Dan Zhu triumphs, Christoph Eschenbach conducts the BSO at Tanglewood in Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” by Michael Miller

Christoph Eschenbach leads the BSO with Dan Zhu at Tanglewood. Photo Hilary Scott.

Tanglewood Festival
Friday, July 20, 8:30 pm, Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Dan Zhu, violin

Bernstein – Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) for violin and orchestra
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”

I was looking forward to this concert to renew my acquaintance with this less familiar, but interesting work of Leonard Bernstein’s and in the expectation that Christoph Eschenbach and the BSO would give us an interesting “Pathétique” after Myung-Whun Chung’s fascinating, rather eccentric reading of last November.

However…

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration in the Music Shed, by Michael Miller

All of the performers at the Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Concert take a bow after the finale. Photo Hilary Scott.

All of the performers at the Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Concert take a bow after the finale. Photo Hilary Scott.

Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons, conductors

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax and Peter Serkin, pianos
James Taylor, vocalist

Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor

Seiji Ozawa was presented the first ever Tanglewood medal by John Williams and Yo Yo Ma in absentia at the 75 Anniversary Celebration of Tanglewood. Photo Hilary Scott.

Seiji Ozawa was presented the first ever Tanglewood medal by John Williams and Yo Yo Ma in absentia at the 75 Anniversary Celebration of Tanglewood. Photo Hilary Scott.

Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man - Boston Pops Orchestra brass/Keith Lockhart
Bernstein – Three Dance Episodes from On the Town - Boston Pops Orchestra/Lockhart
Selections from the Great American Songbook, (arr. Gil Goldstein) - (James Taylor/Boston Pops Orchestra/John Williams)
           Arlen & Harburg - “Over the Rainbow”
           Rodgers & Hammerstein – “Shall We Dance?”
           Kern & Hammerstein - “Ol’ Man River”
Haydn - Piano Concerto in D, 2nd and 3rd movements - Emanuel Ax/Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra/Stefan Asbury
Tchaikovsky - Andante cantabile, for cello and strings – Yo-Yo Ma/TMCO
Sarasate – Carmen Fantasy, for violin and orchestra – Anne-Sophie Mutter/TMCO/Andris Nelsons
Ravel – La Valse, Choreographic poem – Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons
First-ever Tanglewood Medal presented by John Williams to Seiji Ozawa in absentia; Yo-Yo Ma to read a response from Mr. Ozawa from the stage at approximately 10:30 pm
Beethoven - Fantasia in C minor for piano, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80 – Peter Serkin/David Zinman/BSO

In this special version of the popular annual “Tanglewood on Parade” concert, the 75th anniversary of the festival as we know it (more or less) was duly celebrated. On August 5, 1937, the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed an all-Beethoven concert under Music Director Serge Koussevitzky. (I have already mentioned this in my review of the commemorative reprise of the same program on July 6.) This was the first concert of the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, as it was then known, both with the Boston Symphony and on the same property, Tanglewood, which has been the home of the orchestra ever since. (For a brief history of Tanglewood, click here.) The program book for the concert, reproduced in the anniversary program booklets, bills the season as the fourth: the Boston Symphony played on a different property close by in 1936, and the Festival actually began on August 25, 1934 with a concert played by 65 members of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Henry Hadley on a farm in Interlaken. When Koussevitzky and the BSO were invited to replace them, the maestro saw a marvelous opportunity either to realize a project he had conceived in Russia for a grand festival of all the arts, or at least to give the Boston Symphony exposure among the wealthy New Yorkers who summered in the Berkshires, not to mention the financial elite of Chicago and Cleveland, who also had “cottages” in the Berkshires. Above all, the festival was a way to keep the orchestra musicians working throughout the year. (At this time many of the musicians came from Europe, and the first thing they did when the season was over was to get on a boat for home. Often they decided to stay there.) These early years involved a handful of orchestral concerts. The two intense months of opera, chamber music, contemporary music, musical formation, and, of course, orchestral music evolved over the next decade, with 1942-45 passed over because of the war. The purpose of the first sponsors was always to create a music festival that would rival the great festivals of Europe. Koussevitzky’s ambitions surpassed ever theirs, eventually creating the model for the American classical music festival, with its combination of high-minded education and “music under the stars” for a broad audience.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!



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Kurt Masur will share the podium in the upcoming all-Mozart concert (Sunday, July 22, 2.30 pm) with his son, Ken-David Masur. Gerhard Oppitz will play Mozart’s C Minor Piano Concerto.

