This past Tuesday, the main grounds were packed with people and bustling with energy as Tanglewood went On Parade, featuring with musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and our very own Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Audience members set up their lawn chairs and picnics outside the Koussevitzky Shed and visited the instrument petting zoo under the hot summer sun. 

At 4:00, the Young Artists Orchestra kicked off the show with the upbeat Overture to Candide.  Next, Paul Haas and Anne Howard Jones led the Young Artists Orchestra and Young Artists Vocal Program in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, featuring soloists from the YAVP Faculty. The remainder of the program was performed by the YAVP Chorus and featured a variety of repertoire, including Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Rossini, and Sullivan. They closed the show with the Finale from Sullivan’s The Gondoliers which had audience members smiling and moving to the lively music.  Luckily for everyone, the YAO and YAVP concert beat the thunderstorms by a matter of seconds!

The evening portion of the annual Tanglewood on Parade was a series of orchestral greatest hits played by the BSO, the Boston Pops, and the TMC Orchestra. Beginning with Berlioz’s vibrant Roman Carnival, the BSO set the tone for the rest of the concert, progressing slowly with Ravel’s famous Pavane for a Dead Princess and Shostakovich’s Romance from the Gadfly and getting back up to speed with Shosty’s Galop from Cheryomushki. Music Director Andris Nelsons passed the baton to current conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra Stephane Deneve to conduct the TMC Orchestra in three selections by Laureate Conductor John Williams. Concertmaster Tamara Smirnova led the orchestra in Williams’s slow movement of the Violin Concerto. The enchanting work was flanked by the effervescent Sound the Bells which proceeded it and Just Down West Street, dedicated to the TMC, which followed it. Following intermission, the BSO and the Boston Pops returned under Keith Lockhart for Kabalevsky’s rousing Overture to Colas Breugnon and a 4 song tribute to Frank Sinatra on his 100th birthday. The music of John Williams returned as Nelsons conducted Throne Room and Finale from Star Wars. Finally, the BSO and the TMC Orchestra collaborated for the Tanglewood On Parade tradition of Tchaikovsky’s much-loved 1812 Overture. The festivities wrapped up with a jubilant burst of fireworks, blooming over the Stockbridge Bowl and echoed through the Berkshires.