By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, July 7, 2024 performance – Renee Fleming, the world-famous soprano, has been a favorite of Tanglewood audiences since her debut on the Koussevitsky Music Shed stage in 1991. Under the direction of Maestro Andris Nelsons, in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, today she sang songs written for performance with music composed by Richard Strauss (1864-1949).
I have no idea what she was singing about, because when listening to music, I surrender myself to it, which means I turn off phones and screens and neither read nor write while the music unfolds itself into my imagination.
Since so many of my sisters and brothers in the Tanglewood audience feel otherwise, translated lyrics are flashed across a giant screen above the orchestra. But such only swaps German words for English words – there’s no way to translate those outdated German attitudes and mores into the American attitudes and mores we rep in the 21st century.
What I do have some idea about is how beautiful music makes me feel! Especially during Gesang der Apollopriesterin, Opus 33 No. 2, Ms. Fleming produced with her instrument sounds so refulgent that the instruments of the brass section turned green with envy. I didn’t say music makes me feel beautiful, I said I know how I feel while concentrating on the sounds produced by beautiful music.
All the sounds produced today under Maestro Nelsons’ energetic direction were splendid, every bit as splendid as is the venue that hosts Tanglewood. This Sunday matinee was performed on as beautiful a day as ever unfolds in the Berkshires.