Tanglewood concert reviews

BSO opens Tanglewood season with 1937 all-Beethoven program

July 6, 2012 performance review by Dave Conlin Read

Christoph von Dohnanyi leading the BSO at Tanglewood on Opening Night July 6, 2012; photo: Hilary Scott

Despite all the attendant publicity – and publicity’s essential theme tempus fugit, I got a sense of timelessness at the opening concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra‘s 75th anniversary Tanglewood season. Conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi, the program was a replication of the first concert Serge Koussevitzky led in the Berkshires on Aug. 5, 1937, Beethoven’s Leonore Overture, his Symphony No. 6 and then Symphony No. 5 after intermission.

It is the genius of Beethoven and his ilk to compose scores that can be brought to life by an orchestra. Once animated, the symphony occupies a gap in time where a listener can repose, affording him a respite in eternity, without the inconvenience of dying.

Alternate metaphor: We live, if not precisely minute to minute, then moment by fleeting moment. Listening to the work of such a composer as Beethoven, I get a sense that, because these scores of musicians are so keyed into time, exquisitly so, that time itself loses its grip on me.

Watching Maestro von Dohnanyi go about his business, his gestures looking so casual (so not arty) that I imagined an overnight custodian somewhere air conducting to the radio. But he clearly was keyed in and with such a masterful grasp of timing that the smallest, quietest passages were beautifully apparent tonight. Good choice for the BSO to have the former Tanglewood Music Center conducting fellow to lead the first of several anniversary-themed programs this summer.

Since ending his 20 year tenure as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 2002, Maestro von Dohnányi has kept busy. This season, he leads subscription concerts at the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, and at the New York Philharmonic. Last season he became Honorary Conductor for life of the Philharmonia Orchestra; this season he leads the Philharmonia in Madrid, Cardiff, in a Brahms symphony cycle at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

James Taylor at Tanglewood July 2 – 4, 2012

by Dave Read.

The Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood is a holy place in the minds of legions of classical music lovers, sort of a chapel to the cathedral – Symphony Hall in Boston. Over the past decade or so, the BSO has instituted a way to ready the place for the returning congregants, inviting lay ministers Garrison Keillor and James Taylor to hold services that are certain to clear the dust from the rafters and get the aisle-wardens, parking-assistants, concessionaires, and ticket-takers into mid-season form.

Tanglewood audience July 4th James Taylor concert; photo: Dave Conlin Read

Keillor, an annual Tanglewood attraction since 2000, can now be counted on to append nearly a whole show of audience sing alongs to his 2 hour live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. And James Taylor, who has played 40+ times at Tanglewood since 1974, has taken to scheduling little series of shows, often with special guests. This year’s 3 night run included one with Taylor Swift, the young country-pop sensation who was named after him. She appeared late in the first set of the July 2 show for a duet on Fire and Rain, and sang her own hits Ours and Love Story in the 2nd set. Ms. Swift’s entrance caused an eruption of shrieks from the youngsters in the sold-out audience that reminded us of the reception afforded the youngsters from Liverpool when they were introduced by Ed Sullivan in 1964.

Tanglewood lawn scene,July 4th James Taylor concert. — Tanglewood lawn scene,July 4th James Taylor concert photo: Dave Conlin Read

The Beatles get a mention at all James Taylor concerts, when he talks about his luck in getting signed by them to record his first album on their Apple label. The album included Carolina in My Mind with appearance by Paul McCartney and George Harrison, and Something in the Way She Moves, which inspired Harrison to write Something. This season’s version of Taylor’s band was missing singer Arnold McCuller but included long-time collaborator Larry Goldings on keyboards and Dean Parks on pedal steel, each of whom added serious and searing oomph to the proceedings.

We attended the 1st and 3rd show; together the series attracted somewhere in the neighborhood of 53,000 fans. Mr. Taylor is also on the program for the Gala 75 Anniversary concert July 14, which features Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestras, plus special guests John Williams, Keith Lockhart, Andris Nelsons, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, and Peter Serkin.

Seiji Ozawa’s Tanglewood farewell press conference

July 15, 2002 article by Dave Read

Maestro Ozawa’s opening remarks:

My private thoughts – its kind of rare in my profession, 1960, July, I came from Paris to Boston airport, on Pan American, first time in my life to come to America. And then I took autobus from there to Lenox, to join this school here, so – 1960, which is 42 years ago, I came here as a student, and to me, my kind of study in Japan with my great teacher, Professor Hideo Seiko, who was a wonderful teacher but kind of focused on areas like ear training, score reading and how to conduct Bach, how to conduct Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and some Tchaikovsky and never go out of that kind of repertoire.

Seiji Ozawa's Tanglewood farewell press conference, July 12, 2002; photos by Dave Read. — Seiji Ozawa’s Tanglewood farewell press conference, July 12, 2002; photos by Dave Read.

Mahler, for instance, I never faced a Mahler score. Here, when I arrived, in our room, my classmate is studying Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, very intensely, which I think he was conducting at the end of the summer somewhere and that gave me a shock, that I did not know one note of Mahler. And I never had any opera experience and here we had many students and conductors studying opera. So I had a shock… really my studying of wide repertoire, by shock, I started here.

