Tanglewood enters its third week, and the highlights are many; indeed, every concert will be unforgettable.

Classic and Romantic composers Mozart and Schumann, featuring their chamber, vocal and orchestral music masterworks on two successive nights, start the ball rolling; even more Mozart follows on Saturday and Sunday morning and afternoon.

Why go? Add to the above the appearance of Broadway actor/musical theater/singer superstar Audra McDonald and the superlative Emerson String Quartet and you have a week of future musical memories that define what Tanglewood is all about - the best of the best.

And, if the offerings at Tanglewood aren’t enough to pique your musical interest, there’s also Concerts at Tannery Pond and the Glimmerglass Festival. Both venues present great music performed at wonderful venues in pristine, bucolic settings by marvelous performers. Read below for the details.

• Thursday July 16, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Violinist Baiba Skride will be joined by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, pianist Christian Zacharias and violist Cathy Basrak in a concert of chamber music by Mozart and Schumann. That composer’s stunningly beautiful cycle of eight songs, composed in 1840, “Frauenliebe und leben” (woman’s life and love) is an unforgettable masterpiece that is seldom heard these days in concert. Don’t miss it.

• Friday, July 17, 8 p.m. in the Shed: This concert, dubbed "Berkshire Night," is offered free to Berkshire County residents. Tickets are being distributed at the main gate box office. Proof of Berkshire County residency is required. The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO,) led by maestro Christian Zacharias and joined by violinist Baiba Skride, will present a second program of Mozart and Schumann masterworks. The featured large-scale work is Schumann’s Second Symphony, with its quicksilver scherzo and soaring slow movement. Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto and Schumann’s tempestuous ‘Manfred’ Overture share the bill.

• Saturday, July 18, 8:30 p.m. in the Shed: The BSO, again led by maestro Zacharias (here also doubling as pianist) and joined by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly offers an all-Mozart program. The Piano Concerto No. 25, an aria for mezzo, piano and orchestra and the Symphony No. 38 (‘Prague’) comprise the program. Interestingly, all three works were written consecutively in the brief period of six weeks in late 1786/1787.

• Sunday, July 19, 10 a.m. in Ozawa Hall: A Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Music concert, featuring TMC instrumental Fellows performing both familiar and contemporary music by music by Mozart, Matthews, Loicono, Gunther Schuller, Dvorak and Beethoven.

• Sunday, July 19, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Sir Neville Marrinner leads the BSO in a concert of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 ‘Haffner,’ and Symphony 36 ‘Linz’) and Schumann (the miraculous Piano Concerto).  The superb pianist Paul Lewis is the soloist.

• Sunday, July 19, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Broadway musical theater superstar Audra McDonald brings her own ensemble of great musicians (Musical Director and pianist Andy Einhorn, bassist Mark Vanderpoel and drummer Gene Lewin) to Tanglewood for a very special concert of favorite show tunes, classic and popular standards from the Great American Songbook and original songs composed for her.

• Tuesday, July 21, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall:  One of the high points of the festival season at Tanglewood or anywhere else will be Paul Lewis performing Beethoven’s three final piano sonatas – Nos. 30, 31 and 32. This is music at an exalted, spiritual level. 

• Wednesday, July 22, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The legendary and nonpareil Emerson String Quartet presents a program of quartets by Ives, Rolf Liebermann and Beethoven (the final Quartet No. 16, Op. 135 in F Major).

Tickets for all Tanglewood events can be purchased online at tanglewood.org, via SymphonyCharge, 888-266-1200 or 888-266-1200, and at the Tanglewood box office located at the main gate, on West Street in Lenox. For further information, call 413-637-1600.

Concerts at Tannery Pond

This magnificent venue in the Shaker tannery barn in New Lebanon offers another in their series of slightly offbeat but always musically intriguing programs this Saturday evening.

• Saturday, July 18, 8 p.m.: The innovative string quartet Brooklyn Rider will play Haydn's String Quartet in G minor, Op.74, No.3 ("The Rider") and Schubert's String Quartet in A minor, Op.29, No.13 ("Rosamunde",) as well as newly-composed jazz selections from their acclaimed new album “The Brooklyn Rider Almanac” - contemporary works commissioned by the group to commemorate its 10th anniversary. The members of the group - Colin Jacobsen, violin; Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; Eric Jacobsen, cello - are also members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and the Jacobsens are co-founders of the acclaimed  “The Knights” chamber orchestra - the ensemble that recently opened the summertime Naumberg Orchestral Concerts in New York’s Central Park. 

Tickets are $30 and $39. Tannery Pond is located on the grounds of Mount Lebanon Shaker Village and Darrow School, New Lebanon, N.Y., one and a half miles east of the town center on Route 20.

The Glimmerglass Festival: Opera and Musical Theater

The Glimmerglass Festival opened on July 11, with Mozart’s delightful “The Magic Flute.” For the best opera and musical theater in the region, be sure to include Glimmerglass on your list of this summer’s “must-see/hear” musical events.

Located in historic Cooperstown, N.Y. – about 1½ hour from the Berkshires - the Glimmerglass Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary of innovative productions this season, which runs July 10-Aug. 23. The excursion to Cooperstown, perhaps combined with a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a stroll in the ancient country church graveyard to contemplate the resting place of James Fenimore Cooper, along with Glimmerglass, makes for a perfect day’s outing.

Additionally, Glimmerglass’ beautiful scenic lakeside grounds invite you to stroll, picnic and relax in an environment that’s dedicated to music and the arts. The unspoiled beauty of Central New York’s rural landscape provides what The Sunday Times of London has called “the most magical of settings.”

This summer The Glimmerglass Festival will present four new fully staged productions, including three operas and one work of American musical theater – all performed with orchestra, large cast and un-amplified sound. These four productions are supplemented by special performances, concerts, lectures and symposiums throughout the season. 

The repertoire features new productions of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Verdi’s “Macbeth,” starring Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens in his role debut; Vivaldi’s “Cato in Utica” and Leonard Bernstein’s beloved and scintillating “Candide.”

All productions are staged in the magnificent Alice Busch Opera Theater. The theater’s casual elegance, beautiful surroundings and excellent acoustics provide an intimate, one-of-a-kind operatic encounter. All of the theater’s 914 seats are less than 70 feet from the stage, and every production utilizes supertitles in English projected above the stage, which is a welcome aid to the audience in understanding the sung text. 

Glimmerglass tickets for single or group performances or by subscription can be purchased at the box office at the Theatre or at 18 Chestnut St. in center Cooperstown. For telephone orders, call the box office at 607-547-2255. For more information, visit online at www.glimmerglass.org.

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