July 11, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

The concert performance in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood of The Great Gatsby, by the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music, was so enjoyable that we’re tempted to propose a corollary to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s adage, There are no second acts in American lives, to wit, American novels can get third lives.

None of the movie versions of The Great Gatsby has achieved anything near the stature of the novel, but we think the opera has legs and can give the book a run for its money. Whereas Fitzgerald’s standing as a prose stylist cannot be ignored, his choices relating to plots and characters can make it easy to overlook his books. But it is precisely the contrivedly tragic plot and one-dimensional characters that make Gatsby such a good fit for Opera.

We particularly enjoyed the performance of baritone David Kravitz as Nick Carraway, the steady narrator, and we came to prize soprano Devon Guthrie, who got Daisy Buchanan off to a slow start, only to hit her stride and then practically blow the roof off the joint in the middle of Act ll.

Composer John Harbison, recipient this month of the BSO’s Horblit Award and present tonight, was commissioned in 1998 by the Metropolitan Opera to compose the opera in honor of James Levine’s 25th anniversary there. Since then, there have been several related projects including the compilation of a Gatsby Suite. In the program notes, Mr. Harbison, whose Tanglewood relationship includes stints as a TMC Conducting Fellow, faculty member and coordinator of the composition program, calls tonight’s performance a revival.

Ozawa Hall was a lovely accompanist for the performance on a rare comfortable July evening, with a near-capacity audience indoors and a good compliment of West Eggers peering on from the lawn.

July 7, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

Opening weekend of the BSO’s 2013 Tanglewood schedule called for a performance by the Boston Pops with special guest Vince Gill; an ill-timed thunderstorm blew the planned program out the window. Instead of a 2:30 start for the Pops’ set of seven selections and a second set with Gill and his band after a 25 minute intermission, what transpired was a single 85 minute concert.

Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockart led the Pops through a truncated set designed to celebrate the American West. Besides two selections from Rodeo, by the familiar and decidedly unWestern Aaron Copland, the highlight of the set was Carmen Goes Country, a recent gift to the Boston Pops from its former principal arranger and Harmonica Rascal Richard Hayman.

Vince Gill mines the jazz vein

Vince Gill’s setlist included Whenever You Come Around, his paean to wife Amy Grant, and concluded with his lament for his brother, Go Rest High on That Mountain. His compositions were well adapted to the Pops’ accompaniment; often the result was a rich burnishing. The one exception was his new “legitimate jazz song” Faint of Heart, which got the endorsement of jazz diva Diana Krall, who sings it with him on his new album The Time Jumpers.

Placing a song from any musical genre within a symphonic setting is a risk almost always worth taking, at least for the sake of artistic curiosity. But when an artist is already stepping out from the comfort of his genre to experiment in another, taking the further step of giving it a symphonic wrap dulls the point of writing a jazz song in the first place. We look forward to hearing it late some night in a dingy roadhouse joint, which is the milieu it seemed to suggest, beneath the too-lush embellishment of the orchestra.

Gill is a friendly and funny guy who recalled his previous Tanglewood performance along with Amy Grant, when they were guests on a James Taylor program. Mentioning Taylor’s presence for this concert, he said that singing Sweet Baby James with him was a dream come true.

Article by Dave Read
The all-Tchaikovsky Opening Night of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 season at Tanglewood featured guest artist Joshua Bell in the Violin Concerto and guest conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on a program that included Symphony No. 5. The July 5, 2013 concert marks the 25th consecutive year Mr. Bell has performed at Tanglewood. Also a long-time regular guest at Tanglewood, Maestro de Burgos leads four programs on the 2013 schedule.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads Joshua Bell and BSO in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

Photos and video from Tanglewood opening night 2013 with violinist Joshua Bell soloing and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. (Hilary Scott photos and BSO video).

July 4, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

Jackson Browne attracted an immense audience to the 2013 Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood, which included Sara Watkins in the 7pm opening slot. This was a much larger audience than attended his 1999 gig on a bill with Bonnie Raitt, but had to be less than the 21K in attendance for his 1977 performance. It had to be less because the BSO agreed to limit ticket sales to 18,000 in the wake of the 24,470 that clogged Stockbridge and Lenox roads and delayed the start of July 17, 2002 performance of the Boston Pops with special guest James Taylor.

Jackson Browne recounted his previous concerts at Tanglewood, which he described as “…James Taylor’s house.” The presence of frequent Taylor sideman Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, and a rendition of Sweet Baby James were further connections to Tanglewood’s favorite popular artist son who is on hiatus from touring while he works on a new album. Read a full review of the concert at masslive.com.