Dave Read

2013 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor made their 14th consecutive appearance at Tanglewood, on June 29, 2013. The show featured musical guests Joy Kills Sorrow a string band with Canadian roots, singer Heather Masse, a member of the Wailing Jennys, and frequent guests The DiGiallonardo Sisters. Also on hand for the final live broadcast of the season were show regulars the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, plus the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band along with harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy.

Mr. Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion are both sui generis. He is a literary kind of guy who started writing for the New Yorker five years before his work on a project there inspired him to create, in 1974, a variety show for radio. But whereas his model, the Grand Ole Opry, sat still in Nashville, operating more like a religion with a fixed liturgy, APHC has acquired a trans-continental congregation by presenting a regular banquet of humor, pathos, comedy and an amazing variety of guest artists representing every musical genre.

Bringing the show on the road and performing for large audiences is no gimmick, no money-making ruse. In fact, the show at Tanglewood, at least, is way better in person than it is on the radio, because it is preceded by an audience serenade and concludes with ninety minutes or so of encore performances by Keillor and the program’s musical guests. An indication of what is represented by the shows run just at Tanglewood is this pattern we noticed: the 2000 show had Tim Russell as President Clinton, singing Bob Dylan’s Like a Polling Stone, by way of whining about having no home once he leaves the White House; today’s show had Russell as President Obama, reflecting on his fond memory of the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston and daydreaming about feeling “… good at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.” to the tune of My Way.

Garrison Keillor and Heather Masse on the lawn at Tanglewood

Garrison Keillor and Heather Masse serenade the Tanglewood lawn audience before start of the June 29, 2013 radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from the Koussevitsky Music Shed.

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood

June 28, 2013 performance, by Dave Read.

The Terrence Blanchard Quintet filled Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall with two sets of dense jazz before a sparse audience on June 28, 2013. It was a lovely evening in the Berkshires, but rain had been forecast, so maybe that had something to do with the nearly empty lawn and four-fifths empty hall. Has the Berkshire county reached the tipping point, where there’s so much stuff going on, that so many tickets for such an accomplished artist as Blanchard could remain unsold?

By “dense” we mean that the music made by Blanchard and his band occupied all the space available; the spacious Ozawa Hall with its renowned acoutistics sometimes seems to be accompanist, rather than mere facilitator, for a musical performance. Besides his brillance as a trumeter, Mr. Blanchard is a charming m.c., engaged with the audience, and generous to his band, which is terrific. He told a funny story about the Tuscon Jazz Society by way of introducing tenor sax player Brice Winston, a wonderful player who is heavily involved in jazz education.

Terrence Blanchard features new release Magnetic in Tanglewood performance

The rhythm section was good enough to be booking their own gigs! Pianist Fabian Almazan, from Cuba, shone especially brightly on his composition, Pet Steps Sitteres Theme Song. The tune is on Blanchard’s current Blue Note release, Magnetic, which also includes Time to Spare, a groovy up tempo composition by Winston, which got the evening underway in good order. Robert Hurst lll was on bass; his 2nd set solo was mesmerizing. Blanchard told us drummer Justin Brown “has great time” and a great career ahead. Blanchard himself demonstrated total artistic mastery of the trumpet, including loud high passages where it felt like notes bolted off the stage and became hecklers in the empty balcony.

Springside Park in Pittsfield, MA

Photos of Springside Park in Pittsfield, MA on June 15, 2013. We were surprised to see several lilac trees still in full bloom; lilac season having come and gone back home in Lenox! The Hebert Arboretum is located there, amid 231 acres of meadows, woodlands, rolling hills, streams, marshes and ponds which support 50 species of native trees, 338 species of plant life, and a tremendous wildflower variety of over 135 species. The park is host to a ‘migration funnel’ where migrating songbirds come in the Spring and Fall for sanctuary and rest.

Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration Warren Haynes Boston Pops

June 22, 2013 performance; by Dave Read.

A Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration with Warren Haynes and the Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart conducting attracted a large audience to Tanglewood on June 22. Scheduled between concerts by Melissa Etheridge and Joan Baez with Indigo Girls, the tribute to the Gratfeful Dead founder and cultural icon was ample reason for a broad swath of baby boomers to spend the whole weekend in the Berkshires. It was an opportunity for the BSO to claim some measure of Haight-Ashbury street cred, with Maestro Lockhart sporting the boldest, brightest, and brand-newest tiedye and there was a groovy light show projected on the Shed facade, which got one-upped by the way more psychedelic burnt orange Strawberry “super moon” rising late in the first set. You can view and listen to plenty of clips from this show on Youtube, where we grabbed a screenshot from one video, here: http://youtu.be/VuaDyBMqo9o.

Photos from Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration at Tanglewood

Tanglewood goes mainstream?

Fans who lament the absence of James Taylor from Tanglewood’s 2013 summer schedule may be placated by the BSO’s wading deeper into the mainstream of popular music by booking several acts that are on the summer circuit. Even with the eleven “popular artist” shows booked so far this summer (one for Labor Day weekend TBA), Tanglewood is bound to remain sui generis among music venues, especially since the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra occupy all but a few slots on the summer calendar. However, at least for this opening weekend, MASS MoCA was the more relevant musical venue in the Berkshires because of the wildly successful Solid Sound Festival hosted there by preeminent rockers (and Tanglewood veterans) Wilco. With the demise two years ago of the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, which had been held for about ten years on Labor Day weekend, the far end of the summer calendar presents an opportunity for clever programming by the BSO, maybe something sui generis.

Mushroom walk Kennedy Park, Lenox, MA

June 22, 2013 Article by Dave Read

Walk through Kennedy Park, Lenox, MA on June 9, 2013, following trails from the W. Mountain Rd. entrance. We will update once we have had the various mushrooms identified. Our introduction to mycology is courtesy of John Wheeler of the Berkshire Mycological Society, who led this walk.

Andris Nelsons named Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Andris Nelsons, has been appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, becoming the the 15th man in that position since the BSO’s founding in 1881. Maestro Nelsons, born in Latvia on November 18, 1978, is the 3rd youngest and first Latvian to head the orchestra. Nelsons will take on the title of BSO Music Director in the 2014-15 season for an initial five year commitment, leading 8-10 weeks of programs during the BSO’s 2014-15 subscription season in Symphony Hall in Boston; he will lead 12 weeks of programs each subsequent year of the five-year contract. Mr. Nelsons will also lead several programs each season at Tanglewood, the orchestra’s summer music festival in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.

Maestro Nelsons conducted a segment during last year’s Tanglewood 75th anniversary concert.

Andris Nelsons on 2013 Tanglewood schedule

Andris Nelsons is on the 2013 Tanglewood schedule, leading the BSO, on July 27, in a performance of Verdi’s monumental Requiema, on a program that includes a quartet of internationally acclaimed singers, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Nelsons succeeds James Levine

Mr. Nelsons succeeds James Levine, who was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2011. Mr. Nelsons is the third youngest conductor to be appointed BSO music director since the orchestra’s founding in 1881: Georg Henschel was 31 when he became the orchestra’s first music director in 1881, and Arthur Nikisch was 33 when he opened his first season with the orchestra in 1889.