Tanglewood, the lush summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, opened its season this past weekend, and it did so with one of the most Tanglewood programs imaginable.
James Taylor was present to celebrate July 4, of course, and he was celebrating five decades of singing at the venue this year. On Friday night, the orchestra gave an evening of Beethoven under its music director, Andris Nelsons; on Sunday, Renée Fleming, no less, was on hand to cap a matinee of Strauss.
In between, the Boston Pops offered a glorious review of recent Broadway musicals, with Victoria Clark bringing down the house as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s George III in “Hamilton.” Fellows attending the Tanglewood Music Center gave their first concerts, joining a lineage that stretches back to 1940.
The crowds chattered amiably, the grounds were resplendent, and the music was good. What could feel more timeless than this?
Sneaking through the shrubbery, however, was the light breeze of change. Chad Smith, the Boston Symphony’s ambitious new president and chief executive, plans to return this august institution to its most radical roots. Should Smith have his way, Tanglewood will see its creaking theater refurbished and put to good use, its Linde Center for Music and Learning pressed into service year-round, and Seranak, Serge Koussevitzky’s old home in the hills, restored as a meeting place for artists and the public.
This will takes years, and tens of million of dollars, but for now, even one of the coloring sheets that volunteers offer eager children has heard the message: a butterfly, yet to be filled in, with the tagline “A Summer Tradition Transformed.”
Transformations were everywhere. Start with the orchestra. In May, the Boston Symphony announced that it hired Nathan Cole, formerly of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as its concertmaster, a position that had unaccountably been open for almost five years. Cole will debut in his new role on July 12, so this weekend was a moment to note how laudably Alexander Velinzon, Elita Kang and others in the first violin section have taken temporary charge.
The orchestra hopes that Cole’s arrival will help fill several vacancies; fully 20 guest performers who had joined its regular roster were listed in the program book on this occasion. One crucial appointment has already been made: Lorna McGhee, currently of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a star of many of its excellent recent recordings, will succeed Elizabeth Rowe, the outgoing principal flute.
Perhaps it is no surprise that performances of true distinction have been rare in Boston of late, though these concerts were plenty of evidence that the orchestra still knows its way around a score. Thankfully, Nelsons was at his most communicative, engaging his players more demonstrably than he sometimes does at Symphony Hall back home.
But he remains a curiously modest interpreter. He doesn’t achieve the architectural discipline that colleagues who similarly try to get out of the way of the music can impose, nor does he draw out sufficient clarity or detailing of consequence along the way.
Friday’s “Eroica” Symphony was typical: solid but unremarkable. Sunday’s Strauss, the 78th Boston Symphony concert for which Nelsons has programmed works by this composer, sorely lacked character, above all in the suite from “Der Rosenkavalier.” Rarely can Octavian and the Marschallin have romped so cautiously, or Baron Ochs appeared so even keeled.
Nelsons really does thrive when he has a soloist beside him, though, and that is to his great credit: Few major conductors support the artists with whom they share a stage so graciously. Gil Shaham stepped in for an injured Hilary Hahn to play Beethoven’s Violin Concerto on Friday, and gave a thoughtful reading, often seeming to perform as much for his colleagues in the orchestra as for the audience in the Shed.
Fleming returned to the stage a year after her turn substituting for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. She again sang Strauss touchingly, offering three songs that included a magical “Befreit,” in which Nelsons hushed the orchestra to a spellbinding, steady calm. She also sang a pair of the Marschallin’s Act I monologues from “Rosenkavalier,” reflecting on the passage of time. Even for listeners seated near the front of the Shed, she was gently amplified.
One more transition demands note. The weather in the Berkshires has always been impetuous, but this past weekend was a particularly brutal one: baking heat, soaking rains, swampy humidity. Climate change affects every American orchestra, yet it must certainly affect the Boston Symphony, which depends on Tanglewood for its artistic stature and its financial stability, more than most.
Invasive beetles already threaten the trees of Western Massachusetts, including those that give the Symphony’s lands their personality and shade; a wetter, warmer summer has an impact on playing conditions, as well as on attendance and infrastructure. American orchestras generally are not doing enough when it comes to climate change. Here, as elsewhere, the Boston Symphony can lead.
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