Dave Read

Yo-yo Ma plays Elgar Cello Concerto, Tanglewood, Aug. 14, 2022

By Dave Read (August 14, 2022 concert) – Yo-yo Ma performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christian Macelaru, before an avid crowd at Tanglewood, on yet another beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

Christian Macelaru leads the BSO and Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood, Aug. 14, 2022(Hilary Scott) — 8.14.22 Christian Macelaru, Yo-Yo Ma and BSO(Hilary Scott)

Paris-born Ma has lived in the Berkshires for decades and enjoys an association with Tanglewood that rivals Leonard Bernstein’s, whose career opened and closed there. Ma’s musical world eclipses Bernstein’s, however, because it is related to the instrument and not to the genre of music; the cello has taken him far away from the classical cloister, into the barn of Bluegrass and the yurts along the ancient Silk Road.

[rl_gallery id=”25037″]

… multitude of moods and fancies

Mr. Ma, with only the cello’s four strings to manipulate, turned Elgar’s score into a multitude of moods and fancies, as if to portray the complications and contradictions of life. Who knows if we’ve returned to the depths of despair that surrounded the Englishman Elgar as the “great” war wound down, but Ma chose for an encore a piece composed during the ensuing “great” depression. Charlie Chaplin composed Smile for his “silent” film Modern Times; such movies had soundtracks, but actors spoke no lines. The lyrics, added by others twenty years later, were recited in advance by Ma.

Even with the drenching shower last week while the BSO performed Holst’s The Planets, the 2022 Tanglewood season is bound for the fair weather file – even during the apex of the late July heat wave, there has been a spirited breeze blowing through the vast campus during every matinee concert.

Ades, Mozart, and Holst at Tanglewood, Aug. 7, 2022

By Dave Read (August 7, 2022 concert) – Thomas Ades is in the fifth and final year of his position as Artistic Partner of the BSO, during which time he composed today’s opening selection, on commission from nine organizations from all around the world, including, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Australia.

Thomas Ades leads Leonidas Kavakos, Antoine Tamestit and the BSO at Tanglewood, Aug. 7, 2022 (Hilary Scott)

The piece is called Shanty – Over the Sea, and neither reminded me of any of the numerous sea chanties I’ve enjoyed listening to, nor did it seem to leave its mooring – but merely rolled from side to side, at anchor.

He succeeded in wringing brilliant performances from Leonidas Kavakos, violin, Antoine Tamestit, viola, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E-flat, for violin, viola, and orchestra.

This piece of Mozart’s music is so uncomplicated to the pedestrian ear, so rich and exciting that one is tempted to relax and stare into space, or even to close your eyes. Today, that would have deprived you half the joy that was to be had watching the interplay among the conductor, soloists, and orchestra. It seemed an un-scripted ballet.

The breeze originating on the far side of the Lawn beckoned us during intermission, in time to stand just off the porch of the visitor’s center and see rain approach, approach, and then soak those citizens of Lawn nation too far from a tree to hug, a porch, or an eave to angle under. And why not, next on the bill is The Planets, Gustav Holst’s suite of tone poems, which was inspired by his reading a book on how horoscopes are cast. No better accompaniment for the relief of a cooling shower in the midst of a stretch of oppressive weather.

Tip Top Tanglewood on Parade, Aug. 2, 2022

By Dave Read (August 2, 2022 concert) – While the Festival of Fancy Picnics, which accompanies Tanglewood on Parade, had to scramble for shelter, the gala evening concert was a sparkling, scintillating success. Tanglewood’s founding maestro, Serge Koussevitsky, staged the first one in 1940, to raise money in support of beleaguered Europe, before we joined the war.

Today, besides serving as a principle fund-raiser for the BSO, Tanglwood on Parade is a showcase for the accomplishments of the Tanglewood Music Center fellows, and the students of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, with and without the established master craftsmen and women of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops.

