Tanglewood

Damnation of Faust turned out to be one of Berlioz' most popular compositions. It was the first work in which he wrote the libretto himself. Berlioz loved Virgil, Shakespeare, and Goethe above all. He could not entrust the words of these authors to anyone else. In Damnation, we have a great presentation of the Faust story. The Boston Symphony, Tanglewood chorus and thrilling soloists brought Berlioz safely to heaven and hell.

Last night we enjoyed a fabulous German dinner with 200 or so other celebrants at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield. For just $12 there was a traditional feast of hand rolled, beef rouladen with red cabbage, noodles, and a vegetable medley. That ended with delicious Black Forest cake.

For its fall foliage production Shakespeare & Company have produced a corker. Regge Life has directed four masters of the company in Yasmina Reza's 2009 Tony wnner God of Carnage. The all star ensemble includes S&Co. veterans Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Allyn Burrows, Jonathan Croy and Kristin Wold. Saving the best for last it is the most hilarious comedy of the Berkshire season.

Barring intervention by the Attorney General, at best a long shot, plans to sell 40 works of art with two paintings by Norman Rockwell worth as much as the remaining 38 lots, the fall auctions by Sotheby’s in New York appears to be a done deal .For the second time protestors will picket in front of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield from 10 am to 2 pmon Saturday, September 9. This past week Sotheby’s announced a presale estimate of “thirty pieces of silver.”

In 2015 Pete Townsend’s long time musical collaborator Rachel Fuller scored the rock opera for orchestra. They were married in February. It was performed to mostly favorable but mixed reviews with the 90-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 80 members of the London Oriana Choir. This version was performed last night at Tanglewood with Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops. Opera tenor Alfie Boe, Townsend, and British rocker Billy Idol performed the vocals.

In May the world's foremost architect, Frank Gehry, signed on to design The Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum in North Adams. It is one of 11 projects being developed by visionary museum director Thomas Krens. There is a daunting sticker price of some $300 miliion for construction anticipated to start as early as June, 2018.

Making her first Tanglewood appearance in decades the 73-year-old diva, Miss Diana Ross (as she insists on being addressed), had them dancing in the aisles. It was an evening of greatest hits her own as well as covers. With no opening act it proved to be an early evening in Lenox ending before 9 PM.

In every sense it was a cool evening in the Shed as British rock star, Sting, brought his tour in support of the album 57th and 9th to Tanglewood. They have been on the road since last February.

Opening the first half of the annual Film Night at Tanglewood Andris Nelsons shared conducting duties with 85-year-old John Williams. Nelson's was a surprise guest trumpet soloist in the score of Lincoln by Williams. It was a sold out evening on a perfect summer night in Lenox. It is always a thrill to hear him conduct the iconic scores that have earned him a record 50 Academy Awards nominctions.

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Youthful, still, at 49, Joshua Bell proved his place in the history of great performances at Tanglewood, when playing Mendelssohn's, 'Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64.

The Festival of Contemporary Music is a highlight of the Tanglewood season. Curators assemble concerts from commissioned works and also from composers whose works form the canon of the contemporary music scene. Opening night suggested how rich this repertoire has become.

This concert at Mostly Mozart was billed as a musical offering from Brahms, Bach and Mendelssohn. It seemed a stretch to hear these works without the centerpiece composer featured, except as an artist who liked to spell Bach's name in notes. The spirit was Mozartian, full of joy and inviting melodies, Featuring Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis as soloists, who brought Schumann to the table in the slow movement of his violin concerto, it was a rich evening of music. A delightful offering.

Broadway and cabaret artist Barbara Cook was 80 wehen we first saw her perform at Ozawa Hall and several times after that. In Indiana we enjoyed a concert wth Michael Feistein and an interview for critics that followed. We have compiled a collage from those reviews.

Imagine nearly 14,000 attendees of the long awaited, Yo-Yo Ma concert of Schumann's 'Cello Concerto in A minor, Opus 129, in awe after the concert artist shuns the audience's applause, with an appeal for a concerted effort to help find Maestro David Zinman's lost puppy.

Members of the JACK Quartet are scattered across the eighth floor exhibit space at the Whitney Museum in which many Alexander Calder mobiles hang and stand. In the center of the room on the south wall, cellist Jay Campbell and violinist Austin Wulliman are conventionally seated with their music stands before them. They do not seem to notice violinist Christopher Otto who stands at the east entrance, only a music stand dividing him from a roaming, and finally seated and standing-still audience. At another entrance Jay Pickford Richards, violist, is completely in his own world, oblivious to in your face cameras, and the wandering audience. John Cage wrote the Quartet they will perform, not for a quartet, but for four soloists.

Indeed it was a long evening ending around 11 PM with the tradition arsenal of fireworks accompanying the climax ith a massive performance of Tchaikovsky’s energizing 1812 Overture. It evoked Moscow’s triumphant church bells and the thunderous boom of Napoleon’s captured canons.

When ethical concerns and second guessing of its "reboot" plans surfaced the Berkshire Museum has spent money it doesn't have for expensive PR and marketing. Heavy hitters have been hired to deflect tough questions from the media and flack the museum's strategy to sell 40 works of art and change its mandate.

Works by Stephen Hannock are in global museum collections. His Oxbow painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be included in a survey of Hudson River artist Thomas Cole. Hannock's mate Sting will also be involved in the project. When he created paintings for his friend's hometown of Newscastle the studies were shown at the Berkshire Museum. He gave one of the studies to the museum to honor philanthropist Nancy Fitzgerald. The fact of that work and the entire fine arts collection of the museum is unknown. We talked at length with the Berkshire based global artist about the impact of the museum's strategy to sell its fine arts collection with a radical makeover as an interactive educational museum for history and science.

A light drizzle evoked soft programming and attendance for the Friday night peformance of Andris Nelson's conducting at Tanglewood. Perhaps there was a conservation of energy for tonight's historic two and a half hour performance of Wagner without an intermission. But history was made last night as well with the astonishing debut of pianist Daniil Trifonov performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467. As they say, the crowd went wild.

The new Met Tosca will premier with James Levine replacing Andris Nelsons at the helm. Kristine Opolais stepped out of the title role. They are together in Tanglewood for what promise to be a starry evening on August 26th.

Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was among yhe foremost jazz singers of her generation. In Ozawa Hall a centennial celebration was organized by arranger, Lee Musiker in collaboration with classical singers Stephanie Blythe and Dawn Upshaw. Together they are mentoring vocal fellows who comprised most of the program.

Sondheim on Sondheim presents a multi-media scrapbook on the life and work of Broadway's genius, Stephen Sondheim. A unique personal glance at not only Sondheim's life, but his creation of Broadway musicals. This evening provides insight into Sondheim's process and the life experiences that influenced his work. The eight vocalists, including four Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows, deliver Sondheim's music with feeling and vocal power.

The stage designs, lighting and props for Jessica Land Dance evoked a particular invention of abstract art. The now established company, founded in 2011, makes annual visits to Pillow this time on the main stage of Ted Shawn Theatre. The dance is varied, fresh and inventive.

For Nelsons and the BSO the performance of Gustav Mahler's sublime, mystical, poetic and powerful Symphony No. 2 in C Minor proved to be physically and emotionally exhausting.