Tanglewood Talks 2026 with Jeremy Yudkin

Dr. Jeremy Yudkin is back with the 43rd season of Tanglewood pre-concert talks.  These programs will take place in the Town Hall auditorium, located at 6 Walker Street, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoons and Sunday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The Summer 2026 schedule will be as follows:
JULY
Sunday, July 5. Portraits of Lincoln.
Celebrating American and Abraham Lincoln with Aaron Copland, Philip Glass (world premiere!), and John Williams.
Friday, July 10. Tchaikovsky.
His towering Piano Concerto No. 1 and excerpts from the immortal Swan Lake.
Sunday, July 12. Chopin, Brahms, and Jani.
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, Brahms’s Second Symphony, and “What do flowers do at night?”
Friday, July 17. Renée Fleming/Hampson/Wakao.
Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Carlos Simon’s Meditations on Grace, and excerpts from John Adams’s Nixon in China.
Sunday, July 19. Hayden, Beethoven, Shostakovich.
Haydn’s brilliant Symphony No. 22, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2.
Friday, July 24. Mozart and Tchaikovsky.
Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s experimental Third Symphony (“Polish”).
Sunday, July 26. Tchaikovsky and Mozart.
Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Salonen’s Gambit, and Tchaikovsky’s celebrated Symphony No. 5.
Friday, July 31.Wagner, Sibelius, and Beethoven.
The Tristan Prelude, Sibelius’s magnificent Seventh, and Beethoven’s masterful “Emperor” Concerto.
AUGUST
Sunday, August 2. Nelsons/Joshua Bell.
Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Marmoris, and Schumann’s Third Symphony.
Friday, August 7. Yo-Yo I.
Fauré, Cantique de Jean Racine; Brahms, String Sextet, Op. 36, and his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra.
Sunday, August 9. Yo-Yo II.
Tavener, Mahámátar, Kalhor, Venus in the Mirror, and Golijob, Azul.
Friday, August 14. Music and Dance.
Dance for Martha Graham, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
Sunday, August 16.