Destination Music

Destination: Music This page: The Pacific Symphony performs with Bruce Springsteen at a SummerFest concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Orange County. Opposite: A performance at Colorado’s Bravo! Vail festival, with members of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Joshua Bell, the ensemble’s music director. Nick Koon Whether it’s on a mountaintop, next to a lake or river, or in an amphitheater, experiencing music outside can make you hear music in a completely different way. by Jonathan Williams t’s summertime, and you’re reclining on a steamboat, listening to a classical and the grass, gazing at the towering Colo- jazz concert; or in the audience to hear a rado Rockies, with a cool breeze wafting brand-new percussion piece, performed on by, while listening to a symphony Dvořák the lush grounds of a former estate. You wrote in 1889 at Vysoká u Příbramě, a could even be right in the middle of a bus- summer resort in his native Bohemia. Or tling metropolis, where the whoosh of city you could be on a hilltop next to a giant, traffic provides an appropriate undercur- Stonehenge-like sculpture in the wilder- rent to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. ness of Montana’s Big Sky country, headed The setting always plays a part in shap- to hear Bach and Beethoven—in a barn. ing the concert experience, but perhaps You might be on your way to hear Tchai- nowhere so dramatically as at a summer kovsky’s 1812 Overture, carrying a picnic music festival, where the backdrop can be basket and walking across the famous lawn anything from a mountain, lake, or lawn to where Leonard Bernstein first studied as an outdoor park or sculpture center—and a young twentysomething phenom con- of course the interior of a concert hall. At ductor. You could be rocking gently on the Tippet Rise festival in Fishtail, Mon- 40 symphony SPRING 2018 Nick Koon Zach Mahone tana, the dramatic Beartooth Mountains outdoor sculpture in Montana, these mo- audience, or as Peter Halstead describes landscape combine with contemporary ments make you hear the music and expe- the experience, “We are participating to- sculpture to provide a fresh perspective rience place in new ways. gether in this extraordinary landscape.” even to ears accustomed to hearing the The musicians enjoy the ranch setting of chamber pieces on some of the concert TIPPET RISE: Sculpture, Vistas, Tippet Rise, too. Pianist Lucas Debargue, programs there. At the Tanglewood Festi- Chamber Music who placed fourth in the International val in the Berkshire Hills of western Mas- Fishtail, Montana Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, played sachusetts, summer home to the Boston In 2016, a new chamber music festival was at Tippet Rise in 2016 and told the Hal- Symphony Orchestra since 1940, “There’s launched in Montana’s Big Sky country. steads, “I want to play the land. I want to something about the clarity of the air, the For co-founders Peter and Cathy Halstead, have that as part of what I’m saying.” Peter sky, the peacefulness of the landscape,” the rugged landscape of the Beartooth says that musicians have a sensibility that says Anthony Fogg, the BSO’s artistic Mountains in Fishtail, Montana, pre- allows them to feel “not only the notes” but administrator and Tanglewood director. sented a “clarity and sense of space,” says the space they are playing in as well. Tip- Adding to Tanglewood’s appeal are the Peter Halstead. Inspired by Storm King, pet Rise also has a concert barn, its floor- iconic lawns and special vibe of history: the center for outdoor sculpture 60 miles plan modelled on the Haydnsaal at Aus- stories abound, like the time a fourteen- north of New York City, the couple bought tria’s Esterhazy Palace, where Franz Josef year-old Midori broke two E-strings a 10,260-acre ranch to create their own Haydn was court musician in the 1700s. while playing Bernstein’s Serenade after sculpture center, which would also include This year, the festival will feature a com- Plato’s Symposium, conducted by the com- a summer music festival. Musicians play missioned world premiere: Aaron Jay poser. At the Grant Park Music Festival, near outsized outdoor contemporary art Kernis’s String Quartet No. 4, performed the architecture of Chicago and stunning sculptures like Mark di Suvero’s hulking by the Borromeo String Quartet. Other Pritzker Pavilion spark the music choices steel “Beethoven’s Quartet” and Ensamble performers include the St. Luke’s Cham- themselves. “Our programming really does Studio’s rock-like “Domo,” which looks ber Ensemble and the Calidore, Dover, reflect the energy of the city—it has that like part of the set for Stanley Kubrick’s and Escher string quartets. Chamber pro- steely edge,” says Paul Winberg, Grant 2001, or perhaps a Doctor Who episode on grams will feature music by Bach, Ger- Park’s president and CEO. Whether it’s a barren foreign