Music
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Ned Rorem's Opera Our Town set for New England Debut in Peterborough, NH
American Composer Still Vibrant at 85
By: - Oct 28th, 2008Ned Rorem celebrates his 85th birthday this week. His opera "Our Town"is based on the Thornton Wilder play. It will make its New England premiere on November 14-16 in Peterborough, NH and February 12-16 of 2009 at Tufts University. This chamber opera, according to Musical America, has "emerged as one of those rare new operas that seem destined to survive." Writer Lawrence Johnson catches up with Ned.
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Pianist Dave McKenna Was 78
A Fixture on the Boston Jazz Scene
By: - Oct 20th, 2008Dave McKenna grew up in Rhode Island. After years of touring with Woody Herman and Charlie Ventura, among others, by the 1960s he was primarily a solo artist. We heard him often in Boston including a memorable gig with Tony Bennett in a broadcast for PBS.
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TV on the Radio's New CD Dear Science
Done With Being Cool
By: - Oct 04th, 2008How do you define a band that transcends the typical limits of genre? Uh, they are synth- driven, acappella and doo-wop roots rock, indie-funk-electro with a horn section. TVOTR has a new CD "Dear Science."
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Jumpin Jambalaya at MCLA
New Orleans Musicians Cook Up a Mess of Gumbo in North Adams
By: - Oct 03rd, 2008As the MC for MCLA, Jonathan Secor stated, it was to be a "typical evening of New Orleans music." As though we were transported to the Maple Leaf Bar where Papa Grows Funk is the house band. For this Berkshire gig there were special guests Walter "Wolfman" Washington and pianist, Joe Krown. They put up a stunning wall of sound.
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The Berkshire Arts Season Summer 2008
Recalling Tanglewood and Theatre
By: - Sep 17th, 2008Memories of many wonderful nights in the Shed and under the stars on the lawn at Tanglewood. As well as superb Berkshire theatre.
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Flown Home Band at Eclipse Mill Gallery
North Adams Based Folk Musicians
By: - Sep 13th, 2008On short notice the North Adams based Flown Home Band performed a concert at the Eclipse Mill Gallery. Despite the limited lead time there was a nice turn out for the launch of a series of concerts live at the Eclipse.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Generations
Marian McPartland, Dianne Reeves, Eddie Daniels, Nnenna Freelon, Spencer Day
By: - Sep 07th, 2008There was a sense of the passing of the torch as Marian McPartland celebrated her 9oth birthday taping her NPR program with the emerging artists Nnenna Freelon and Spencer Day
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Donal Fox and Christian Scott
Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project
By: - Sep 02nd, 2008The pianist Donal Fox and his quintet, featuring the young trumpet player,Christian Scott, presented a confluence of Baroque music and jazz feeling. While hailed as represeting the "future" of jazz there is in fact a long tradition of this experimentation.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Terence Blanchard
A Tale of God's Will A Requiem for Katrina
By: - Sep 01st, 2008As New Orleans based musician, Terence Blanchard, led his quintet and a 34 piece orchetstra through his evening long composition "A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina" just three years after that tragedy, ironically, the city was evacuated and braced for Hurricane Gustav which again battered the Crescent City. It made the music all the more powerful and emotionally charged.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008 Opening Night
Eliane Elias Trio and Edmar Castaneda Quartet
By: - Aug 30th, 2008The much anticipated Tanglewood Jazz Festival, an annual Labor Day Weekend event, got off to a swinging start last night with the Edmar Castaneda Quartet, with Joe Locke, and the Brazilian pianist, Eliane Elias and her trio.
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Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008
A Berkshire Labor Day Tradition
By: - Aug 25th, 2008All the cats and hipsters plan to groove at Ozawa Hall for the annual, Labor Day Weekend celebration of the Tanglewod Jazz Festival. Terence Blanchard will conduct a 30 piece orchestra in his Grammy Award winning "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)."
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A First Class Marriage of Figaro by Berkshire Opera
Mozart and the Colonial May Be a Perfect Marriage
By: - Aug 19th, 2008At the Colonial Theatre, under the baton of Kathleen Kelly, the principal singers and orchestra of the Berkshire Opera honored every note of Mozart's classic opera while the staging by Gregory Keller brought the story and action into the 21st Century. Mozart would have loved the sense of playfulness that surrounded his glorious music.
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Wilco Rocks Tanglewood To Full House
Roll Over Beethoven
By: - Aug 13th, 2008While Tanglewood has been hesitant to respond to demands for more diverse programming last night there was a full house for the leading rock band Wilco. The summer home of the BSO will never be the same.
