The season for festivals, outdoor concerts and pre-concert picnics always seems to pass, but don’t worry: there’s still plenty of music to listen to in a number of venues before the regular beats of the School year/concert season doesn’t start in September. . Whether you’re looking for an afternoon on the town, a day trip or a weekend getaway, there’s probably a program out there for you.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra may have left town for the summer, but all is hardly calm on the home front. The Boston Festival Orchestrawhich made its live debut last summer, offers a three-week Sunday series at Jordan Hall (July 17, 24, 31, www.bforchestra.org ). The July 24 concert, conducted by principal conductor Alyssa Wang, features principal flautist Allison Parramore in Cécile Chaminade’s rarely performed “Concertino pour flûte” alongside Fauré’s dreamy suite “Pelleas et Mélisande” and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2.
Boston Landmarks Orchestra is also back at Hatch Shell on the Esplanade for its beloved Wednesday Night Summer Series (July 20-August 24, www.landmarksorchestra.org). Highlights of this lineup include a guest appearance by player cuatro Fabiola Mendez on a program that also includes music by Mendelssohn and Florence Price (August 17) and a special Saturday night performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 featuring the choir of a city and Coro Allegro (August 6).
And in the special events department: Boston Lyric Opera launches its season in advance with a free performance in English of Gounod’s sparkling wine ” Romeo and Juliet “, presented in collaboration with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. (August 11 and 13, www.blo.org)
Because nothing goes with a clam roll and fries like chamber music: Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (August 2-19, www.capecodchambermusic.org) features artists such as Borromeo Quartetfour pianists in an eight-hand show, and Brass eGALitarian in locations all over Cape Town. If hills rather than beaches are your speed, take Route 2 to Gill, where Cloud Farm Antenna – an artists’ retreat and community center led by composer Michi Wiancko – will host several guest artists and sponsor performances on its own hill as well as in surrounding communities, including a two-week experimental institute (August 15-28 , details TBD, www.antennacloudfarm.com) and collaboration with the Pocumtuck Homeland Festival at Turners Falls (August 6 and 7, www.nolumbekaproject.org/events) featuring flute maker and musician Nipmuc Hawk Henries.
Tanglewood (until September 4, www.bso.org/tanglewood/visit) is still hosting the region’s biggest game of summertime classical music, and with several weeks to go until its season ends and Ozawa Hall recently reopened, there are still plenty of noteworthy events to come. Check Takacs Quartet with the bandoneon master Julien Labro at Ozawa Hall (July 27), a celebration of the 90th anniversary of John Williams with special guests including Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor (August 20), or a weekend of Beethoven’s five piano concertos performed by the BSO, musical director andris nelsonand one of today’s leading Beethoven interpreters, Paul Lewis. (July 29-31)
Or skip the latter and head to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams instead for Bang on a Can’s STRONG weekend (July 28-30, www.bangonacan.org/loudweekend), back in force as a three-day festival featuring a fusion of dance, music and film, including a semi-improvised suite for guitars performed by the composer Phil Kline (“Unsilent Night”) and filmmaker Jim Jarmuschand a new score composed by Olga Neuwirth for Austrian director Hans Karl Breslauer’s 1924 satirical film “The City Without Jews”.
Further west, the Glass Glow Festival (until August 21, glimmerglass.org) in Cooperstown, NY presents Bizet’s “Carmen” with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves (a legendary Carmen in her own right) in the director’s chair, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The sound of music,” a new children’s opera adaptation of “The jungle Book” by composer Kamala Sankaramand more.
AZ Madonna can be contacted at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @knitandlisten.