planet. Having concerts shwin, Barber, Cage, Glass, Ned Rorem, Gershwin in downtown Chicago or a next to these sculptures creates a close Gabriel Kahane, and Timo Andres, and a quartet playing next to an earth-inspired relationship between musicians and the special focus on Chopin and Robert and americanorchestras.org 41 This year will feature the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, longtime resident orchestra at the festival; the Verona, Argus, Kronos, Jasper, and Brentano quartets; opera performances of Handel’s Atalanta and Mo- zart’s The Secret Gardener; the early-music ensemble Apollo’s Fire; vocal ensemble Chanticleer; and orchestra collective The Knights. Haydon says, “There’s nothing more magical than sitting in the Spanish Courtyard on a summer evening looking up at the stars and the moon with the warm air and frogs—and hearing a quartet play.” TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL: Berkshires, Boston Symphony, Iwan Baan Bernstein Pianist Jenny Chen performs next to the outdoor sculpture “Domo” at the Tippet Rise Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts Fishtail, Montana. Nestled in the Berkshire Hills in western Clara Schumann’s connections to nature. ple to come here not just for a concert Massachusetts, the Tanglewood Festival, Weather also plays a role in the Tippet Rise but a couple hours early,” says Schuman. the summer home of the Boston Sym- experience. One year, says Cathy Halstead, “It can be a much fuller experience than phony Orchestra, is one of the country’s “There was this unbelievable storm. We all just hearing a concert.” Caramoor always best-known outdoor spaces for classical ran and got in our cars. And then the air includes standard repertoire, but this year music. In 1936, Mrs. Gorham Brooks just turned purple all around us. It wasn’t the festival is adding music by 22 living and Miss Mary Aspinwall Tappan of- just like the sunset was purple. Every bit composers, including world premieres: a fered Tanglewood, the 210-acre Tappan of the air was purple. When you walked new work by Julia Adolphe, performed family estate, as a gift to conductor Serge through and breathed the air, it was purple.” by the Verona Quartet, and Vijay Iyer’s Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Mallet Quartet, featuring Sō Percussion. Orchestra, setting the wheels in motion CARAMOOR FESTIVAL: Schuman says she feels passionately that for the opening of the festival in 1937. Estate setting, mix of new and “music is not a museum, and we have to “Tanglewood has this incredible relation- old music be sure to present the composers who are ship between the landscape and music, Katonah, New York living.” and somehow one’s senses become all that The onetime Westchester County estate of Lucy and Walter Rosen has been home to the Caramoor Festival since 1945, providing outdoor concerts in the open- air Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, and expansive gardens. “It very much feels when you enter it and drive onto the property that you are coming to a home, as opposed to a sort of purpose-built festival venue,” says Kathy Schuman, Caramoor’s vice president of artistic programming and executive producer. Caramoor CEO Jeffrey Haydon agrees: “The setting is one of the most important ingredients of Caramoor.” Haydon says that artists and audiences enjoy the mix of formal and in- formal concerts under a tent or by a tree in the garden. Visitors can see and hear what the festival terms Sound Art sculptures, which are placed throughout the es- At the Caramoor Festival in Westchester County, tate. This year will feature works by Wal- performances take place in the Spanish Courtyard, ter Kitundu, Paula Matthusen, and Ranjit the gardens, and open-air Venetian Theater. Bhatnagar. The artwork “encourages peo- Gabe Palacio 42 symphony SPRING 2018 of downtown Chicago,” says Paul Win- berg, Grant Park’s president and CEO. “In many ways we’re in a quintessential American city.” Led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, the festival ranges from Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and Wagner to Broadway programs, with an emphasis on large-scale presentations. American composers are always included—this year will feature music by Copland, Williams, and Sousa, as well as pieces by Sean Shepherd and William Bolcom. Chicago is “home to modern architecture,” says Winberg. Ar- chitects like Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe all made their marks on the city’s skyline, as does the Pritzker Pavilion itself. Concerts in Grant Park are not the only place festival musicians appear. The Grant Hilary Scot Park Orchestra also performs in city neigh- Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. borhoods, at the South Shore Cultural Center, and at Columbus Park on Chi- more acute,” says BSO Artistic Adminis- music.

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