Tanglewood on Friday and Saturday led us on the first two of three journeys into a goldmine. This goldmine was a cultural one that held the precious objects of a musical genius, one of the leading cultural icons of our Western world.

This weekend, at Tanglewood, we shall witness some remarkable events: a tour de force of concentration and musicality in English-born pianist Paul Lewis’ traversal of all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos in less than 48 hours, in three consecutive concerts, each featuring the music of contemporary American women composers. 

A casual listener attending Saturday night's performance at Tanglewood might have thought the Boston Symphony Orchestra was in especially good form in a program of Berlioz and Mahler. They would have been wrong.

Andris Nelsons, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s music director since the 2014-15 season, always eagerly anticipates his return to a month in the country at Tanglewood. 

Two outstanding Romantic piano concertos are being featured this weekend at Tanglewood: the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Frédéric Chopin, at 8 p.m., July 22, and the Second Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms, 2:30 p.m., July 24. They represent very different ways of dealing with the genre.

The premiere of "Don Giovanni" in 1787 was received with great excitement. “Prague has never heard the like,” enthused one newspaper. “Mr. Mozart conducted in person and was welcomed with joy and jubilation by the large crowd,” said another. The performance of this opera at Tanglewood got a similar reception. And it was truly well deserved. 

This week, Jeremy Yudkin takes a closer look at Mozart’s "Don Giovanni" and "A German Requiem" by Brahms, two of the concerts offered under the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood this weekend. 

“We few, we happy few.” That was Shakespeare’s Henry V anticipating the English army’s coming victory-against-all-odds at the Battle of Agincourt. He was thinking of how lucky people were to be there at such an auspicious event. Fortunately, there were happy thousands in the audience at Tanglewood’s opening night concert, because such riches should be spread as widely as possible.

Tanglewood's first official concert of the season opens 8 p.m., Friday, July 8, in the Koussevitzky Music Shed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its superb music director, Andris Nelsons, and featuring two soloists.