Music festivals add special touch to road trips

Some summer getaways are deliciously without focus, such as going to the beach. But music festivals exemplify another approach to time off — enjoying a change of scenery along with special artistic experiences.

Many summer classical-music festivals have expanded in recent decades, while other new ones have popped up. It would be a long journey to catch the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Aspen Festival in Colorado in August, but there are plenty of strong options closer to home.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home, Tanglewood, sets the standard for the highest quality of performers and artistically adventurous programming at summer festivals, including new music, opera and advanced training for the most promising musicians at the start of their careers. Its founding music director, Serge Koussevitzky, was a visionary whose ideals have been advanced by his successors.

Other festivals have a more narrow focus, such as an excellent chamber music series in Cleveland or the indispensable Glimmerglass Festival of opera. By contrast, the Chautauqua Institution's summer festival isn't even limited to the performing arts.

Many festivals feature lawn seating, which is perfect for picnics, but generally the best sound is to be found inside, such as in the Shed at the Tanglewood Music Festival, which is open on three sides.

Tanglewood Music Festival

Located in Lenox, Mass., not far from Albany, N.Y., Tanglewood is about an eight-hour drive from Pittsburgh. Founded before World War II, its beautiful grounds now feature two concert locations with great acoustics — the Shed, where the Boston Symphony plays, and Seiji Ozawa Hall, which is used for the Tanglewood Music Center, baroque music, chamber music and recitals.

Boston Symphony music director Andris Nelsons will lead four concerts, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's last piano concerto with Jonathan Biss and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9 on July 29, and the first two acts of Giuseppe Verdi's “Aida” on Aug. 20. He'll also lead an all Johannes Brahms program with the students of the music center orchestra on July 31.

The festival presents top guest artists, such as conductors Charles Dutoit, Aug. 12 and 19, and Christoph von Dohnanyi, July 16. Soloists include pianists soprano Renee Fleming, July 16; pianists Emanuel Ax, Aug. 12, and Yefim Bronfman, Aug. 5; violinist Joshua Bell, July 8; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Aug. 27.

Other shows will include the return of Garrison Keillor and “A Prairie Home Companion,” June 25, and four concerts by Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, July 10 and Aug. 2, 13 and 26.

Details: 888-266-1200 or bso.org

Blossom Music Festival

The summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Music Festival in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, was inaugurated in 1969 by George Szell conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It is the nearest big summer music festival to Pittsburgh.

Music director Franz Welser-Most will conduct just one concert at Blossom this summer, including music from Thomas Ades' opera “Powder Her Face” and Beethoven's “Eroica” Symphony on July 9. Other notable conductors include Jahja Ling, July 23, and Nicholas McGegan, Aug. 7.

Blossom attractions include the traditional Blossom Festival Band on July 4; music of Hollywood, July 24; “The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony,” Aug. 20; and a showing of the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with live orchestral performance of the soundtrack, Sept. 3 and 4.

Details: 330-920-8040 or clevelandorchestra.com

ChamberFest Cleveland

The fifth season of this remarkable festival will run only a few weeks, from mid-June to July 2, at various intimate venues in Cleveland, but it shows why the most interesting programming is usually done by musicians, not marketers.

Founded by Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet Frank Cohen, who has since retired from the orchestra, ChamberFest Cleveland attracts outstanding musicians from all over, including, for example, Noah Bendix-Balgley, the Pittsburgh Symphony's former concertmaster.

The 2016 season is organized around “Tales and Legends” told in music and is filled with intriguing juxtapositions. Schumann Fantasies, June 16, will intermix an homage to Robert Schumann by Gyorgy Kurtag and excerpts from “A Book of Dreams” by Stephen Coxe with three pieces by Schumann, including his Piano Quintet.

Other programs will present similarly imaginative musical combinations for “To My Distant Beloved,” June 17; Obsession, with one piece for mature audiences only, June 24; Last Words, June 27; the observance of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, June 28; and “A Soldier's Tale” by Igor Stravinsky, July 2.

Details: 216-471-8887 or chamberfestcleveland.com

Chautauqua Institution

The arts are one focus for the Chautauqua Institution, which is in western New York state, near Erie, and is a 2 ¹⁄₂-hour drive from Pittsburgh. The others are religion, education and recreation.

Rossen Milanov is in his second year as music director of the Chautauqua Orchestra. The season begins with Augustin Hadelich playing Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 and excerpts from the ballet “Romeo and Juliet,” June 30. He'll also conduct music of Beethoven and Sergei Prokofiev, July 7; music of Leonard Bernstein, July 19; an all-Tchaikovsky program, July 26; and Night at the Movies, Aug. 20.

Milanov will conduct the orchestra for performances by North Carolina's Charlotte Ballet, July 12 and Aug. 12.

Details: 800-836-2787 or ciweb.org

Glimmerglass Festival

Opera fans and professionals alike flock to Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., where familiar and lesser-known works are presented in stylish and imaginative productions.

The festival, a seven-hour drive from Pittsburgh, is led by the brilliant opera director Francesca Zambello.

The most popular of the four main stage shows is “La Boheme” by Giacomo Puccini, which will be seen in a new Belle Époque production, July 8 to Aug. 27.

Stephen Sondheim's “Sweeney Todd,” the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical thriller with a macabre sense of humor, will be revived July 9 to Aug. 26.

Although Gioachino Rossini wrote one of the most popular operas in “The Barber of Seville,” Glimmerglass will present a new production of his rarely performed comic opera “The Thieving Magpie,” July 16 to Aug. 25.

Finally, Robert Ward's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera “The Crucible,” based on Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials, will be seen in a new production, July 23 to Aug. 27.

Three extra events are especially appealing: Sondheim talking about his life and work with Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein's daughter, July 30; an afternoon of American song with Deborah Voigt, Aug. 5; and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talking about her passion for opera and her perspective on law and the arts, Aug. 26.

Details: 607-547-2255 or glimmerglass.org

Mark Kanny is the Tribune-Review's classical music critic. Reach him at 412-320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com.