by Peter Matthews

"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.)

Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The Met's current revival of Verdi's La Forza Del Destino - which will be broadcast live in HD and on the radio this Saturday - has garnered both positive and negative reactions, mostly having to do with Mariusz Treliński's bleak modernist staging, as well as some uneven singing among the cast. But, I was mostly concerned with the collective assessment of soprano Lise Davidsen as Leonora, who is making her stage debut in the role. (She sang a concert version with Norwegian Opera last fall.) Verdict: a mixed bag over the opera's 4 1/2 hour length, but she is unassailable in her solos, particularly the show-stopping Act 4 aria, "Pace, pace, mio Dio." (You can hear the full performance here.)

Frankly, Davidsen can afford some tepid reviews considering the splash she's made since her Met debut five years ago in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. Since then, she's wowed New York audiences - including me - with her soaring, impossibly voluminous voice in roles such as Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger, Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss' Elektra, and the title role in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. The Times' Zachary Woolfe says of Davidsen: "There are vanishingly few artists in the world (today) singing with such generosity, sensitivity and visceral impact."

Tackling Italian opera for the first time at the Met, Davidsen is boldly stepping outside of her comfort zone, requiring a warmer, more fluid style than the meaty German repertoire in which she excels. And, while she isn't yet on par with the great Verdi divas of yesteryear, Davidsen manages to pack an emotional punch, having spent long hours developing the phrasing and fluid tone this music requires.

“I had to work harder to convince the houses that I could even do Verdi and the Italian repertoire,” Davidsen told the Times recently. “But vocally, I am quite ready.”

by Pete Matthews

In a world that's sometimes feels it's on the brink of chaos, it's comforting to know that some things can still be relied upon as winter turns to spring: buds appear on the trees, birds return from warmer climes, blossoms begin to poke through the pebbles. And the Vienna Philharmonic comes to Carnegie Hall.

For those who need a primer, the Vienna Philharmonic is one of the world's great cultural treasures, a living, breathing avatar of western classical music. From its founding in 1842, the Vienna Phil has either premiered or been closely associated with many of the boldest names in musical history, including Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss, and Wagner. But, far from resting on its laurels, the Vienna Phil has maintained its reputation as one of the best - if not the best - performing orchestras in the world thanks to its unique sound and performance practice that balances precision and theatrical flair to ultimate effect. And while they still have a long ways to go to reach the gender parity of orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, this self-governing institution is creeping ever closer to becoming an ensemble built on merit rather than some outdated notion of "emotional unity." 

This past weekend, the Vienna Phil arrived in NYC - as they have each and every year since 1984 with the exception of 2020-21 - with music from the first three decades of the 20th century. With no principal conductor, they brought along with them one of their supposed favorites: fellow Austrian (and current Carnegie Perspectives artist) Franz Welser-Möst for the first time since 2017. Having recently announced his intention to curtail his conducting activities due to health issues, these concerts had a hint of wistfulness to them: Welser-Möst, 63, walked across the Carnegie stage much more gingerly than he has in the past.