Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Ives and Beethoven

Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor Jacquelyn Stucker, Soprano Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano Ben Bliss, Tenor Dashon Burton, bass-baritone Tanglewood Festival Chorus James Burton, BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Bert L. Smokler Memorial Concert

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the BSO in Tanglewood’s traditional season-ending performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s intensely expressive, innovative, but ultimately uplifting Symphony No. 9. Following three questing instrumental movements, the finale is a setting for soloists and chorus of the German playwright and poet Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” The symphony—Beethoven’s last, composed in 1825—was an immense success at its premiere and has since become a symbol of hope for the universal togetherness of humankind.

Gates open at 12pm