By Dave Read, Aug. 20, 2026 performance – The tumultuous 2026 Tanglewood season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra closed with a magnificent performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, led by guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno The outstanding performance of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus also featured a guest conductor Jean-Sebastien Vallee.
Such a program as today’s is the perfect way to conclude the classical music season in the bucolic Berkshires. Tanglewood founder Serge Koussevitzky and Ludwig van Beethoven seem like kindred spirits, each profoundly attached to the earthy world of mortals as well as to the ethereal world of music.
The myriad of musical tones produced during a performance of this symphony – surely one of the world’s favorites, seem to be the expression of the dense, fecund landscape where Maestro Koussevitzky established his summer music school and performance venue. Our civilization was largely formed by the Europe that produced Beethoven and Koussevitzky, who said his decision to establish a training academy and performance venue in the Berkshires was because the locale reminded him of his homeland.
As prelude today was an excerpt from the German requiem by Brahms, “Blessed are they that mourn,” accompanied by piano four-hands with Julia Clarey and D.J. Cleavinger. The amateurs of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, many indicating their solidarity with their professional colleagues in the orchestra by wearing red rose boutonnieres, never fail to prove that the union of human voices in a choir is capable of sounds more satisfying and sublime than any manmade instrument or device ever could.
Resources for visitors to the Berkshires
Pages that may help you plan your visits to the Berkshires.