravinsky.

Herbert Blomstedt’s all-Sibelius program with the Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows and the TMC Orchestra taps the conductor’s own Scandinavian roots with Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, Tapiola, and The Swan of Tuonela (June 29).

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos brings his great authority for the works of Stravinsky to a TMCO program anchored by the complete Pulcinella and the Suite from The Firebird (August 3).

In honor of the Mendelssohn bicentennial, one of the composer’s ardent proponents, Kurt Masur, conducts the Hebrides Overture, the Symphony No. 4, Italian, and the Violin Concerto, with Gil Shaham (August 22).

Masur’s great affinity for the works of Brahms is displayed in a TMCO concert featuring the Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto No. 2, with Garrick Ohlsson (August 16).

Two of Tanglewood’s favorite maestros celebrate significant birthdays at the festival this summer. Andre Previn, who celebrates his 80th birthday in April, returns to the festival with three programs that showcase his remarkable versatility as a conductor, composer, and performer.

In addition to leading a program with the BSO (August 15), Mr. Previn will also be featured in two Ozawa Hall programs, including an evening of jazz favorites with pianist David Finck (August 16). A Boston Symphony Chamber Players concert features Mr. Previn in the Brahms Quintet in F minor for piano and strings and reprises his new chamber work premiered in March 2009 (August 12).

One of the BSO’s most popular guest conductors, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos marks his 75th birthday with three separate programs at Tanglewood, including a reprise of the acclaimed Symphony Hall performances of Carmina burana (August 8).

Sir James Galway celebrates his 70th birthday with a special musical birthday bash, anchored by a performance of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 (August 1). The program also includes music by Debussy and Copland, and promises some special musical surprises for the occasion. Galway precedes the BSO celebration with an Ozawa Hall recital featuring his wife, flutist Lady Jeanne Galway, and longtime collaborator, American pianist Phillip Moll (July 30).

Whereas the venerable Koussevitsky Music Shed, dedicated in 1938, is the primary venue at Tanglewood, performances in Seiji Ozawa Hall, opened in 1994, are highlights of the Tanglewood season and often examples of innovative programming.

On July 5, 7, & 9, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, with pianist Alexander Lonquich, will present Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano. On June 28, the Juilliard Quartet presents a program of Haydn’s Sun Quartets; it will be the farewell performance of first violinist Joel Smirnoff.

Le Concert de Nations, the period-instrument ensemble led by Jordi Savall presents wide-ranging concerts on July 14 & 15. Actor F. Murray Abraham will join the ensemble for Stage Music in the Plays of William Shakespeare.

On August 5 & 6, the Mark Morris Dance Group will return to Tanglewood with two world premieres choreographed to music of Ives and Beethoven, featuring performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax.

A gala all-Tchaikovsky program marks the return to the Tanglewood podium of BSO Music Director James Levine on July 3 to open the 2009 Tanglewood season. The concert will include the Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, and the Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff will join Maestro Levine on July 5 for the Brahms Violin Concerto on a program that includes Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Tetzlaff next will give back-to-back performances of Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano in Ozawa Hall, with Program 1, Sonatas 1-4, on July 5; Program 2, Sonatas 5-7, on July 7; and Program 3, Sonatas 8-10, on July 9.

The Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood will feature Canadian singer and pianist Diana Krall, the two-time Grammy winner who last was seen here when she made a surprise appearance during husband Elvis Costello’s stint on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz broadcast during the 2007 Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Ms. Krall also headlined the 2004 Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood.

In the second week of the Tanglewood season, a July 11 concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III by the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows and Orchestra continues James Levine’s exploration of Wagner’s operatic masterpieces. The performance also features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and soloists James Morris, Johan Botha, Hei-Kyung Hong, Matthew Polenzani, Maria Zifchak, Hans-Joachim Ketelson, and Julien Robbins. It will be sung in German with English supertitles.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt, in an extended Tanglewood residency this summer, leads Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 on a July 10 program with Nielsen’s Helios Overture and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, featuring pianist Emanuel Ax. Dvo?ák’s Symphony No. 8 is featured in aJuly 12 program with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, with soloist Joshua Bell.

On July 14, Le Concert des Nations comes to Ozawa Hall with gambist Jordi Savall to perform two programs. Les Goûts Réunis features music by Lully, Biber, Corelli, Handel, Scarlatti/Avison, and Boccherini . Stage Music in the Plays of William Shakespeare includes music by Johnson, Locke, and Purcell, with relevant Shakespearean texts being read by actor F. Murray Abraham.

The third week of the Tanglewood season includes, on July 17, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, in its first Tanglewood performance since being introduced here in 1972 by James Levine, who will be on the podium again on a program that also features Leon Fleisher performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23.

On Friday, July 18, Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams leads the Boston Pops and special guests in Film Night at Tanglewood. This year’s theme is the legacy of Hollywood’s Warner Brothers dynasty featuring montages and film excerpts from the studio’s classic movies.

A special Ozawa Hall recital on July 22 will feature baritone Thomas Hampson, currently engaged in an exploration of American music. Scheduled to be performed are songs of Ives, Griffes, Carpenter, and Barber, with pianist Craig Rutenberg.