Dave Read

Tanglewood schedule Aug. 22, 2015

Nov. 22, 2014 Article by Dave Read

John Williams’ Film Night is scheduled for Saturday, August 22. Guest conductor David Newman will join Mr. Williams and the Boston Pops for one of the most eagerly-anticipated evenings of the Tanglewood Season, taking place on the last weekend of the BSO season in the Berkshires.

David Newman is one of today’s most accomplished creators of music for film. In his 25-year career, he has scored over 100 films, ranging from War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger and Heathers, to the more recent The Spirit, and Serenity.

Tanglewood tickets and 2015 season brochure

Tanglewood brochures with complete programs and information on how to order tickets will be available in early February by calling 617-638-9467. For further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org.

Berkshires hotels and transportation

You’ll find room rates, amenities, nearby attractions, and customer reviews for all the popular hotels, motels, Inns, B and Bs in the Berkshires on our Berkshires hotels page.

Although Berkshire county is anythingbut remote, being just a couple hours by car from Boston, MA, Hartford, CT, New York City, and even Montreal, Quebec, many people still find it a difficult place to get to, because it isn’t too well served by public transportation. Follow the link if you aren’t driving, but looking for schedules and information about getting to the Berkshires via Amtrak train and Peter Pan bus.

Tanglewood grounds map

Here is a dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds, with photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.

Tanglewood schedule Aug. 23, 2015

Nov. 22, 2014 Article by Dave Read

The BSO has yet to schedule an event for Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015, the week following the usual BSO finale, Beethoven’s Ninth. Here is an overview of the 2015 Tanglewood schedule.

Tanglewood tickets and 2015 season brochure

Berkshires hotels and transportation

You’ll find room rates, amenities, nearby attractions, and customer reviews for all the popular hotels, motels, Inns, B and Bs in the Berkshires on our Berkshires hotels page.

Tanglewood grounds map

Tanglewood schedule Aug. 29, 2015

Nov. 26, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Tanglewood schedule Aug. 29, 2015 lists Idina Menzel in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at 7pm. Idina Menzel had a big hit with Let it Go from Disney’s Frozen in addition to starring in Rent, Wicked, and If/Then . The Tanglewood audience will be entertained by classic pop, musical theater favorites, and her own personal catalogue.

Tanglewood tickets and 2015 season brochure

Berkshires hotels and transportation

You’ll find room rates, amenities, nearby attractions, and customer reviews for all the popular hotels, motels, Inns, B and Bs in the Berkshires on our Berkshires hotels page.

Although Berkshire county is anythingbut remote, being just a couple hours by car from Boston, MA, Hartford, CT, New York City, and even Montreal, Quebec, many people still find it a difficult place to get to, because it isn’t too well served by public transportation. Follow the link if you aren’t driving, but looking for schedules and information about getting to the Berkshires via Amtrak train and Peter Pan bus.

Tanglewood grounds map

Berkshires fall foliage photos

Sept. 29, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Leaf-peeping in the Berkshires may be an event of its own that would collow a route that you plan to follow to a destination such as a Bed and Breakfast in Great Barrington, or it may be a serendipitous event because the fall foliage was at peak display while you were in the Berkshires. History buffs are a cohort likely to produce new devotees of the region’s autumnal splendor as they converge on Williamstown to visit Clark Art Institute between now and Nov. 2 for Radical Words, an exhibition that brings together the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, an early draft of the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, Cheshire Reservoir, Cheshire, MA

Here are photos that display Berkshires Fall Foliage, the subtle, early autumn variety, as found on the section of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail that runs along Cheshire Reservoir in Cheshire, MA. The images were made on Sept. 28, 2014 around 2:30 PM. Later, we headed north to see what’s new at MASS MoCA, and we’ll post those photos soon.

Beethoven Symphony 9 at Tanglewood

Article by Dave Read

The August 24 performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 was the final item on the 2014 schedule of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s season at Tanglewood, as it almost always is. It is such an immense work of art that to call it a fitting way to close the season is silly. Each eight week season of music by the BSO and their guests here in the Berkshires generates its own themes and patterns, hits and misses. Beethoven’s Ninth fits regardless where it gets scheduled.

Esteemed Maestro Charles Dutoit conducted today, eliciting a performance that was both ethereal and thrilling. And as they’ve done before, the amateurs of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus attained the same heights of perfection as their professional colleagues of the BSO.

We didn’t time the performance, but would guess that it was longish; it certainly wasn’t hurried, and we did slip into reverie in the first movement, which seems to invite the mind to detach, after establishing the basic theme, which ignites a long slow fuse of anticipation for its fulfillment an hour hence.

There was a vast audience today, occupying areas of Lawn that had been vacant since James Taylor’s concerts on July 3 & 4.

2014 Tanglewood season wraps with Tony Bennet

Article by Dave Read;

On Thursday, August 28, Governor Deval Patrick will be a special guest on radio program Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, which will be recorded in the Shed at 8 PM for broadcast to its weekly audience of 3.2 million weekly listeners. The NPR news quiz program is hosted by Peter Sagal along with judge and score-keeper Bill Kurtis. Tanglewood is a familiar spot for Gov. Patrick, who had a big role in the Tanglewood on Parade gala concert a few weeks ago.

Making a return visit to Tanglewood is Train on Friday, August 29 at 7 PM in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. The West coast band released their sixth album, California 37, featuring the single, Drive By, in 2012. Now that nobody gets turned on to bands and musicians via AM radio, you may have seen Train on TV; they’ve been on all the broadcast shows.

On Aug. 30, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, conductor Keith Lockhart, members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Josh Groban perform the nex-to-last entry on the Tanglewood 2014 schedule.

Tanglewood finale with Tony Bennett and Antonia Bennett

The final event on the 2014 Tanglewood schedule will be on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 2:30 PM in the Koussevitsky Music Shed when Tony Bennett headlines a bill that includes daughter Antonia Bennett as special guest. Forever associated with I Left My Heart In San Francisco. which he recorded in 1962, Tony Bennett is one of a handful of artists to have new albums charting in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and now in the first two decades of the 21st century.

In the last ten years alone, he has sold ten million records. Bennett has received 17 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Award. He has introduced a multitude of songs into the Great American Songbook that have since become standards for pop music. He has toured the world to sold out audiences with rave reviews whenever he performs.