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Bloomberg Bombs in Tanglewood Debut, July 4, 2021

Up until the pandemic, Tanglewood patrons were accustomed to the indulgence of James Taylor songs on the Fourth of July. They expected a return to normalcy until the host communities set the attendance limit at 9,000, which caused Taylor to relinquish the cherished date to the plutocrat Michael Bloomberg.

US Army howitzers at Tanglewood, July 4, 2021, Dave Read photo.

Bloomberg is widely reviled in Massachusetts for being the man who spent $50 million in an attempt to install Scott Brown in the U.S. Senate seat held by Elizabeth Warren. Who knows how much he pays the BSO for use of the Boston Pops to market his view of an America segregated into a military class, an entertainer/performer class, and the hoi polloi?

Whatever the amount, it appears to be enough to let him overrule the BSO’s own pandemic protocols:

In support of regulations set by the Tri-Town Health Department and the Lenox and Stockbridge health boards, Tanglewood will limit attendance capacity to 9,000—50% of its usual capacity of 18,000; this represents a significant increase over the previously announced attendance cap of 25%.

Concert programs will not exceed 80 minutes and will be presented without intermission.

What took place July 4th at Tanglewood was an offensive 180 minute TV show. They got little right and screwed up totally by positioning 3 howitzers right next to the Shed, where the green benches used to be, for the finale of the 1812 Overture.

We’ve witnessed that piece at Tanglewood for decades, always with the artillery properly located on the Stockbridge Bowl side of the sloping lawn, and always to great effect. Tonight, instead of being an acoustic appendage to a musical score, it was an assault on the senses, utterly devoid of artistic merit.

It has been said that the end of all art is peace; neither peace nor art was in evidence tonight.

There was one spot on the program where this orgy of diversity-pandering could be redeemed. While the Boston Pops played in the background, a series of performers walked to center stage to proclaim quotations from the work of notable Americans of African descent, finishing each with the author’s name and the date of the quotation.

How did they omit this: “I can’t breathe, George Floyd, 2020?”

Boston Symphony Hall recording of Duos for Violin and Viola, featuring John Williams, Victor Romanul, and Michael Zasretsky has been released.

Boston Symphony Orchestra members Victor Romanul, violin, and Michael Zaretsky, viola, have released a new two-disc CD on the Artona label, featuring the world premiere recording of John William’s Duo Concertante, which was written for and dedicated to Michael Zaretsky. The CD, recorded at the historic Symphony Hall in Boston, MA, also includes works by Aaron Copland, Louis Spohr, Bohuslav Martin?, Jakov Jakoulov and Alessandro Rolla.

Duos for Violin and Viola features works from a variety of eras through the hands of some of the greatest composers, due, in part, to the challenge and limitations of writing for this particular combination of instruments. Louis Spohr’s Duo for violin and viola, and Alessandro Rolla’s Duo concertant in C, contribute some of the earliest works on the recording, while Jakov Jakoulov’s Chant IV and John Williams’ Duo Concertant are world premiere recordings and recent works, both written for Mr. Zaretsky and Mr. Romanul.

Tanglewood schedule August 14-23, 2009

The Tanglewood schedule for August 14-20, 2009, week seven of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2009 Tanglewood season, features Michael Tilson Thomas, Andre Previn, and Kurt Masur, three guest conductors with significant ties to Tanglewood.

Recent Tanglewood reviews/videos:

Tanglewood Music Center alumnus Michael Tilson Thomas, who was a protege of Leonard Bernstein, returns to the Tanglewood festival for the first time since 1988. His first program, August 14, initiates a weekend highlighted by three great Romantic piano concertos, as he conducts Rachmaninoff’s tempestuous Piano Concerto No. 3, performed by Yefim Bronfman, on a program with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Tilson Thomas’ second program is a project especially dear to his heart. The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theatre is a musical homage to his grandparents, who were leading performers in Yiddish theater in the ’20s and ’30s (Aug. 19 and 20). This lively Ozawa Hall program is scripted and narrated by Tilson Thomas, who also plays piano and conducts. It features the original performers who helped with the show’s creation in 2005: Judy Blazer, Neal Benari, Ronit Widmann-Levy, and Eugene Brancoveanu, all making their Tanglewood debuts. Pat Birch directs.

Frequent Tanglewood guest Andre Previn returns August 15 to collaborate with one of his favorite soloists, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, in Liszt’s poetic Piano Concerto No. 2, on a program with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and Ravel’s La Valse. Previn goes back to his early jazz piano roots with a special evening of standards in Ozawa Hall on August 16 in a concert with longtime collaborator bassist David Finck.

Kurt Masur takes the podium Sunday afternoon August 16 to lead the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in an all-Brahms program focusing on music that is at the very heart of his repertoire: the Brahms Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto No. 2, with Garrick Ohlsson as soloist.

August 21-23, 2009 Tanglewood schedule

The schedule for the final week of the 2009 Tanglewood season will include Kurt Masur on August 21 conducting the BSO on a program with Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, with pianist David Fray, making his BSO debut.

The following night features Masur leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Italian, The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) Overture, and the Violin Concerto, with violinist Gil Shaham.

The final program of the BSO’s 2009 Tanglewood season will be the annual performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with conductor and Tanglewood Music Center alumnus Michael Tilson Thomas, with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, soprano Erin Wall and mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen in their BSO debuts, tenor Stuart Skelton in his Tanglewood debut, and bass-baritone Raymond Aceto on Aug. 23. The program begins with a movement from Charles Ives’s Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day, for chorus and orchestra (from his Holiday Symphony).

Tanglewood schedule, week 7, August 14-20, 2009

The schedule for the seventh week of the 2009 Tanglewood season, August 14-20, 2009, features three guest conductors with significant ties to Tanglewood, Michael Tilson Thomas, Andre Previn, and Kurt Masur.

Tanglewood schedule week 8, August 21-23, 2009

The schedule for the final week of the 2009 Tanglewood season will include Kurt Masur on August 21 conducting the BSO on a program with Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, with pianist David Fray, making his BSO debut.

The following night features Masur leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Italian, The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) Overture, and the Violin Concerto, with violinist Gil Shaham.

The final program of the BSO’s 2009 Tanglewood season will be the annual performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with conductor and Tanglewood Music Center alumnus Michael Tilson Thomas, with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, soprano Erin Wall and mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen in their BSO debuts, tenor Stuart Skelton in his Tanglewood debut, and bass-baritone Raymond Aceto on Aug. 23. The program begins with a movement from Ives’s Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day, for chorus and orchestra (from his Holiday Symphony).