The Classical 'High Season' Approaches its Zenith

By Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires
08:05AM / Wednesday, July 24, 2024Print Story | Email Story

The Classical Beat

Stephen Danker

The Classical 'High Season' Approaches its Zenith

Classical and Contemporary Festivals at Tanglewood and Bach at Sevenars showcase musical excellence

During late-July, the classical music festival "high season," anchored by concerts at Tanglewood in Lenox and at the Sevenars Festival in South Worthington approaches its zenith, with both sure-fire and innovative programming. Offerings this week include revelatory chamber and orchestral works in Ozawa Hall and in the Shed. Boston Symphony performances include both classic and rarely heard works by Sibelius and Copland as well as masterpieces by Russian masters Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Khachaturian, and Stravinsky. Celebrating the great and historic BSO Russian/American maestro Serge Koussevitsky's 150th birthday, double bass virtuoso Edwin Barker, Principal double bass with the Boston Symphony, will perform the great conductor/composer's landmark Concerto for Double Bass, Op. 3, composed in 1904.

For a similarly musically rewarding change of pace, be sure to check out the performance of three of the Bach solo cello Suites by the phenomenal Israeli cellist Inbal Segev, on Sunday, July 28, located in the historic and intimate Academy at the Sevenars Music Festival in bucolic South Worthington, MA.

As always, the place to be for great classical and stimulating new music is right here in our own intimate corner of the world - the Berkshires - a so-designated "cultural capital," where artistic boundaries are nonexistent.

Read on for concert details for all of the above, covering the week from July 24-30:

Tanglewood

This is the week for celebration at Tanglewood. Here are the highlights:

• Wednesday, July 24, Ozawa Hall, at 8:00 p.m. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, with special guest artist pianist Paul Lewis, will perform a RECITAL SERIES program of Mozart (a masterpiece: the Quintet in E flat for piano and winds, K. 452), Brahms (the String Sextet, Op. 36) and a work for solo flute, "Homeland," by contemporary composer Allison Loggins.

• Friday, July 26, Shed, at 8:00 p.m. - KOUSSEVITSKY 150 Celebration: BSO Maestro Andris Nelsons conducts the Orchestra and guest artists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and powerhouse pianist Yefim Bronfman in a program of Steven Mackey, ("Urban Ocean") Sibelius ("The Origin of Fire") and Alexander Scriabin ("Prometheus, Poem of Fire") for piano, chorus and Orchestra).

• Saturday, July 27, Shed, at 8:00 p.m.: Andris Nelsons returns to lead the Boston Symphony, with the thrilling piano soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, performing the scintillating Khachaturian Piano Concerto, and concludes with Tchaikovsky's impassioned Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique"). The program opens with the supercharged curtain-raiser "Stride," by resident composer Tania León.

• Sunday, July 28, Shed, at 2:30 p.m.- KOUSSEVITSKY 150 Celebration: Focusing on Maestro Serge Koussevitsky's commissions to composers and premiere performances, Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in a program of Copland (his 1926 jazz-tinged Piano Concerto), Randall Thompson's beloved choral masterwork, "Alleluia," and Stravinsky's eloquently inspired neoclassical magnum opus, "Symphony of Psalms," composed for the BSO to celebrate the Orchestra's 50th anniversary in 1930. The concert opens with James Lee's "Freedom's Genuine Dawn."

SPECIAL EVENT: The five-day 'Festival of Contemporary Music'

Tanglewood's 2024 Festival of Contemporary Music, Thursday, July 25-Monday, July 29, will be jointly curated by composers Tania León and Steven Mackey, and will feature several of these major composers' works, as well as compositions by others, with a special focus on showcasing up-and-coming, path-finding, and groundbreaking new composers whose works may well define the evolution of classical music.

As the Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) is one of the world's most prominent showcases for works from the current musical landscape, landmark pieces from the new music vanguard of the 21st century will be performed during the five-day Festival.

Additionally, the FCM affords Tanglewood Music Center Fellow performers the opportunity to explore and learn unfamiliar repertoire and to experience the value of direct collaboration with individual living composers - performing their music composed across a wide stylistic spectrum.

Concerts and related events will occur in Ozawa Hall and at Studio E, the Linde Center for Music and Learning. For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call (888) 266-1200, or go online at tanglewood.org.

