image description — Inbal Segev, cellist, plays Bach at Sevenars

The Classical Beat: Great Music at Tanglewood and Sevenars

By Stephen DankneriBerkshires columnist
03:37PM / Wednesday, July 30, 2025Print Story | Email Story

This week Tanglewood presents "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" at Film Night, an all-Beethoven chamber fest, a magical Ravel opera in concert and the festival-within-a festival: Tanglewood On Parade, showcasing the Boston Symphony, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and the Boston Pops.

With the arrival of August, we are at the apex of the music festival season. Programs at Tanglewood offer a diverse and intriguing mix of chamber music scored by Beethoven combined with two intimate chamber arrangements of his orchestral masterworks for three strings and piano; a concert performance with the TMC Orchestra and TMC vocal soloists of Maurice Ravel's masterpiece, the piquant opera-ballet "L'Enfant et les sortìleges" ('The Child and the Spirits - a lyric fantasy') and the not-to-be-missed summer highpoint Tanglewood On Parade, featuring the BSO, the Boston Pops and the TMC Orchestra led by conductors Keith Lockhart and Elim Chan. Here are the details:

Friday, Aug. 1, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: The Boston Pops Orchestra, led by Damon Gupton, presents a live interactive concert version of the dynamic score by John Williams to the 1983 film "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" projected on the big screens in the Shed and on the lawn.
Saturday Aug. 2, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Maestra Elim Chan, in her Tanglewood debut, leads the BSO in performances of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's heroic/lyrical Violin Concerto, with the spectacular soloist violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Composed for and premiered by Jascha Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony under conductor Vladimir Golschmann in 1945, the work is dedicated to Alma Mahler, the wife of the young Korngold's mentor. The program concludes with Rachmaninoff's enraptured Symphony No. 2.
Sunday Aug. 3, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: A rare stellar artist chamber music concert in the Shed (Leonidas Kavakos, violin, Emanuel Ax, piano, Antoine Tamestit, viola and Yo-Yo Ma, cello) of three of Beethoven works, including the Trio No. 4 for violin, cello and piano in B flat, Op. 11, and quartet arrangements for these three instruments plus viola of the "Leonore" Overture No. 3 and the Symphony No. 3 ('Eroica.')
Monday August 4, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Continuing the season-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Maurice Ravel, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Vocal Fellows will be performing the composer's 1925 miraculous opera-ballet "L'Enfant et les sortìleges," led by TMC Conducting Fellows. I cannot recommend highly enough this incredibly beautiful, tender and touching work; it is Ravel's masterpiece - the 'summa' of his art; don't miss this one.
Tuesday, Aug. 5 – concert at 8:00 p.m. in the Shed – 'Tanglewood On Parade:' The annual 'Tanglewood on Parade," offering a full day of music and activities for all ages, culminating with a Shed concert showcasing the best of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, led by conductors Keith Lockhart, Elim Chan, Thomas Wilkins, Samy Rachid, and Na'Zir McFadden and featuring historian Heather Cox Richardson as Narrator in Aaron Copland's majestic and profound "Lincoln Portrait." This special program will conclude with Tchaikovsky's spectacular "1812 Overture." Fireworks will follow the performance.

For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call (888) 266-1200, or go online at tanglewood.org. Check the online schedule for 'Tanglewood on Parade' events and performance times and locations.

Don't Miss Bach Cello Masterpieces at Sevenars

Music at Sevenars, the outstanding series of Sunday afternoon concerts, presented from mid-July through mid-August, continues this week.

Sunday, Aug. 3 at 4:00 p.m.: You're invited to attend the performance of the three remaining of the six Bach Cello Suites cycle started in 2024 by world-renowned cellist Inbal Segev, who will perform Suites nos. 2, 4, and 6. Number six is especially revered for its profound "Sarabande," originally composed to be played on a 5-string instrument. These Suites were composed during the years 1717-1723; they were made famous by the internationally prominent cellist Pablo Casals, who brought them out from obscurity to the public's attention by performing them in the concert hall.

Cellist Inbal Segev has been called "a cellist with something to say" (Gramophone). In 2024 she thrilled the Sevenars audience with Suites Nos. 1,3, and 5 and now completes the cycle after a busy season that has included concerto appearances, a premiere with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and touring with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Inbal Segev's Bach performances have gained special attention, from New York's Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum, to the Shanghai Concert Hall and Jerusalem Theatre, as well as on recording for Vox Classics. She shows "complete dedication and high intelligence" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and is not to be missed!

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., is celebrating its 57th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy, a building designated "an acoustic gem in an idyllic setting," located in the historic village of South Worthington,15 Ireland Street, 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: 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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