Ozawa sparkles in return to Lenox

LENOX -- There was a nice surprise after intermission at Tanglewood on Parade Tuesday night. The program indicated that former Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Seiji Ozawa would conduct Beethoven's overture, ''Leonore, No. 3," but current music director James Levine came onstage.

Turning a chair backward and angling himself onto it as if he were Perry Como, Levine introduced himself to the audience of 12,435 and made a little speech about how for 30 years, Ozawa had carried on the tradition of innovation established by Tanglewood's founder, Serge Koussevitzky. ''It gives me more pleasure than I can say," he said, ''to welcome back to the Koussevitzky Music Shed my colleague and friend, Seiji Ozawa."

The place erupted into a standing ovation as Ozawa appeared and then led the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a blazing performance of the overture. Ozawa's limber body delineated the diverse aspects of the music as he drove home a performance that was theatrical and thrilling.

Tanglewood on Parade is a nine-hour celebration of the diverse aspects of Tanglewood, and this culminating concert featured five conductors and three orchestras. It was also the first time Levine and Ozawa shared a stage.

Levine led off, conducting the BSO in one of Ozawa's showpieces, Berlioz's ''Roman Carnival" Overture, in a performance that balanced elegance, precision, and high spirits. Pops conductor Keith Lockhart was busy with his other job with the Utah Symphony, so Pops principal guest conductor Bruce Hangen came on to do a bang-up job on Leonard Bernstein's ''Symphonic Dances" from ''West Side Story" -- rhythmical, colorful, and dazzling, with the Pops players snapping their fingers and shouting ''Mambo!"

There was an exceptionally warm welcome for Pops conductor laureate John Williams, who led two excerpts from his beloved ''Star Wars" scores, ''Princess Leia" and ''Throne Room and Finale," both of them sumptuously played.

The concert ended with Tchaikovsky's ''1812" Overture, played by the combined Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center orchestras, more than 200 musicians augmented by a few cannons. Hans Graf of the Houston Symphony conducted the work for the first time in his distinguished career. He made sure that the performance wasn't just about volume, though when the time came he also made sure that it was as loud as it ever needs to be.