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'John Williams' Film Night' showcases the Boston Pops and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Chorus. (Hilary Scott, BSO photo)

Tanglewood Presents Powerhouse Programs

By Stephen DanknerGuest Column
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Andris Nelson leads a program Friday night on 'Why Music Matters.'

This week, Tanglewood continues its high energy 2018 classical season with a powerhouse pair of programs performed by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (TMCO) and the Boston Pops, with guest artists the TMC vocal Fellows and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Young Artists Chorus.

The "heavy hitters" are John Williams' "Film Night" - always an audience favorite event and a high point of each year's Tanglewood offerings - led by Mr. Williams and Boston Symphony maestro Andris Nelsons. Conductor Stefan Asbury directs a TMCO instrumental chamber ensemble accompanying the TMC vocal Fellows in a concert version of Leonard Bernstein's thought-provoking opera "A Quiet Place."

Tanglewood

• Thursday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Maestro Stefan Asbury leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows, and TMC Alumni Dominik Belavy and Ryne Cherry in a fully staged performance of Leonard Bernstein's opera "A Quiet Place." Peter Kazaras directs the performance and features scenic design by Laura Jellinek, costume design by Terese Wadden, and lighting design by Barbara Samuels. Conceived as a sequel to Bernstein's 1952 one-act opera "Trouble in Tahiti," (performed in Ozawa Hall on July 12), and presented here in a recent new version for chamber orchestra by Garth Edwin Sutherland, "A Quiet Place" - Bernstein's final work for the stage - was originally premiered in 1983 on a double bill with "Trouble in Tahiti."

• Friday, Aug. 10, 7 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra will present a unique, hour-long program titled "Why Music Matters - According to Ludwig and Lenny." Designed especially for young audiences and their families, the program is inspired by Leonard Bernstein's pioneering work as a fabulous educator through his landmark series of televised "Young People's Concerts" with the New York Philharmonic (originally broadcast from 1958-1972) that introduced classical music to millions of listeners. Following in the tradition of her father, Jamie Bernstein will be the evening’s host and presenter. The repertoire includes excerpts from Beethoven classics: Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 9, the "Leonore" Overture No. 3 and Bernstein's own "Symphonic Dances" from "West Side Story" and the "Meditations" from "Mass," for cello and orchestra. The cellist will be 18-year-old Michael Arumainayagam, one of the Fidelity Investments Young Artist Competition winners who performed with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops this past June at Symphony Hall.

• Saturday, Aug. 11, "John Williams' Film Night" 8 p.m. in the Shed: One of Tanglewood's most popular summer traditions, "John Williams' Film Night" showcases the Boston Pops and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Chorus. For the second year, Boston Pops Laureate Conductor John Williams shares the podium with BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. Maestro Nelsons leads the first half of the concert, which features Leonard Bernstein’s music from the multi-Academy Award-winning film "On the Waterfront," as well as other classic musical selections from Hollywood, including "The Sea Hawk," "Sunset Boulevard," "Psycho" and "A Place in the Sun." The second half of the program will feature Mr. Williams leading music excerpted from his own scores: “Superman,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Amistad” and “Star Wars.”



• Sunday, Aug. 12, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: San Francisco Symphony Music Director and former BSO Assistant Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas returns to Tanglewood, where in 1969 he won the Koussevitzky Music Prize as a conducting student of Leonard Bernstein. To open the program, he leads the BSO in his own composition, "Agnegram," a 1998 work that is alternately jazzy, humorous and elegant. Following, the brilliant young Russian pianist Igor Levit takes center stage for Sergei Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic, glittering and masterfully composed "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini." Maestro Thomas will conclude the concert with a performance of Gustav Mahler's vigorously energetic and stupendous Symphony No. 1. Mahler's music, long out of favor, was decisively championed throughout Leonard Bernstein’s conducting career. In the years since, Mahler's symphonies have become among the most favored by audiences worldwide.

• Monday, Aug. 13, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra once again, and is joined by TMC Conducting Fellows in a program featuring two 20th-century masterpieces: Franz Schreker's (1878-1934) Chamber Symphony for 23 instruments, a 1916 work that epitomizes the composer's comprehensive mastery of instrumental colors (Schreker was a prominent early 20th century Viennese opera composer and music professor) and Lutosławski's “Chantefleurs et Chantefables,” a song cycle for soprano and orchestra set to poems of the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos (1900-1945). Concluding the program will be Haydn’s droll Symphony No. 97, the fifth of the prolific Austrian Classical master's "London" symphonies.

• Tuesday, Aug. 14, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The TMC Vocal Fellows will perform a vocal/piano recital featuring music by composer Alan Smith "To the Muse," John Harbison (b. 1938) "Flashes and Illuminations," Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) "Canticle V," Shawn Jaeger "In Old Virginny," Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) "Four Sonnets to Cassandra" and Shostakovich (1906-1975) "From Jewish Folk Poetry."


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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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