CAH at Members Travel to Tanglewood August 2013 with Beacon Hill Village

 

On a sunny Sunday, August 11, 13 members of Beacon Hill Village joined 15 members of Cambridge at Home on the second annual CAH bus trip to Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. As light breezes swept though the Festival shed and across lawns dotted with brightly colored umbrellas and balloons, they heard an all-Beethoven concert by the Boston Symphony, clad all in white and conducted by the renowned German pianist Christian Zacharias. The concert was dedicated to the enthusiastic Boston Symphony Orchestra Volunteers, who handed out programs, took tickets, and escorted expectant listeners to their seats. Zacharias led the orchestra off with a brisk rendition of the "Creatures of Prometheus" overture. Then, as soloist in the Second Piano Concerto, he unleashed a cascade of crystalline trills, projected by a canopy of triangular acoustical panels, that drew a standing ovation. After intermission, the concert closed with a sweeping performance of the "Pastoral" Symphony (Number 6), with its famous morning of birdsong, whispers of a brook, and brief storm. The audience greeted it with another prolonged ovation. The concert and the ambience of Tanglewood struck Patricia Pratt of Cambridge as "magisterial." On the ride out, over box lunches in the picnic shed, strolling the grounds with views of nearby hills, and on the way back to town, Beacon Hill Village and Cambridge at Home members conversed animatedly. As they neared home, having rolled smoothly through heavy Sunday evening traffic, they applauded the bus driver and spoke of continuing a tradition.