Last weekend, we were at the Tanglewood festival, in Western Massachusetts. A few months ago, I didn’t even know such a festival existed here. It was before meeting two people here in Boston, both musicians. At our first night out, they invited us to join them in Tanglewood. It was probably an invitation said thanks to the enthusiasm of the end of the night… but we’ve carefully noticed it. And with the summer coming, we were more than ready to drive 2 hours from Boston to Tanglewood to the yellow summer house of our friends…
Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The whole orchestra (including our friend Adam) leave the city for 2 months and go to the countryside of the gorgeous Berkshires. Landscape are like postcards here (nice one, not the funny one): hills and trees, big lake, charming villages with cheesemonger and Saturday morning markets (a dream comes true). There are even bears and coyotes (I only saw a rabbit though). It’s peaceful and grandiose: the perfect place to listen to classical music.
The festival seems chic (if I trust the fancy cars on the parking lots), but the atmosphere is pretty cool: concerts are outdoors, and at the end of the afternoon, the audience set up picnics on the grass. People are very well equipped: that’s really competitive picnic you’ll see, with nice folding seats – even with a cup holder and a footrest stuff – tiny wooden table, and sometimes even a chandelier (with anti-bugs candles, of course), and a bunch of flowers on top of it. As soon as the sun set, it becomes quieter, and the concert can start.
This weekend was the 14 Juillet, strangely named here Bastille Day. There was a big fireworks at the end of the concert. I was used to watch a fireworks on the National Day evening in France. It was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Festival though. On stage, pretty famous people were playing, and some tickets costed even 2500$. Ouh la la !
And this is the video who will tell you the story of our weekend.
The band is called Menahan Street Band, the piece is ‘The Contender’.
In Boston too we can hear outdoor concerts during the summer (program here)
If you like the cello, our friend Adam has his own band, called the Boston Cello Quartet. Check out their music on Youtube.
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