Masur-ken

Ken-David Masur

The Boston Symphony has just announced that Kurt Masur will share the podium in the upcoming all-Mozart concert (Sunday, July 22, 2.30 pm) with his son, Ken-David Masur, who will conduct the first two pieces on the program, Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the Piano Concerto in C Minor, K. 491, with Gerhard Oppitz, who just got off to a brilliant start in his traversal of Brahms’ complete works for piano last night.

Read the full preview on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Developers’ Rule: A New Plan for Planning in New South Wales by Alan Miller

Ku-ring-gai3

A true story: one day at the New South Wales Department of Planning two planners are talking about different theories of urban planning. ‘Neoliberal planning,’ the first says, “that’s what we do.” “No kidding,” the other replies.

“No kidding” might be replaced by “yer darn tootin” after the release of the NSW Government’s A New Planning System for New South Wales – Green Paper. If the title doesn’t quite grab you, a new planning system, however boring, will have a far greater impact on people’s lives than more juicy topics like a new Museum of Contemporary Art or a new pavilion for the Venice Biennale. Planning is the most visible juncture at which architecture meets politics, and what the Government is proposing is interesting for the way that it reveals urban planning as the point where conservatism begins to conflict with itself, where a libertarian sensibility runs counter to pro-business economic rationalist conservatism. The development industry is not quite a friend of the invisible hand; it does best when certain freedoms are curtailed. This was shown most clearly in the US by the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which expanded the Constitution’s “Takings Clause” (“nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”) to allow governments to claim eminent domain for purposes of private redevelopment.

Read the whole article on the Berkshire Review, an international journal of the arts!

Ghostly and Mysterious: The Martinez Urioste Brey Trio, by Seth Lachterman

Martinez-urioste-brey-400

Gabriela Martinez, Carter Brey, Elena Urioste

Opening Concert of the Twenty-Second Season of Tannery Pond, Sunday 3PM, May 27, 2012
Gabriela Martinez piano, Elena Urioste violin, Carter Brey cello

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Trio in D major, Opus 70, No. 1 (“Ghost”)
            Allegro vivace e con brio
            Largo assai ed espressivo
            Presto

Paul Schoenfield
Café Music (1986)
            Allegro con fuoco
            Andante moderato
            Presto

Maurice Ravel

Trio in A minor
            Modéré
            Pantoum : Assez vif
            Passacaille: Très large
            Final: Animé

This program that opened the twenty-second season for the Tannery Pond Concerts was something of an unholy trinity. It was easy to get an anxious sense of alienation in hearing Beethoven’s quintessentially Romantic and supernaturally imbued work followed by Schoenfield’s rollicking yet also phantasmagoric ragtime; Ravel’s rarified sonorities at the end acted as a divine sublimation of sorts. Not everyone was pleased with this programming. At intermission, several audience members commented how they felt Schoenfield’s Café Music was the afternoon’s sore thumb. Having been caught up in the ragtime revival of the 1960s and 1970s myself, I welcomed the piecehaving succumbed to its charms in the past decade.Café Music is Schoenfield’s best known work enjoying wide exposure: Sirius XM programs it regularly and several fine recordings are available on both CD and in the iTunes library. Diehard chamber music enthusiasts might regard it as an unneeded “crossover” for a musically sophisticated audience. While its placement might have not have been ideal within the current program’s context, I was delighted by the change of musical idiom.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Old Master Drawings, the successor to The Drawing Site, is now online, by Michael Miller


Isidoro Bianchi, Study for a Ceiling Decoration: Detail of a Caryatid

Old Master Drawings, the successor to The Drawing Site, is now online. In it, Michael Miller offers articles about the history of drawing, the history of collecting, a reference work on the materials and techniques of drawing, and a page of news in the world of drawings: exhibitions, lectures, conferences, etc. There is alsoa retrospective of his work as a dealer in old master drawings as well as a few drawings for sale.

Use it as an introduction to the art of drawing or as a reference as you continue your studies.

Read the notice on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Parasite Drag by Mark Roberts, directed by Stephen Rothman, at Shakespeare & Company through September 2, by Michael Miller

Gene (Josh Aaron McCabe), Susie (Kate Abruzzese), Ronnie (Jason Askpey) and Joellen (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) at table. Photo © 2012 Kevin Sprague

Parasite Drag

by Mark Roberts
directed by Stephen Rothman

June 20–September 2
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre

Cast:
Kate Abbruzzese – Susie
Elizabeth Aspenlieder – Joellen
Jason Asprey – Ronnie
Josh Aaron McCabe – Gene

