Dave Read

Tanglewood opening night 2013 with Joshua Bell

Article by Dave Read
The all-Tchaikovsky Opening Night of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 season at Tanglewood featured guest artist Joshua Bell in the Violin Concerto and guest conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on a program that included Symphony No. 5. The July 5, 2013 concert marks the 25th consecutive year Mr. Bell has performed at Tanglewood. Also a long-time regular guest at Tanglewood, Maestro de Burgos leads four programs on the 2013 schedule.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads Joshua Bell and BSO in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

Photos and video from Tanglewood opening night 2013 with violinist Joshua Bell soloing and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. (Hilary Scott photos and BSO video).

Jackson Browne at Tanglewood July 4, 2013

July 4, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

Jackson Browne performs at Tanglewood on July 4 (Hilary Scott)

Jackson Browne attracted an immense audience to the 2013 Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood, which included Sara Watkins in the 7pm opening slot. This was a much larger audience than attended his 1999 gig on a bill with Bonnie Raitt, but had to be less than the 21K in attendance for his 1977 performance. It had to be less because the BSO agreed to limit ticket sales to 18,000 in the wake of the 24,470 that clogged Stockbridge and Lenox roads and delayed the start of July 17, 2002 performance of the Boston Pops with special guest James Taylor.

Jackson Browne sings with opener Sara Watkins at Tanglewood on July 4 (Hilary Scott)

Jackson Browne recounted his previous concerts at Tanglewood, which he described as “…James Taylor’s house.” The presence of frequent Taylor sideman Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, and a rendition of Sweet Baby James were further connections to Tanglewood’s favorite popular artist son who is on hiatus from touring while he works on a new album. Read a full review of the concert at masslive.com.

Gov. Deval Patrick celebrates Fourth of July in the Berkshires

By Dave Read
While there is no shortage of special events available to anybody in the Berkshires on the Fourth of July, there are plenty more Gov. Deval Patrick can choose to attend. Maybe because the timing, 3pm, would make it easy to mosey on down to the big Jackson Browne show at Tanglewood a few hours later, his honor showed up at Shakespeare & Co. to lead a large crowd of theatre buffs, townsfolk, and tourists in the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence.

annual Declaration of Independence reading at Shakespeare and Co., in Lenox.

Gov. Patrick, who spends plenty of time at his Richmond home, blends right in with his Berkshire neighbors, and you may have a hard time recognizing him in these photos. Hint: front row left, cranberry slacks.

Tanglewood schedules Harry Connick, Jr & Donal Fox for Labor Day weekend

Tanglewood schedules Harry Connick, Jr and Donal Fox for Labor Day weekend concerts to complete the most ambitious popular artists calendar to be assembled by the BSO at their summer home in the Berkshires in decades. Both performances are listed for Sat. Aug. 31 – Doanl Fox at 1pm in Ozawa Hall and Harry Connick, Jr. 7pm in the Koussevitsky Music Shed.

Mr. Connick will perform music from his most recent album, Every Man Should Know, a collection of original songs released in early June 2013. Tickets for Harry Connick, Jr.’s Saturday, August 31, 7 p.m. Shed appearance run from $29.50 to $99.50 and go on sale Tuesday, July 2, at 10 a.m. The Tanglewood grounds will open at 4 p.m.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, August 31, composer, pianist and innovator Donal Fox will perform his Scarlatti Jazz Project. Mr. Fox and his quartet will bring their unique amalgam of jazz, Latin, and classical music to Ozawa Hall at 1 p.m. Ticket prices run from $18 to $53 and also go on sale on July 2.

$40 All Day Lawn Pass will allow concert goers to enjoy the Scarlatti Jazz Project on the lawn at 1 p.m. and remain through the Harry Connick, Jr. Shed concert at 7 p.m. Pass will be available to purchase July 2.

2013 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor made their 14th consecutive appearance at Tanglewood, on June 29, 2013. The show featured musical guests Joy Kills Sorrow a string band with Canadian roots, singer Heather Masse, a member of the Wailing Jennys, and frequent guests The DiGiallonardo Sisters. Also on hand for the final live broadcast of the season were show regulars the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, plus the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band along with harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy.

Mr. Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion are both sui generis. He is a literary kind of guy who started writing for the New Yorker five years before his work on a project there inspired him to create, in 1974, a variety show for radio. But whereas his model, the Grand Ole Opry, sat still in Nashville, operating more like a religion with a fixed liturgy, APHC has acquired a trans-continental congregation by presenting a regular banquet of humor, pathos, comedy and an amazing variety of guest artists representing every musical genre.

Bringing the show on the road and performing for large audiences is no gimmick, no money-making ruse. In fact, the show at Tanglewood, at least, is way better in person than it is on the radio, because it is preceded by an audience serenade and concludes with ninety minutes or so of encore performances by Keillor and the program’s musical guests. An indication of what is represented by the shows run just at Tanglewood is this pattern we noticed: the 2000 show had Tim Russell as President Clinton, singing Bob Dylan’s Like a Polling Stone, by way of whining about having no home once he leaves the White House; today’s show had Russell as President Obama, reflecting on his fond memory of the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston and daydreaming about feeling “… good at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.” to the tune of My Way.

Garrison Keillor and Heather Masse on the lawn at Tanglewood

Garrison Keillor and Heather Masse serenade the Tanglewood lawn audience before start of the June 29, 2013 radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from the Koussevitsky Music Shed.

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood

June 28, 2013 performance, by Dave Read.

The Terrence Blanchard Quintet filled Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall with two sets of dense jazz before a sparse audience on June 28, 2013. It was a lovely evening in the Berkshires, but rain had been forecast, so maybe that had something to do with the nearly empty lawn and four-fifths empty hall. Has the Berkshire county reached the tipping point, where there’s so much stuff going on, that so many tickets for such an accomplished artist as Blanchard could remain unsold?

By “dense” we mean that the music made by Blanchard and his band occupied all the space available; the spacious Ozawa Hall with its renowned acoutistics sometimes seems to be accompanist, rather than mere facilitator, for a musical performance. Besides his brillance as a trumeter, Mr. Blanchard is a charming m.c., engaged with the audience, and generous to his band, which is terrific. He told a funny story about the Tuscon Jazz Society by way of introducing tenor sax player Brice Winston, a wonderful player who is heavily involved in jazz education.

Terrence Blanchard features new release Magnetic in Tanglewood performance

The rhythm section was good enough to be booking their own gigs! Pianist Fabian Almazan, from Cuba, shone especially brightly on his composition, Pet Steps Sitteres Theme Song. The tune is on Blanchard’s current Blue Note release, Magnetic, which also includes Time to Spare, a groovy up tempo composition by Winston, which got the evening underway in good order. Robert Hurst lll was on bass; his 2nd set solo was mesmerizing. Blanchard told us drummer Justin Brown “has great time” and a great career ahead. Blanchard himself demonstrated total artistic mastery of the trumpet, including loud high passages where it felt like notes bolted off the stage and became hecklers in the empty balcony.