So it’s summer, although Mother Nature is steadfastly refusing to acknowledge it. What transgression wrought by her cringing East Coast inhabitants has unleashed this punitive repetitive condensational weather pattern for the entire month of June? And will she condemn us to this veiled atmosphere of gray drizzle for the entire summer? The money that I will save on sunscreen, aloe vera gel, and beach parking will go towards Vitamin D capsules ,to sooth the sunlight deficiency that’s causing me to do crazy things like buy stock in Ford, consider taking adult Irish step dancing classes, and eat bunny rabbits.
One typical summery activity for classical music lovers in New England is to abscond to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony orchestra in rural Western Massachusetts. New Yorkers especially are notorious for crowding into the idyllic town of Lenox, to lodge at $300/night B&Bs, to hobnob with other cultural vanguards, and to tote around picnic baskets full of gourmet foodstuffs that they will feast upon on a blanket spread atop the soft pristine grasses of the Tanglewood lawn. Those who are in-the-know (i.e, everybody) will purchase tickets for seats in the open-air music shed as rain insurance, but if the weather holds up, they will stay with their blankets on the lawn so they can get sloshed on fine summer wine as the sounds of Wagner, Stravinsky, Mahler, or Mozart erupt into the eerily bug-free country sunset.
Tanglewood season doesn’t officially begin until July, but there were compelling events this past weekend that were worth the trip. On Friday night in the Ozawa Hall (a small venue specifically for chamber music and small ensembles), the world-renown Emerson Quartet gave an absolutely enthralling performance. We sat in the second balcony, which allowed us to gaze upon their baldspots while enjoying their lively rendering of Dvorak’s American String Quartet:
Emerson Quartet
I also enjoyed their performance of Barber’s Adagio, which I immediately recognized as the song that is played during Willem Dafoe’s death scene in Platoon, which is simply the sexiest, most epic death scene in the whole history of cinema. Good stuff, except… well, the cellist was fairly sloppy. Sometimes his bowing was totally out of cadence with the others:
Cellist's out-of-synch bowing
As if the Emerson Quartet wasn’t enthralling enough, we returned to Tanglewood on Saturday night with many thousands of people in order to see… a live broadcast of the Prairie Home Companion from Tanglewood, starring Garrison Keillor, with special guests Martin Sheen, Steve Martin, and local folk hero Arlo Guthrie!
The view of Prairie Home Companion from our middling-priced seats
The weather had been uncharacteristically nice that Saturday, and we arrived at Tanglewood to picnic on takeout from Panera Bread and various farm stand produce before the show started.
Tanglewood's Music "Shed"
Then we went into the shed to find our seats. At 5:45pm, Garrison appeared to warm-up the crowd before the broadcast. He roamed the aisles of the shed, singing humorous lyrics about Tanglewood to the tune of “My Girl.” He walked not 10 feet from us and I swooned.
Garrison warming up the crowd
Then the show began. It was thrilling to watch the show live, so I hate to say anything that implies my enjoyment of Prairie Home Companion wasn’t all-consuming, but the show featured wayyy too many Heather Masse songs — at least 7, including her duets with Garrison. Snore. I’d rather hear skits, or…. Steve Martin on banjo!
Steve Martin on banjo
What a surprise that Steve Martin can rock out on the banjo! His rollicking twangy style sounded good to my bluegrass-ignorant ears, and I loved his between-song banter. “I wrote this next song, but my wife gave it the title. This song is called ‘When are you going to put down that damn banjo?'”
During the first hour, it started to rain. Everyone in the shed twisted around to watch the rain falling onto the lawn ticket holders, feeling smug about having paid a premium for a seat in the shed. But when the rain didn’t let up, it was the shed-goers who were the least prepared for the dash to the parking lot. Apparently the Tanglewood experience isn’t complete until you’re sitting in your car in soaked clothes, one of 10 thousand cars trying to leave the parking lot.
End of Prairie Home Companion with Martin Sheen, Garrison, Arlo Guthrie & Steve Martin