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, July 28, at 4:00 p.m.: Sevenars is extremely proud to present Israeli-American musician Inbal Segev, one of the leading cellists of our time. Ms. Inbal will perform three of the six solo Bach Cello Suites. Hailed as "a cellist with something to say" (Gramophone) she combines "thrillingly projected, vibrato-rich playing" (Washington Post) with "complete dedication and high intelligence" (San Francisco Classical Voice). She comes to us from a season that has included concerto engagements with the London Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and Colorado Symphony orchestras; she has recorded for Nonesuch Records, which includes world premieres of her own compositions.

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., is celebrating its 56th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy in the historic village of South Worthington, MA, located at 15 Ireland Street, just off MA Route 112.

Concerts are presented on consecutive Sundays at 4:00 p.m. until August 18. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call). Online: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments will be available.

Tags: Tanglewood, The Classical Beat,

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BRTA Focuses on a New Run Schedule

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:26PM / Wednesday, April 29, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal.

Last Thursday's meeting was Administrator Kathleen Lambert's first official meeting taking over the reins; retiring director Robert Malnati stayed during a transition period that ended last month.

Lambert is trying to create a schedule that will lessen cancellations. There was a two-hour meeting the week before with the drivers union to negotiate run bids and Lambert is working with the new operating company Keolis, which is taking over from Transdev.

The board spoke about anonymous emails from drivers, which Lambert said she has not seen. iBerkshires was not able to see those letters, but has received some.

"They were lengthy emails from someone describing themselves as concerning BRTA employee, and there was a signed letter from a whole group of employees basically stating their concerns. So, you know, to me, it was a set of whistleblowers, and that, what my understanding is that this really triggers a need for some type of process to review the merits of these whistleblowers, not going to call them accusations, but basically expressions of concern," said member Stephen Bannon.

A letter iBerkshires received spoke of unhappy drivers who were considering quitting because of decisions being made without "input from frontline staff," frustration and falling morale, and the removal of the former general manager shortly after Lambert came in.

Lambert said it's difficult to navigate a new change. She also noted many drivers don't want to do Saturday runs and it has been hard negotiating with drivers on the new runs.

"I would like you all to keep in mind that the process of change is super difficult. Transdev has been here for 20 years, and some of these drivers have never known any other operating company, the way some of the operations have been handled has been archaic," she said. "So getting folks up to speed on how a modern transit system works is going to be painful for them. So I don't want to say that I'm unsympathetic, because I am sympathetic, but I am trying to coax people along with a system that's going to seem very strange to them."

The board spoke about better communication between them and Lambert, citing cooperation will be best moving forward.

"There's just a lot of stuff in the air right now, and there are a lot of fires to put out to make this a coordinated effort. And if we don't keep our communications open and be straightforward, then you get blindsided about how you know the input that you could get from us about your position, and how you know what's going on in your direction, and we get blindsided. And I think that we have to make sure that this is a collaboration," said member Sherry Youngkin.

"Both sides have responsibilities, because in the long run, this advisory board is going to have to make decisions as to how we brought forward and if we've gone forward in a fair and helpful way. And I think that's hopefully what everybody is looking for also."

Transdev and Keolis held a three-day recruiting event interviewing almost 40 candidates and offering jobs to eight, but only three stayed on to start training. Lambert said it was disappointing but she will keep trying to retain more people.

In her first report to the board, she noted that ridership dipped a little over 10 percent, but still remains higher than last year, adding that was because of cancellations of services because of the lack of drivers.

Like the last meeting, some of the advisory board members were torn over the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and the numbers of riders are low.

Lambert, however, said the ridership has doubled from last month.

"As I've spoken before, we have, generally, a six-month adoption for brand-new service before you can really go in and evaluate, are you being successful based on the grant that my predecessor wrote along with the team for PBTA and RTA, we are ahead of schedule, which is pretty good, so I'm hoping that will continue to improve," she said.

Member Renee Wood said the board never approved the service, adding the only thing she could find in the minutes was a vote to accept the equipment. She said it was supposed to be put on the agenda to discuss.

"The Link413 service has been three years in the making. It's been a grant that was accepted and has been working with our partners, PVTA and FRTA, to put into place. So I don't have the entire history of how that process worked, but it's been three years in the making, and did we not understand that once we accept that grant that we were going to put in new service?" Lambert said.

The board discussed if Title VI, the Civil Rights Act, was followed with an accurate review and accurate amount of time for public comment period on the service changes and if its attorney should review if the grant conditions were properly followed.

Lambert said changes had the 60-day comment period included in the proposed route realignment packet, giving the opportunity for the community to respond to that as well but will look into the legality of the situation with their attorney.

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