It is always magical. Since 1937, Tanglewood has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra when the Berkshires are alive with the sound of music! Picture 500 acres of rolling green ringed with the most beautiful hemlock hedgerows I’ve ever seen! Tanglewood is not only the site of a world-renowned summer music festival, but a music center founded by BSO conductor Serge Koussevitsky in 1940, and redolent with the history of legends who studied and taught there: Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Yo-Yo Ma… the list is extraordinary. I try to get to Tanglewood at least once a season and just came back from a wondrous weekend. As I strolled the luxuriant grounds, perfect weather favored fancy picnickers on blankets by candlelight as the orchestra tuned up for the 8pm concert in the shed.
The program featured Maestro Andris Nelsons conducting the BSO in a program of Beethoven, Ellington, and opening with the first BSO performance of the string orchestra version of Carlos Simon’s Warmth from Other Suns after Isabel Wilkerson’s lauded book about the Great Migration of African Americans moving south to north in search of a new life. Simon, who will be the BSO’s inaugural Composer Chair next season, came out to the podium first and spoke to the audience about this inspiring piece, illuminating its harmonies, themes, and significance. It’s a beauty.
The centerpiece of the evening was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G featuring Yuja Wang who hit the stage like lightning, rocking a a white, spangled, micro-mini halter dress and shiny white high heels. The crowd screamed and applauded as she launched herself across the stage and began the concerto which opens with solo piano playing a simple, lyrical theme. Movement by movement, Wang and the orchestra mixed it up, her trademark dynamism and drama erupting as she channeled the emotional energy and increasing complexity of the work. By the time she got to the third movement culminating in a vibrant Rondo:Vivace (punctuated by a lone dog barking along with the final bars!). We were dazzled. Two short encores drove home the obvious: the ease of Wang’s technical mastery and exuberance astounded.
More highlights to come at Tanglewood’s 86th Season include: John Williams’ Film Night, Tanglewood on Parade dedicated to Seiji Ozawa, Yo-Yo Ma, Gustavo Dudamel conducting the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela, Jurassic Park In Concert film screening with Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops performing John Williams’ score, Popular Artist Judy Collins, Indigo Girls, and Rufus Wainwright. AUGUST SCHEDULE HERE!
Another highlight this weekend at Tanglewood was a collaboration with Boston Ballet who not only performed with the BSO live in the shed on Friday night, but also appeared in a FREE and immersive pop up media installation called UNI inside a 360 degree mini-dome where you are surrounded by the dancers in a video sampler of many of their dances– like the classic snowflake scene from The Nutcracker! CLICK HERE for a preview and see what folks are saying.
It’s a portal to the world of ballet and we have one of the finest companies in the world in Boston. This installation will be popping up all over the state-next stop Woods Hole on August 10 where they collaborated with the Oceanographic Institute on a ballet called La Mer. They are currently in talks to pop up at Boston’s Open Streets in Allston Brighton on October 20, and in Boston’s Seaport in December alongside Snowport! Stay tuned to the schedule here.
