I was a music major at Brown University and had hopes of one day becoming a manager of symphony orchestras. A classmate of mine who was a talented cellist and had already spent two summers at Tanglewood arranged for me to spend the summer of 1948 at Tanglewood where I could observe the orchestra’s management at work. Also I would to be able to attend lectures by outstanding professional musicians and composers, to attend many concerts by the BSO and the senior student orchestra and to sing in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. My first summer was so outstanding, I returned to Tanglewood for the summer of 1949.
From my eighth grade in junior high school where I was first exposed to classical music I formed a love for this music which has lasted throughout my life. My time at Brown University was interrupted by a year and a half in the Army. But before leaving for the Army I became friendly with one of the professors who during the time I was in the service had formed what became the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (RIPO). Knowing that I loved music but lacked any real talent for its performance, he suggested that I might want to become a manager of symphony orchestras. To help that suggestion along when I returned to Brown, I could become a volunteer assistant manager of this orchestra. We kept in touch while I was away and by the time I returned, the orchestra was about to start its second season. I became assistant to the manager and did so for the following three seasons prior to my graduation from Brown.
The first cellist of the RIPO (Bob Allen) was a classmate of mine and we had known each other since elementary school. The orchestra played each of its concerts in five communities in the state and Bob often rode with me to the various concert locations. Bob was a student of the first cellist in the BSO and had already spent two summers at Tanglewood. Knowing that I was thinking of a career in symphony orchestra management, Bob suggested I join him at Tanglewood the upcoming summer of 1948. I agreed and he arranged a meeting with me and the assistant manager of the BSO who agreed to help me to observe management activities at Tanglewood.
Bob and I were joined by a young violinist about to enter Harvard in the fall and, since Bob had a very large tent the three of us planned to camp out at a lakefront below the grounds of Tanglewood. One Saturday in May, Bob and I went shopping for the camping gear we would need that summer, and on the way home we stopped off at the dormitory where his girlfriend lived. The very pretty young woman who answered the door when we arrived would one day become my wife, but that is another story!
My father provided us with a company truck and driver to transport the three of us and all our gear to Tanglewood, and before doing anything else Bob had us drive down to a location to where camping was permitted and we set up our campsite there. We then went to the office on the Tanglewood grounds and registered. It was there I discovered that not being a musician or a composer, I would be expected to join the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
The Tanglewood property had once been a personal estate with enormous grounds and I believe had been bequeathed to the orchestra by the family who had owned it. The main house served both as office as well as smaller rooms used as individual practice or rehearsal rooms. A massive open sided building shaped like a wedge of a piece of pie that had an audience capacity of over 6,000 people was built in the early ‘40s and projected the sound from the stage well enough so that it could be easily heard out on the surrounding lawns where many people would settle down, picnic and then hear the concert.
Two other buildings were built. One was a theatre-concert hall and was used mostly for opera performances. The other served as the chorus’ rehearsal site in the mornings and was used for chamber music performances each weekend. There was also an open stage which was used for occasional chorus rehearsals. The property was beautiful with great big old trees and a marvelous view down across the lake where we camped, and had an excellent view of Monument Mountain across the lake which looked a lot bigger than its 2500 feet. The grounds were flanked by two large parking lots to accommodate the large number of cars which brought concert goers to the Tanglewood grounds.
My singing voice was adequate but I could not read music other than what notes were indicated on the music I had been involved in when I was playing timpani in the Brown Orchestra. So at rehearsals I arranged to be seated next to men who knew how to read the music and having a quick and accurate ear managed quite well.
Our first performance would be with the BSO singing Ein Deutches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Brahms. Our conductor was the renowned leader of the then Collegiate Choral, Robert Shaw. Shaw was a very enthusiastic leader and soon had our disparate group of a hundred or so voices singing like a professional chorus. After three weeks of all morning rehearsals we did the performance with the BSO with Shaw conducting, and turned in a first rate performance which earned us excellent reviews in the Boston, New York and Pittsfield newspapers.
Our next performance was a difficult one. It was Igor Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio “Oedipus Rex”. And I made especially sure to stand next to another baritone who knew the work and sang our part well – which, as before, I tuned in on quickly enough to sing it. Serge Koussevitsky the conductor of the BSO conducted this performance, although we had been prepared up to the final rehearsals with the orchestra by another choral conductor Hugh Ross. The performance was well accepted by those who were there, but in those days Stravinsky was not a widely admired composer so the audience was rather small.
Our next concert was led by the young but already famous conductor, Leonard Bernstein. He was serving as the orchestra’s assistant conductor at the time and he had a personal goal to introduce the country to the music of Gustav Mahler. Mahler was not a familiar name to most Americans at that time, but his work was important being a sort of bridge from the romantic period of music to the newly developing twentieth century music. Lenny – as he was called by everyone at Tanglewood – had chosen Mahler’s magnificent 2nd symphony for this concert which ended with some marvelous and powerful choral music. This introduction to Mahler and his music led to Mahler becoming my favorite composer and I have several recorded versions of all of his symphonies and several other works. I’ll continue with our performance of the Mahler 2nd and the rest of my story in my next blog.
Andrew Swanson is also the author of a recently published novel "The Grantor" and you will find it described in my first blog under that title. The blog provides a description of the novel and instructions as to how to order it. It is also currently listed by Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble, and Borders. Barnes and Noble's listing not only contains a summary of the book but includes a chapter long excerpt for you to sample.
Swanson is also an independent distributor for the Shaklee Corporation who, among some 250 products, manufactures a truly remarkable product called Vivix. Vivix provides an extended life span (up to age 125) for its users and overall good health for its users which makes the extension of user life possible. Vivix is described in a previous blog under the title "My Experience With Vivix". This blog also provides more description as well as ordering information.
Monday, February 9, 2009
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