What better time to contemplate the upcoming Tanglewood summer music season?
The calendar has just flipped over to December, CVS has stockpiled its ineffective windshield scrapers up near the cash registers, the newspaper food sections are starting to feature hearty soup recipes, and recently for the first time in many months I found the word 鈥渟leet鈥� in the ten-day forecast.
What better time to contemplate the upcoming Tanglewood summer music season?
The Boston Symphony鈥檚 fabled . The details are getting more than the usual amount of scrutiny because this will be the first season that second-year BSO music director will have participated in the planning.
Nelsons assigned himself just four concerts with the BSO, so if you want to get a look at the lithesome Latvian in person, your choices will be limited.
Then again, the man seems drawn to big statements. Among other works, he will take on Mahler 9, Beethoven 7, and, in perhaps the biggest statement of the summer, a concert presentation of Acts I and II of Verdi鈥檚 "Aida."
The latter will star his wife, soprano , as the doomed title character.
Elsewhere during the season, the usual cavalcade of star soloists (Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Menahem Pressler) will file through, along with a healthy sprinkling of younger phenoms, including pianists Jonathan Biss and the dangerous-to-describe
Guest conductors include Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit and .
Two other notable dates:
June 25:
An early season visit from and his troupe has become a regular feature at Tanglewood.
This year鈥檚 installment will be a piece of history: Keillor has announced (and says he really means it this time) that this will be his final season of hosting his live radio variety show, a show that has managed over the years to juxtapose jokes about the ways of Lutherans, roots-music stars and would-be stars, political sketch satire (often of Voltairesque bite), gentle Midwest monologues concerning bachelor farmers, and as often as not, first-rate performances of classical music, sometimes with the distinguished soloist later chipping in with a bonus cameo in one of the sketches.
If you prize the PHC phenomenon 鈥� I鈥檓 an unrepentant fan 鈥� you will want to get yourself up to Lenox for this one.
August 14:
Humphries, an Australian institution best known to American audiences as (a character he has retired, alas), hosts and performs in this showcase of the 鈥渄egenerate鈥� music of Weimar of the 20s and 30s. Songs by Weill, Krenek, Schulhoff and others will be featured, with Humphries joined by the and the 鈥渢ransgressive cabaret sensation鈥� .
This is almost certainly the first concert in Tanglewood鈥檚 75-year history to carry the warning: "This concert contains adult themes. Parental guidance for those under the age of 15 is recommended."
I wonder, incidentally, how the age 15 was arrived at.
The End of An Era
I鈥檝e just learned that has resigned his position as Minister of Music and Arts at in Hartford. He had been in the job 16 years.
I was never a member of AHCC, but over the years I鈥檝e certainly attended countless concerts, festivals and celebrations, Sunday morning services and other events at which music was a central, if not the exclusive component. Even when he was not personally performing, Steve was the guiding force behind all of it.
I always admired Steve鈥檚 versatility, his enterprise, and the special skill that it takes to deal with the wide-ranging musical tastes and expectations of a large and diverse (and opinionated) modern day congregation. Steve helped to make AHCC one of the great and important presenters of music in these parts, and all of us who care about the arts in Hartford owe him our gratitude. Well done, maestro.
The Beginning of An Era
The Yale School of Music has announced that has been named principal conductor of the , the school鈥檚 venerable and widely admired orchestra.
In his new post, Oundjian will conduct three concerts every year with the Philharmonia and will participate in the selection of guest conductors and repertoire.
Oundjian is one of the relatively few musical figures of our time who has made a successful mid-career transition from world-class performer (first violinist of the Tokyo Quartet for 14 years) to world-class conductor. In the latter category, he is best known for having been the music director of the Toronto Symphony since 2004.
Above Average Trivia: Oundjian is a cousin of .
Steve Metcalf was The Hartford Courant's Fulltime classical music critic and reporter for over 20 years, beginning in 1982. He is currently the curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School. He can be reached at spmetcalf55@gmail.com.
