Symphonies, Suites and Götterdämmerung: A Weekend at Tanglewood
"It's not the lawn, it's not the great old pines. It's not the blue skies, or sudden thunderstorms, or the mountains. All that is wonderful...But, it's the spirit of Sergei Alexandrovich Koussevitzky that makes that place magic." - Leonard Bernstein, 1985
Part of the pleasure of returning to the Berkshires each summer is the comfort in knowing that as much as the world might seem a constant shitstream of chaos, this place will always stay the same. (Well, mostly the same.) The rolling hills, the lakes, the charming villages and cultural amenities: this place gets in your blood.
But for me, there's always been one real reason to make the three hour drive up the Taconic over the past three decades: Tanglewood, the annual music festival which has filled this sylvan paradise with some of the world's best music since 1937. Much more than just a classical music festival, Tanglewood has always thrived on its dual identity as both the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and one of the world's leading training grounds for young musicians. (It's now also a place of learning for non-musicians of all ages.)
Unfortunately, Tanglewood has seen more than its share of turmoil over the past few summers, with the retirement of longtime BSO CEO Mark Volpe and TMC Director Ellen Highstein followed by the short-lived tenures of Gail Samuel (CEO) and Asadour Santourian (TMC), not to mention the cancellation of the entire 2020 and much of 2021 seasons due to COVID. But, with the hires this season of Chad Smith (CEO) from the LA Phil and Ed Gazouleas as TMC Director, Tanglewood seems to be back on its right footing, with ambitious plans to expand its offerings over the next few seasons, including renovating the old Theatre-Concert Hall for staged opera productions and opening the Linde Center for Music and Learning for year-round programming.
But, for all the recent disruption, most things at Tanglewood remain the same. The Shed looks just as it did when it was built in 1938, the round tables out back of Highwood are placed exactly where they've always been, the rehearsal shacks still echo with the sound of young musicians running through solos. Also still in place is Tony Fogg, the BSO's VP of Artistic Planning and de facto Tanglewood director for the past three decades, responsible for keeping all of the ships moving in the same direction.
And of course, there is Music Director Andris Nelsons, now in his tenth season with the orchestra. For all his globetrotting - Nelsons is also the Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany and a regular guest conductor in Vienna and Berlin - he has been a solid presence at Tanglewood each summer, conducting no less than four weeks of concerts with both the BSO and TMC while personally teaching the conducting fellows. (Nelsons was officially named Tanglewood's Head of Conducting in January at the same time he was awarded an "evergreen" contract, which basically means he can stay in Boston as long as he likes, perhaps even longer than Seiji.)
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