Album Notes

Tanglewood Festival Chorus: 40th Anniversary
The 40th-anniversary celebration CD features works by J.S. Bach, Bruckner, Copland, Antonio Lotti, and Frank Martin, drawn from live Prelude Concert performances that took place in Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood from 1998 to 2005, under the direction of John Oliver. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe joins the TFC for Aaron Copland's “In the Beginning.” Harpsichordist Frank Corliss and BSO musicians Richard Svoboda, bassoon, Andrew Pierce, cello, and Lawrence Wolfe, double bass, join the chorus for Bach's “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied,” BWV 225. Founded in 1970 by John Oliver, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, an all-volunteer ensemble, is the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and performs a year-round schedule of concerts in Boston, New York, at Tanglewood, and on-tour, and has developed a reputation for its skill, intelligence, versatility, enthusiasm, and thrilling sound, establishing itself as a favorite of conductors, soloists, critics, and audiences alike.

TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus was founded in January 1970 when conductor John Oliver was named Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at the Tanglewood Music Center. The chorus made its debut on April 11, 1970, in a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony led by Leonard Bernstein. Made up of members who donate their services, and originally formed under the joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for performances at the BSO's summer home, the ensemble soon began playing a major role in the BSO's performances year-round, in Boston, New York, and at Tanglewood. The chorus made its Carnegie Hall debut in October 1973 performing Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with Seiji Ozawa and the BSO; the Deutsche Grammophon recording of the Berlioz made at that time—the TFC's first recording with the BSO—received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Recording of 1975.

Now numbering more than 250 singers, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Europe under James Levine and Bernard Haitink and in the Far East under Seiji Ozawa. The chorus can be heard on dozens of BSO and Boston Pops recordings, on Deutsche Grammophon, New World, Philips, Nonesuch, Telarc, Sony Classical, CBS Masterworks, RCA Victor Red Seal, and BSO Classics, as well as on the sound tracks to Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, and John Sayles's Silver City. The latest additions to the chorus's discography, all drawn from recent live performances with James Levine and the BSO, were released on BSO Classics in February 2009—Ravel's complete Daphnis and Chloé (which won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance of 2009), Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, and William Bolcom's Eighth Symphony for chorus and orchestra, a BSO 125th Anniversary Commission composed specifically for the orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.