JoAnn Falletta conducts the BSO during Tanglewood on Parade, Aug. 2, 2022 (Hilary Scott) — JoAnn Falletta conducts the BSO during Tanglewood on parade, Aug. 2, 2022 (Hilary Scott)

Although we have been to twenty or so of these tuneful extravaganzas, we paid extra-close attention to the opening piece on today’s program, played by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, because we participated in their opening exercises last month. The natural bias resulting from that bonding experiecne notwithstnding, these kids knocked the Hindemith out of the ballpark – they blew the roof off the joint!

John Williams conducts the BSO during Tanglewood on parade, Aug. 2, 2022 (Hilary Scott)

Kudos due also to the programmer, because Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber not only showcases a full gamut of instrumentation, but also has plenty of quiet “white space” which heightens the importance and satisfaction of the myriad small sounds that comprise a symphonic work. Joann Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and resident artist here, led the orchestra, and then handed the baton to John Williams, who led the BSO in his Bernstein tribute, Just down West Street, which he dedicated to retiring TMC boss Ellen Highsteen. Thomas Wilkins, Stefan Asbury, and Thomas Ades rounded out the roster of conductors on the program.

We missed the antique artillery pieces that usually punctuate the annual finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and found the performance of the Ukrainian national anthem a jingoistic reflex rather than a meaningful gesture. Sure, we sympathize with those beleaguered people, but no less so than the Palestinians, Uyghurs, and all oppressed peoples.

Paul Lewis wraps Beethoven pentad, July 31, 2022

By Dave Read (July 31, 2022 concert) – Paul Lewis completed his Beethoven weekend with the matinee performance of Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, having performed 2 & 3 and 1 & 4 on Friday and Saturday nights.

Paul Lewis plays Beethoven at Tanglewood, July 31, 2022; (Hilary Scott)

In two respects, at least, Mr. Lewis is an outlier – he was born in England and now is a citizen of Ireland, and, at fifty, he is only ten years removed from his BSO and Tanglewood debuts. English emigres usually settle in America, and virtuosi usually make their classical music debuts before they are old enough to vote!

The artistry displayed by Mr. Lewis seems to include some measure of alchemy, as it makes the piano sound at once as large as the orchestra and a moment later no bigger than a zither.

The bright sunny Berkshires day, with a breeze off Stockbridge Bowl, is the ideal milieu for the wander amid one’s imagination impelled by the music of Ludwig von Beethoven. What a treat to have the great man’s work made manifest by such artists as Mr. Lewis, Maestro Nelsons, and the Boston Symphone Orchestra – how could any but the loftiest of thoughts and feelings result?

They cannot, if we’re left alone with the music; when we read Jan Swafford’s program notes, however, we’re reminded how contemporary all great thinkers are:

“What a destructive, disorderly life I see and hear around me, nothing but drums, cannons, and human misery in every form.” Thus spake Beethoven two centuries ago, and thus speak admirers of his music today.

Silkroad Ensemble at Ozawa Hall, July 28, 2022

By Dave Read (July 28, 2022 concert) – Paris-born and Berkshires resident, Yo-yo Ma, has handed the reins of the Silkroad Ensemble to Rhiannon Giddens, who was born in Greensboro, NC, and lives in Limerick, Ireland. Such personal details may not be required for membership in the world music community, but, in the words of the American sage Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…”

Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad Ensemble, Ozawa Hall, July 28, 2022 (Hilary Scott)

Mr. Ma convened the original Silkroad Ensemble in Ozawa Hall in 2000, gathering musicians who play the music of peoples found along the metaphoric silk road, a network of trade routes that connected the occident and the orient for millinnia.

Previous Silkroad Ensemble concerts betrayed an instructional purpose, with the focus on locating the various instrumental and vocal traditions within their native social and political environments; the auditor was entertained and enlightened by way of a tantalizing buffet of discrete musics. (Our reviews: 2016, 2012).

