Tanglewood – janellesnotes

BSO principal bassist Ed Barker performs the Koussevitzky Double Bass Concerto on Koussevitzky’s own bass, with Andris Nelsons conducting. (Photo by Hilary Scott provided by the Boston Symphony Orchestra)

I was surprised to learn during my visit last weekend to the Tanglewood Festival, celebrating the 150th birthday of Serge Koussevitzky this summer, that the legendary conductor almost came to Cincinnati.

The distinguished music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, Koussevitzky was also a composer, a virtuoso of the double bass, champion of new music and influential mentor of dozens of conductors and composers, including Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland. In a panel discussion I attended at Tanglewood, he was credited with literally rediscovering American classical music.

But before 1924, the Russian-born conductor was considering posts at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Perhaps his fate was sealed years earlier when Koussevitzky’s onetime teacher and former BSO music director Arthur Nikisch told him that he would oneday be music director of the BSO. (No worries: Cincinnati ended up with Fritz Reiner in 1924 instead.)

The Tanglewood Festival, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in Lenox, MA, in the beautiful Berkshires, is a magical place. It has long been on my bucket list. This year, the festival welcomed critics and music journalists for the annual meeting of the Music Critics Association of North America. Our schedule included BSO concerts conducted by music director Andris Nelsons, panel discussions and a terrific Festival of Contemporary Music, curated by composers Steven Mackey and the Cuban-American Pulitzer Prize winning composer Tania León. Read More »

Gunther Schuller had lifelong ties to Cincinnati

Gunther Schuller, a giant of American music, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and the man who defined the fusion of classical and jazz as “Third Stream,” died on June 21 at age 89. Many tributes note that he was the youngest French hornist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra early in his career (1943-45).

“It was a very rich and rewarding period in my life, a growing period because I was 17 to 19 (years old),” Schuller told me in an interview.

After concerts, he often continued playing in late-night jazz clubs in Cincinnati. However, his ties to Cincinnati continued for his entire life. In fact, he taught at the old College of Music, which is where he met his wife Marjorie. (Perhaps he was also their youngest-ever faculty member!)Read More »

Honoring the legacy of Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood

Gunther Schuller and Cincinnati: Personal memories from a patron and a critic