I was invited as artistic director by the Boston Symphony to come here, at that time musical director William Steinberg had a health condition, he could not do hot, summer, outdoor concerts, so they invited me. That moment was really for me the beginning of surprise miracle – that I came back to Tanglewood permanently. And then I become conductor for the Boston Symphony, so all my circle – my repertoire, my studying, started here, using my knowledge from Professor Seiko in Japan.

For me, it’s a really special place, and now I must say goodbye. It’s really very amazing emotional thing for me.

I don’t have much thinking more than that, but this place has become my system, and the Boston Symphony is really in my system, and many of you know, the school here, where I came in 1960, I was really very involved in the school, so that also is in my system. And this nature here, same lake – we used to have a swim, now still we swim together, so it is something very special for me.

So this weekend for me is very special, and for you to come, I appreciate very much. Any questions from you?

Ellie Tesher, Toronto Star: Do you feel that going to Vienna is really the pinnacle of your career?

Seiji Ozawa: No. First, for my type of profession, orchestra or me, I think changes are good. That’s what people say and I accept that. And anyway between myself and my wife, we felt professionally I must finish my work. I did not know it would be opera, but I love opera and during my years here we tried from the stage – sometimes from the Shed and the Theatre, Peter Grimes.

But very limited opera repertoire I have, so when I got the opportunity to do opera, I thought very good chance for me to do it before I die, to enjoy opera. This is why I made the decision, so I will try anyway.

Dave Read: Maestro Ozawa, do you see any similarities between Vienna and the Berkshires, goegraphically, culturally, artistically?

Seiji Ozawa: I don’t know! Funny thing, last week in Boston a Japanese TV crew took me to the other side of the Charles River, to a beautiful area where I’ve never been, where the sailboats are. They asked me, where do you usually go?

Between my house in West Newton, Symphony Hall, 2 Japanese, 1 Chinese, 1 Italian restaurant – that’s it, and I don’t know those places in Boston. Viennna – I know the Musikverein, I know the Schonbunn Palace, I know around it, but I don’t – Yes, I know the wine area, that I know. But other places, I don’t know yet.

Dave Read: Are there any tips or advice you would pass along to your successor, Mr. Levine, regarding life in the Berkshires?

Seiji Ozawa: About a week ago, I was in Japan on the subway around noon on my way to rehearsal and my portable telephone rang. You’re not supposed to do this, but I answered and it’s Jimmy!

I had to tell Jimmy, “I”m on the train.” So I got off at the next stop so I could talk in quiet; two minutes later, I’m on the platform, same question, exactly. He asked me, “Hey Seiji, you give me all the information you can give me.”

So I said of course I’d love to do it, but really I have nothing to tell, because different conductors have different ways…So, the orchestra is ready.

The only thing that is sad for me is that he doesn’t come right now – you know, he’s so busy, so there’s a gap that’s sad for me.

Dave Read: Where was he calling from?

Seiji Ozawa: Ah! He was calling from Rome at five o’clock in the morning. I said where? and he said he just came from New York where it’s eleven o’clock at night. He was going to Verbier, Switzerland. it was so funny. (James Levine is Music Director of the UBS Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra.)

Dan Levy, WTEN TV: What are your over-riding emothions this weekend?

Seiji Ozawa: Last April when I said goodbye at Symphony Hall, I was so sad, so sad – inside of me was like catastrophe, I was sick. Next day, I was reallty sick.

So I thought this place, it is open, and the public and the nature, I thought this would be for me and for my group, symphony and students, a big, happy celebration. The program is made for that, I hope it will be. Mahler’s 9th Symphony in Symphony Hall, the orchestra played so good for me; nobody between me and the orchestra and that was the best communication. Two weeks ago I watched the performance on Japanese TV and I was in tears. Something I did not know, I was so busy that moment. When I see the faces of the orchestra members, it was very special.

2012 Review A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

The 13th live broadcast from Tanglewood of A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor, featured the familiar guests Arlo Guthrie, Heather Masse, and The DiGiallonardo Sisters, as well as the Guys All Star Shoe Band and the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Mr. Fred Newman.

The show got off to a fast start with the DiGiallonardo Sisters harmonizing on a hilarious Berkshires version of George M. Cohan’s Give My Regards to Broadway:

“Give My Regards to Stockbridge, Remember me To Lenox and Lee;
…
Oh how my heart is yearning, to see the Koussivitsky Shed;
Give my regards to Tanglewood, We’re gonna try to knock’em dead.”

By the time the live broadcast closed with City of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie at the grand piano leading a vast chorus of singers, Mr. Keillor had once again delivered a thoroughly entertaining program, comprised of a perfect blend of heartfelt and hokey singing and humorous skits with pan-o-sonic effects. Then there’s the News from Lake Woebegon, which always has a poignancy because its denizens and their misadventures, for all their odd particularities, are pretty much like the people we know, some of whom we miss now.