The midwestern family, hardly one of the United States’ more perfect contributions to civilization, has taken its share of abuse from writers since before Mark Twain’s time. In recent years, Tracy Letts, with hisAugust: Osage County, started something of an industry for himself in the theatrical exploitation of this somewhat over-ripe institution, but he has by no means cornered the market. The American — not only the midwestern — family remains a gift that keeps on giving. After so many years of hearing the gospel of the religious right, the Tea Party, and their like, those of us who are not in the fold are all too ready to join in a good sardonic laugh, sneer, or horror show on the subject, especially if it includes a misguided, or, better, corrupt evangelical clergyman. Josh Aaron McCabe’s character, Gene, is not himself corrupt, but he arose from corruption. Although in the end, he is only pathetic, for much of the play he’s the sort of character we want to bombard with rotten vegetables. In any case, there are enough sceptics on family values in the Berkshires to guarantee a quorum for Mark Roberts’ entertainment about two brothers, their wives, and their mortally ill sister, who never appears on stage, but is the reason for their coming together.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Opening Night at Tanglewood, Friday, July 6, 2012: Boston Symphony Orchestra Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor – Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 and the Leonore Overture No. 3, by Michael Miller

by  • JULY 10, 2012 • PRINT-FRIENDLY

Christoph von Dohnanyi leading the BSO on Tanglewood Opening Night. Photo Hilary Scott.

Friday, July 6, 2012, 8:30 pm Shed
Opening Night at Tanglewood

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor

All-Beethoven Program
Leonore Overture No. 3
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Symphony No. 5
(Program of August 5, 1937)

Quite a lot has already transpired at Tanglewood, from James Taylor and Diana Krall to Mark Morris and the Emerson Quartet, but with Saturday evening’s reprise of the inaugural concert, which took place under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky on August 5, 1937, the 75th anniversary season of the Tanglewood (Berkshire until 1986) Music Festival has begun. The shed was quite well populated, even in the farther reaches of the Shed, and the lawn also looked fairly full. Critics and public alike seemed excited by the prospect of another Tanglewood summer, especially in this anniversary year. And of course there were the fireworks to look forward to!

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony: Schoenberg and Beethoven at Davies Hall, by David Dunn Bauer

Michael Tilson Thomas. Photo Stefan Cohen.

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Davies Hall

San Francisco Symphony Chorus
Ragnar Bohlin, choral director

Erin Wall, soprano
Kendall Gladen, mezzo-soprano
William Burden, tenor
Nathan Berg, bass
Shuler Hensley, narrator
Ligeti – Lux Aeterna
Schoenberg – A Survivor from Warsaw
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9, Choral

This review starts with a whiny disclaimer, since it should be a review of Ligeti, Schoenberg, and Beethoven at Davies Hall, but arriving at the door of the auditorium at 7:59 on Friday June 29th, I and a number of other concert-goers found the doors already shut and our entrance prevented by the diligent house staff. I’ve actually never before arrived anywhere at an 8pm performance where seating was closed by 8pm. To be sportsmanlike, I guess I have to call it “my bad,” but…oh, nevermind.

I will say that my disappointment at missing the atmospheric Lux Aeterna by György Ligeti was heightened by the surprisingly primitive video and audio feed from the auditorium to the lobby. There was no point in watching or listening at all to the distorted sound and picture, and that’s something Davies could and should remedy.

Hence my attendance began at 8.12 when I sat down to a 7-minute performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1947 A Survivor from Warsaw, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and narrated by Tony-Award winner Shuler Hensley. Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of precision and assurance, and the men of the Symphony Chorus sang out powerfully. Hensley was unhappily over-miked at the start. I sensed that someone dialed down his volume perhaps two thirds of the way through, which restored some measure of balance to the mix, but I wish there had additionally been a way to dial down some of Hensley’s overt emotionality.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


The Emerson Quartet at Tanglewood: Mozart, Adès, and Late Beethoven, the B Flat Op. 130 with the Große Fuge, by Michael Miller

The Emerson Quartet. Photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.

Emerson String Quartet
Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood
Thursday, July 5, 8 pm

Mozart – Quartet No. 21 in D, K.575
Adès -  Four Quarters, for string quartet
Beethoven – Quartet No. 13 in B-flat, Op. 130, with original Große Fuge Finale, Op. 133

The Emerson Quartet have been among Tanglewood’s most admired attractions for many years now. A cloud of nostalgia is beginning to gather over them right now, since it has been announced that cellist David Finckel will be leaving the group at the end of 2012-13. He will be replaced by Paul Watkins, so it is clear that the quartet has no intention of disbanding. However, it will be the end of what is not quite the founding members. Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker actually founded the quartet in the American bicentennial year. Violist Lawrence Dutton joined them in 1977, and David Finckel in 1979. In their announcement of the change, it was mentioned that they saw it as a “chance to reassess our goals and articulate a new vision for the future…” Things will be different, when Mr. Watkins arrives. 

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!