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Classical Beat: Enjoy Great Music at Tanglewood, Sevenars Festivals

By Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires
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As Tanglewood enters its fourth week, stellar performances will take center stage in Ozawa Hall and in the Koussevitsky Shed.

Why go? To experience world-class instrumental soloists, such as the stellar piano virtuoso Yuja Wang. Also not to be missed are the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, as well as visiting guest ensembles and BSO and TMC soloists as they perform chamber and orchestral masterworks by iconic composers Purcell, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Wagner, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Ives.

In addition to Tanglewood, there are also outstanding performances to be enjoyed at the Sevenars Music Festival in South Worthington. Both venues present great music performed in acoustically resonant venues by marvelous performers.

Read below for the details for concerts from Wednesday, July 17-Tuesday, July 22.

Tanglewood

• Wednesday, July 17, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall • Recital Series: The phenomenal world-class piano virtuoso Yuja Wang presents a piano recital in Ozawa Hall.

• Thursday July 18, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall • Recital Series: Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Director and Mourad Merzouki, Choreographer presents a performance of Henry Purcell's ‘semi-opera'/Restoration Drama "The Fairy Queen."

• Friday, July 19, 8 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Dima Slobodeniouk leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program of Leonard Bernstein (the deeply moving, jazz-tinged Symphony No. 2 ("Age of Anxiety") and Brahms' glorious Symphony No. 3.

• Saturday, July 20, 8 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Maestro Andris Nelsons leads the Orchestra in a concert version of Richard Wagner's thrilling concluding music drama from his "Ring" cycle-tetralogy, "Götterdämmerung." The stellar vocal soloists include sopranos Christine Goerke and Amanda Majeske, tenor Michael Weinius, baritone James Rutherford, bass Morris Robinson and Rhine maidens Diana Newman, Renée Tatum and Annie Rosen.

• Sunday, July 21, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (TMCO) in a program of Ives (the amazingly evocative "Three Places in New England"), Beethoven (the powerful Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Emanuel Ax) and Richard Strauss ("Also sprach Zarathustra" — you'll recognize its iconic "sunrise" opening).

• Tuesday, July 22, 7:00 p.m. in the Shed • Popular Artist Series: Beck, with the Boston Pops, Edwin Outwater, conductor.

For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call 888-266-1200, or go to tanglewood.org.

Sevenars Music Festival

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., presents its 56th anniversary season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy in South Worthington, located at 15 Ireland St., just off Route 112.

• Sunday, July 21, at 4 p.m.: Sevenars is delighted to present violist Ron Gorevic, returning to Sevenars after his stunning Bach recital in 2023. This year, Gorevic will offer a groundbreaking program including music of Kenji Bunch, Sal Macchia, Larry Wallach, and Tasia Wu, the latter three composing especially for him. In addition, he'll offer Bach's magnificent Chaconne in D minor and Max Reger's 3rd Suite.

Hailed by The New York Times, Gorevic continues a long and distinguished career as a performer on both violin and viola. Along with solo recitals, he has toured the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea, and Australia, performing most of the quartet repertoire. In London, he gave the British premieres of pieces by Donald Erb and Ned Rorem. He has recorded for Centaur Records as soloist and member of the Prometheus Piano Quartet, and for Koch Records as a member of the Chester String Quartet.

Concert dates and times: Sundays at 4 p.m., July 21-Aug. 18.

Tickets: 413-238-5854 (leave a message for a return call), www.sevenars.org or Sevenars@aol.com.


Tags: The Classical Beat,   

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Lanesborough Board Looks to Pontoosuc Island Safety and Cleanup

By Breanna Steele

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Friends of Pontoosuc cleaned up the two islands on the lake and shared concerns of what they saw.

Kevin McGinnis, Friends board member, spoke to the Select Board last week about how the cleanup went and erosion the group discovered.

"We particularly wanted to go out and take a peek at the islands and it was seven bags of garbage and a lot of refuse from geese that we actually removed from both islands," he said. "The Keeler Island, particularly in Lanesborough, that had a Sheetrock bucket full of nails that we actually removed from there, too, and that was from probably multiple years of pallet burning out there."

McGinnis added that there is significant erosion on the east side of the islands, facing the deepest part of the channel.

He said Lee Popovich, who knows horticulture, suggested plantings along the edges to hold the soil and filter runoff that may help with the E. coli outbreaks on the lake.

"These are things that we can discuss on trying to keep those islands in enjoyable shape, and for people to be able to enjoy," McGinnis said, by reducing risks such as geese deposits, and plantings that can help filter some of the debris.

"We can't control how hard our rain comes, but we can mitigate some of that filtering processes to keep bacteria count lower. Because if you notice, pretty much the E. coli breakouts that we do have are right after heavy rain."

He wants to help keep the islands safe and healthy. He introduced the cleanup group, saying the cleanup was enjoyable and those who volunteered help make a difference.

"Look forward to in the future bringing more information back, and with a lot of moving parts to talk about mitigating erosion and certain things," McGinnis said. "But it's something that we all need to be kind of aware of, and this body of water is so enjoyable, and we definitely want to try to keep it as healthy as possible, and keep control or keep an eye on certain things."

Select Board member Jason Breault asked about what the insurance is for the islands to which Town Administrator Gina Dario responded that the island is a public park, so it's covered the same way as other town land, like Glaston Park. There's no added liability.

Breault then asked from a patrol aspect what that means.

"Obviously, if we have an underage drinking party, we have no mechanism to address it, or if there's a medical emergency on that area, we would have to get a boat from Pittsfield, so obviously we have some sort of a delay there," Police Chief Rob Derksen said. "That's the only concern, I guess, is it's a park that we can't patrol and we can't regulate on a regular basis," 

Breault wondered if they could get funding for a boat down the line but Derksen said it would be difficult with his small force.

"That's pulling the thread on a sweater because then I have to have certified boat officers and, I mean, so that's training that's time away and then I would have to be able to actually put them on the boat, which again as you've heard me say a million times, most of the time I have one officer on duty so I can't split them in half and put half on a boat, half in a car, so it would be a challenge."

He added that the lake is patrolled by the state Environmental Police but with recent funding challenges, it's not that much.

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