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Tanglewood On Parade Features Five Renowned Conductors
Evening Climaxes With Fireworks and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
By: - Aug 06th, 2008During the annual Tanglewood on Parade there was a lively round of musical chairs as Hans Graf, Sir Andrew Davis, Keith Lockhart, John Williams and Andre Previn took turns as conductors.
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Renee Fleming and Peter Mattei Star in Eugene Onegin at Tanglewood
Sir Andrew Davis Conducts Tchaikovsky's Opera
By: - Aug 03rd, 2008James Levine was originally scheduled to conduct "Eugene Onegin" but Sir Andrew Davis, on fairly short notice, rose to the occasion. It was a wonderful performance starring the magnificent Renee Fleming at Tatiana and a Tanglewood debut for Peter Mattei in the title role.
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Steven Spielberg Joins John Williams at Tanglewood
10th Annual Film Night a Tribute to Indiana Jones
By: - Jul 27th, 2008For his Tenth Annual Film Night at Tanglewood conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra John Williams offered an overview of composing for some 100 films. The second half of the program was devoted to Indiana Jones narrated by surprise guest Steven Spielberg.
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Elliott Carter at Tanglewood
Donner und Blitze at Ozawa Hall
By: - Jul 24th, 2008The composer, Elliott Carter, who will turn 100 on December 11, was on hand for the week long Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Nobody appeared to enjoy the occasion more than Carter himself as he rose over and over to acknowledge applause from wildly enthusiastic audiences.
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Magnificent Mahler and Barbara Cook Scintillates At Tanglewood
A Truly Festive Tanglewood Music Festival
By: - Jul 15th, 2008From now through Labor Day there is a compelling reason to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival. On Saturday we enjoyed Mahler's Symphony Number Two in C minor, conducted by Bernard Haitink. And we returned a couple of days later for an evening of the cabaret artist Barbara Cook.
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Keith Lockhart Conducts A Little Night Music at Tanglewood
Concert Version of Stephen Sondheim's Hit Show
By: - Jul 09th, 2008The original, 1973, Broadway production of "A Little Night Music" won Tony Awards for the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim and the book of Hugh Wheeler. To date, however, there has not been a Broadway revival. Keith Lockhart led the Pops through a concert version of the musical to the delight of a Tanglewood audience.
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Following Triumphant Opening James Levine Cancels His Summer Tanglewood Appearances
Artistic Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival To Undergo Surgery This Week.
By: - Jul 08th, 2008This past weekend James Levine, artistic director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was given rave reviews for opening the Tanglewood season with a two day concert peformance of the massive and magnificent Berlioz Opera "Les Troyens." It was learned today that Levine will undergo surgery this week. His remaining Tanglewood duties are cancelled but he hopes to be back to cover the opening of the BSO.
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Magnificent Production of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz at Tanglewood's 2008 Opening Night
James Levine Brings BSO's Rare Concert Version of the Opera to the Berkshires
By: - Jul 06th, 2008Anna Caterina Antonicci, soprano, was riveting as Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess ignored by her fellow citizens in the tragic opera, Les Troyens, by Hector Berlioz. A concert version of the enormous and ambitious work, conducted by James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra opened the Tanglewood 2008 season.
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Backstory in Blue: Ellington at Newport '56
An Absorbing Study by John Fass Morton
By: - Jul 02nd, 2008It was some 52 years ago when the Duke Ellington Orchestra ignited the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956. Tenor player, Paul Gonsalves broke out in 26 choruses between the sections of Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. This was included in one of the first live recordings a hit for Columbia Records, "Ellington at Newport '56." The superb book by John Fass Morton truly does tell the Backstory of that moment in jazz history.
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James Taylor and Fireworks at Tanglewood on the Fourth
Mark Morris and Garrison Keillor Shoulder into Levine and Berlioz
By: - Jun 30th, 2008Tickets for the two James Taylor concerts on July 3 & 4 at Tanglewood sold out within hours of being put on sale. On Saturday evening the BSO summer residence offically opens with The Trojans (Part Two on Sunday afternooon) by Berlioz conducted by artistic director, James Levine. This past weekend during the Shoulder Season we attended perormances by the Mark Morris company and a broadcast of Prairie Home Companion.
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For Summer 2008:Tanglewood Announces Jazz Festival for Labor Day Weekend
Lively Season Planned for Lenox, Mass.
By: - Feb 15th, 2008The recently established tradition returns to Lenox, Mass with the annual Labor Day Weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Tickets to all Tanglewood events are now on sale.
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Jazz Pianist Oscar Peterson: 1925- 2007
Duke Ellington Dubbed Him the Maharajah of the Keyboard
By: - Dec 25th, 2007The Canadian born jazz pianist Oscar Peterson belonged to a tradition of improvisation and superb musicianship that was more mainstream than experimental. He cut many sides in a variety of combinations for Norman Granz and his Verve and later Pablo labels.
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