Now all grownup, the Silkroad Ensemble feels more like a large band and their performance is way more concert than musical seminar. Yo-yo Ma delighted the audience by accompanying Ms. Giddons on an encore number – and got a big laugh when he pretended to fuss with the tuning of his cello while she did with her banjo.

Rhiannon Giddens and Yo-yo Ma, Ozawa Hall, July 28, 2022 (Hilary Scott)

Since being introduced to Dave Van Ronk more than fifty years ago, the blues has been my bag, and so I came away from this performance feeling as if I’d attended a blues concert. In fact, it was the great blues welfare organization, Music Maker Relief Foundation, that brought Rhiannon Giddens to my attention, when they released her first record in 2006.

Likewise, someone with a percussion prejudice may have left Ozawa Hall feeling as if, finally, drumming has been given the prominence it deserves.So too, could a devotee of the Celtic harp, or the pippa, violin, or flute, for that matter. What matters is that Rhiannon Giddens has become the nucleus of a big family of musicians who blend into one big gorgeous instrument that thrilled the full house and lawn of Ozawa Hall.

Her renditions of O Death and St. James Infirmary Blues are what lead me to file this concert in the same folder as such others in this venue as Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Jay McShann, Casandra Wilson, Duke Robillard, and Lousiana Red.

The reason music can be a force that unites peoples otherwise alienated from one another, is because it eschews polemic and does not pitch any particular point of view. Music, like all art, imitates nature, not culture, which is a man-made thing that divides people.

Would that someone invent a music-only microphone, which will transform the extra-musical talk of musicians into jabberwocky. Musicians should emulate Bob Dylan and let their music speak for itself. Trust us, dear virtuosi, we’ll know that if it sounds good, it is good.

Brahms soothes like a summer breeze, July 24, 2022

By Dave Read (July 24, 2022 concert) – BSO music director Andris Nelsons led another diverse program on a sweltering, sunny afternoon in the Berkshires. The first piece, In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy, was composed by William Grant Still in 1944, at the request of the League of Composers.
Soprano Latonia Moore, conductor Andris Nelsons and the BSO, Tanglewood, July 24, 2022; Hilary Scott photo.
As you’d expect, it is an evocative, sombre piece, which “…closes on a note of resoluteness but not resolution…as if to indicate that the struggle was only just beginning.” Within a few years, the armed forces of the United States was no longer segregated by race.

The second selection, Lilacs, for voice and orchestra, amounted to a star turn for soprano Latonia Moore, today making her BSO/Tanglewood debut. A commission by the BSO, George Walker composed the score as a setting for Walt Whitman’s poem, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, which itself mourns the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Whitman is more than a mere poet – he is a prime mover of American poetry, the poetry of the new world, which represents an about-face from British and old world poetry. (There, the arts are patronized by the Crown and her nobles; here, the artist patronizes the people and nature.)

Whereas a musical adaption of Whitman, even if by a composer on par with Beethoven or Mozart, is bound to be problematic, there is no problem at all with the voice and artistry of Ms. Moore. She sang such big, rich lines that – well, I am resisting the temptation to say that her voice contains multitudes!

A walk on the Lawn at intermission inspired us to remain there, for the welcome breeze blowing off Stockbridge Bowl, for the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms, with soloist Seong-Jin Cho. Notwithstanding the felicity of seats in the Koussevitsky Music Shed, and intimate proximity to the orchestra and soloists, it felt as if Brahms had composed his famous and beloved concerto to be consumed with the greater proximity to nature afforded by a place on the lawn.

We sit so close to each other inside auditoria that the little incidental noises of our seatmates can disturb our reveries and detract ever so slightly from the enjoyment of a musical selection. On Tanglewood’s vast lawn, however, those little noises are soaked up by the quiet woosh of the breeze that seems to heighten the reverie induced by the soloist and orchestra. A native of Seoul, Mr. Cho came to the concert world’s attention when he won the Chopin competition in 2016, and will release his recording of today’s piece later this year.