At Tanglewood, a Brahmsian TMC farewell

The program’s first half placed the well-prepared Tanglewood Festival Chorus in the spotlight with the composer’s moving “Nänie’’ and “Schicksalslied’’ as well as in a richly shaded account of the “Alto Rhapsody’’ with the superb mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in plaintive, stirring voice. Back on the podium Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos directed the massed musical forces. The program’s one quirk was the conductor’s own rather anodyne “Brahms Fanfare,’’ an arrangement of themes from the Fourth Symphony, with which he chose to open the program.

The weekend kicked off Friday night with Frühbeck de Burgos leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a short Spanish-theme program built to please, with selections from “Carmen’’ and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.’’ Guitar soloist Pepe Romero gave an elegantly appointed account of the solo line, open to both high drama but also quieter ruminations, and Frühbeck de Burgos led splashy excerpts by Falla, Granados, and Giménez. One enjoyable novelty was Berio’s deft transcription of four versions of Boccherini’s “Ritirata Notturna di Madrid,’’ superimposed on top of each other.

On Saturday night Yo-Yo Ma drew a large crowd back to the Shed for his annual summer appearance with the BSO. Sadly, the number of pieces deemed suitable for such occasions is so small that the process of selection obeys a kind of dispiritingly reductive math. Lynn Harrell had already played the Dvorak Concerto a few weeks back, and Ma tackled the Elgar Concerto last summer and Shostakovich’s First the summer before. That left little beyond the Schumann Concerto, and out it came.