Sometimes at Tanglewood, the 2 hour radio program can feel like a pretty fancy warm up to the best event of the day – the on-stage after party concert and sing-along that today lasted well past 9PM. We left the Shed during the enchanting Swing Low Sweet Chariot, which is great fun to sing as a member of an ad hoc choir of thousands.

Thirty minutes earlier we sang along with Arlo on Home on the Range; watching him singing that song and wearing a handsome cowboy hat, we remembered that Arlo Guthrie was named for Davy Crockett!

Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble June 24, 2012 concert review

June 24, 2012 Article by Dave Read

Yo-Yo Ma with musicians from the Silk Road Ensemble, Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood.; photo: Hilary Scott.

Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble got the BSO’s 75th anniversary season at Tanglewood off to a rousing start with a pair of concerts in Ozawa Hall June 22 and 24. Whatever Maestro Koussevitsky had in mind when he established the orchestra’s retreat and training center in the Berkshires, not even a visionary of his stature would have forseen a concert opening with a green haired gaita player wending her way through the audience.

As the musicians assembled on stage and settled into an improvisation called Wandering Winds, Christina Pato, a raven-haired Spaniard (streaked with Kelly green), strolled through the audience on the lawn playing the gaita, the bagpipe of the Galician people of Spain. She is the second Galician bagpiper I’ve seen in concert, after Carlos Nunez, who toured with the ChieftainsJimi Hendrix.

Galician bagpiper Christina Pato

Although fresh and original to all appearances, Ms. Pato is anything but a novelty act. She has a Doctorate from Rutgers and briefcase full of other academic credentials, leads her own touring band, and is a member of the Silk Road leadership council. The prominence of her role in this report is a function of my predilections; the show was so varied and full of treats that one couldv’ve focused on a dozen other elements.

Such as the finale, Turceasca, from the Romanian gypsy tradition. It allowed all 17 musicians to seem to solo simultaenously, until a duet/duel developed between Wu Tong and (oops!) Ms. Pato. Wu Tong plays the Chinese sheng with the verve and personality one remembers from Dizzy Gillespie.

Besides the role of host/MC, Yo Yo Ma was largely an ensemble player, except on Qasida, premiered on the 22nd. A Silk Road commission by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, from Uzbekistan, it was written for MA to play with Kayhan Kalhor on the ancient Persian kamancheh.

There were 20-30 minutes of encores, which resulted in as upbeat and cheerful an exiting audience as I’ve ever seen. They are sure to regale their friends about this event, a concert by the Silk Road Ensemble, at Ozawa Hall where Yo Yo Ma founded it in 2000. Depending on their predilections, they may focus their reports on the pipa, or the tablas, or the jang-go.

Diana Krall at Tanglewood June 23, 2012 review

June 23, 2012 performance reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Diana Krall performing at Tanglewood, June 23, 2012; photo: Hilary Scott
Miss Diana Krall gave a bravura performance in the Shed on the opening weekend of 75th season of concerts at Tanglewood. The show featured a crackerjack combo Anthony Wilson (guitar), Robert Hurst (bass), and Karriem Riggins (drums) in support of an almost wierdly diverse setlist that visited many provinces of the jazz empire. While it wasn’t the sort of program Miss Mary Aspinwall Tappan had in mind in 1936, when she laid the family cottage (and 210 sylvan acres) on Maestro Koussevitsky (and the BSO), it was the sort we locals have become accustomed to while the BSO has become an increasingly important element of life in the Berkshires*.

Since her first Tanglewood apearance years ago, on a bill as Tony Bennett’s guest, when “show-stealing siren” could’ve been an apt description, Miss Krall has become a full-fledged star with a commanding stage presence and an easy rapport with the audience. That was especially evident during the solo portion of her two hour set when she led into several numbers with references to her parents; and talked about her 5 year old twins. (She made a surprise appearance just before their birth during husband Elvis Costello’s performance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz during the 2007 Tanglewood jazz Festivl).

Miss Krall’s artistry is a melding of her voice and the piano; combined with her personality and musical sensibility, tonight’s two hour concert thouroughly satisfied. Her band was equally brilliant, bass and drums blending in primarily supportive roles, but bassist Robert Hurst had some prominence, including one passage where he brought a song home with descending notes until perfect silence was made to reverberate.

Guitarist Anthony Wilson alternated between solo and support all night, as well as being Miss Krall’s go-to guy in deciding the setlist. He played several leads and riffs that excited the audience, and altogether produced the perfect complimentary sound to Miss Krall’s.

setlist: Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Sergio Mendes, Tom Waits …

Her setlist drew from the work of Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Sergio Mendes, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan and included a stunning rendition of John Lennon’s Come Together. Since Quiet nights was released in 2009, Krall has performed on four continents, produced Barbra Streisand’s Love Is the Answer, contributed Simple Twist of Fate to the charity album Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International and performed on Paul McCartney’s new album, Kisses On The Bottom.

Opening the show were the Canadien duo Denzell Seymore and Devon Thompson; really tasty music, but just too much patter for an un-familiar opening act.

*We overheard a conversation – someone was bemoaning the Berkshires remoteness from the ocean or the great lakes – her interlocutor said true enough, but can’t you imagine Tanglewood as a sort of ocean where wave after wave of great music washes ashore?