Nelsons leads program of Salonen, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky at Tanglewood, July 26, 2026

By Dave Read, July 26, 2026 performance – On the Tanglewood campus in the heart of the Berkshires, Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Andris Nelson led a program of compositions by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with Himari soloing on the Mozart concerto, in her BSO and Tanglewood debut.

To an unschooled audience member, such as myself, Mozart’s first and fifth violin concerti, presented here Friday and today, may as well be step-siblings. The fifth appears bold and determined while the first seems pensive and dreamy. Not surprisingly, the soloists for Friday evening and this afternoon are as different in appearance as are the works they performed. (Undoubtedly, each would have been brilliant on either concerto; I simply enjoy the double contrast between the compositions and the soloists.)

Himari, born 2011 in Japan, was a poised presence whose performance was the equal of the orchestra’s in the Mozart work known for its grace and charm, as the progrm notes indicate. During an extended passage when the soloist is silent, Himari stood still, her arms at her sides and violin tucked under her right shoulder, as if waiting at the bus stop. When the score called for it, she was animated, toe-tapping, and bow-flourishing. So grows the world of music, now with another elite violinist, one who seems perfectly suited to the role.

The program began with a composition, Gambit, composed in 1998 by Esa-Pekka Salonen as an exchange of birthday gift with a fellow composer. It is an exciting piece, noted for tumbling strings, wooden percussion, mallets, and woodwinds. Salonen, curator of this year’s Festival of Contemporary Music, introduced Gambit from the stage.

As on Friday, today’s program concluded with Tchaikovesky, Symphony No. 5 in E minor. As Tanglewood itself represents the fulfillment of Serge Koussevitzky’s ambitious dream, so too the work of another Russian composer seems the fulfillment of the Berkshire’s bucolic promise. Air-light warbling birds aflutter in the dense and resonant woods.