Tanglewood

James Taylor at Tanglewood July 4, 2018

Article updated July 6, 2018 by Dave Read

Something about James Taylor’s Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood felt low-key, but that’s in reference to a dozen or so such, which always rank among the most exciting shows of the year. Our expectations may have been out of whack because his July 4, 2008 show exploded into a celebration of his sixtieth birthday. Maybe now that the ¾ century mark is within shouting distance, seventy is not so big a deal?

My reading of the show doesn’t extend to the usual aspects, such as the favorites-filled setlist of 25 songs, the 218 autographs from the lip of the stage during intermission, nor the revival-like 3 song encore when everybody got into the act, nor his awesome band. I thought he ceded primacy to Mike Landau on Steamroller, which his ace guitarist did not squander, before cutting loose with his own axe-indulgence during a coda that would not quit.

The stagecraft of James Taylor

James Taylor is a master of stagecraft, that aspect of a musician’s duty to an audience that cannot help but color his virtuosity and singing. Stagecraft, a.k.a. patter, is the golden thread a singer weaves through a performance. James Taylor is so good at it sometimes that it steals the show; tonight it was spot-on, meaning that I wouldn’t have noticed it, except that I had an eye out for it.

James Taylor’s Lawn Nation at Tanglewood

The Fourth of July James Taylor concert at Tanglewood is a “bucket list” sort of event; it is a musical performance with social implications elbowing their way to the fore. It is a generational thing, with an abundance of kids running around and no shortage of patrons for whom the metaphorical bucket is the last thing they want to be thinking about. Not annual, but since Mr. Taylor built a house near October Mountain seventeen years ago, there has been at least one James Taylor Tanglewood show almost every year.

Here are snapshots of Lawn Nation, as James Taylor likes to call his Tanglewood audience. The images were made around half past six, July 4, 2018.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Tanglewood, June 29, 2018

Article updated July 2, 2018 by Dave Read

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones played a generous and rousing concert in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood on Friday, June 29, 2018. We hesitate to describe the performance as firey or electrifying, because then the band may be blamed for the heat wave that followed in their wake and three days later has not let up. This show comes a little past the midway point in the Popular Artist Series and was the first of four that we’ll attend in a six day stretch, about which we’ll write more when it’s over! Meantime, here are photos from the show:

2018 Tanglewood schedule

The 2018 Tanglewood schedulefeatures a season-long celebration of the centennial of Leonard’s Bernstein’s birth, culminating in the Aug. 25 Bernstein Centennial Celebration hosted by Audra McDonald, with Maestro Andris Nelsons, four guest conductors and soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, and others.

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Tanglewood tickets and box office information

Tickets for the 2018 Tanglewood season available through Tanglewood’s website, www.tanglewood.org, SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA.

Getting around the Tanglewood campus

The Tanglewood campus, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center comprises several hundred acres in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge. It is the location of the Koussevitsky Music Shed and Ozawa Hall, where hundreds of thousands attend concerts and a variety of events, including picnics. We always advise new visitors to arrive early and take their daily walking exercise wandering the beautiful Tanglewood grounds. This dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds includes photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.

2014 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

With a bevy of harmonious beauties in tow, and bluesman Keb Mo, Garrison Keillor returned to the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood for the 15th year in a row. This is a case where familiarity breeds competition and comparison. Audience members were heard bragging about being at the 1st Tanglewood show, or having their greeting read by Keillor at last year’s. We even overheard a debate on the lawn over the relative merits of Wailin Jennys, The DiGiallonardo Sisters, each of whom have made several appearances and both today.

Pre-show serenade for Tanglewood picnickers

Longest encore in radio show business

And knowing a late June evening in the Berkshires had to be savored, he stretched the show until every moment of daylight had been exhausted. There’s just a quiet moment on stage when the broadcast ends at 8PM; the applause builds steadily, evincing the audience’s appetite for more, which gets fulfilled, in ample measure. Today, Garrison and company kept the party going until after nine. They improvised an impressive setlist, including such audience favorites and sing along standards as Going to the Chapel, Brown-Eyed Girl, Sweet Caroline, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Honky Tonk Woman, You’ve Got a Friend, and Amazing Grace.

It was a beautiful day in the Berkshires – what they used to call “chamber of commerce” weather; for more, do visit the American Public Media do a great job maintaining audio and video archives of A Prairie Home Companion.

Monty Alexander Trio at Tanglewood

August 25, 2004 performance; by Dave Read

Monty Alexander peered out from the Ozawa Hall stage at Tanglewood, saw the auditorium half full, and proceeded to deliver a concert of upbeat and optimistic music to an enthusiastic audience that occupied way less than half the hall. Such is the nature of the Jamaican-born pianist, whose reputation apparently carries insufficient weight in the Tanglewood market, despite a fifty year career, more than 60 albums as a leader, and performance credits with legends of jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Benny Golson, and Oscar Peterson.

The concert began with a piece that quoted I Got Rhythm, begun by drummer Dennis Mackrel (Obed Calvaire was listed in the program) and bassist Hassan Shakur before Alexander made his entrance. A few minutes later, his composition Look Up seemed to be running alongside the A Train, and the next tune, Just Wait, was written in response to a successful bout with cancer.

Mr. Alexander evinced an easy rapport with the audience, even if he did seem to value his early experience with Sinatra more highly than today’s jazz fan would. And he was as generous with his sidemen as any leader could be. He stood aside while Shakur took a long ambling solo that somehow encountered The Pink Panther along the way. Other familiar tunes heard tonight were Come Fly With Me, Day O, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Sweet Georgia Brown.

The BSO was bolder than usual during the 2013 Tanglewood season with its “Popular Artist” programming. Tonight’s program had all the requisite merit on the artistic side, but as with a few earlier events, the marketing effort wasn’t up to par. That is unfortunate because, just as a full house can raise the level of excitement, a nearly empty one can be an un unhappy distraction.

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.

James Levine resigns BSO top job

Maestro James Levine’s tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will end September 1, 2011, due to the health problems that have caused him to cancel many scheduled performances with the BSO since he took the job in 2004. Mr. Levine and the orchestra are discussing the creation of a new role that will allow his continued work with the BSO, which has begun a search for a new music director. Maestro Levine succeeded Seiji Ozawa, who led the BSO from 1979 – 2002, and was the longest-tenured of the 16 music directors in the orchestra’s 130 years. (2011 Tanglewood schedule.)

Maestro James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.