David Noel Edwards is a writer, composer, and recording artist from Canaan, New York. He has been writing for the Berkshire Edge since 2015, mainly about music, but also about books, birds, and reptiles.
When the Boston Symphony Orchestra programs opera, it hires the best soloists in the world, the crème de la crème, including many stars of the Metropolitan Opera.
"Brightness of Light" combines traditional recitative with an orchestral score reminiscent at times of a blockbuster movie. One Shed patron was actually heard to whisper, "Star Wars!" when the orchestra rose to full force early in the piece.
The evening's festivities will begin with performances by the Eagles Community Band Brass Ensemble, Barrington Stage MTC Choral Group and students from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
The virtuoso trumpeter nevertheless understands that performances of HK Gruber's concerto are risky undertakings for any orchestra, which is why he appreciates how easy Andris Nelsons and the BSO make it look.
Verdi's Requiem is for human voices, and it was ultimately the soloists and members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus who made the BSO's 2013 Tanglewood performance of this piece successful.
After watching these guys suck up gallons of air and force it through all those yards of brass tubing, "Ride of the Valkyries" will never be the same.
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It should be unnecessary to tell you that Thompson started out in a band called Fairport Convention. That's kind of like saying Paul McCartney started out in a band called the Beatles.
"I think a lot of orchestras are understanding that our future—not only our survival, but our future vitality—is going to come from the way we embrace our community and engage with our community." --David Alan Miller, music director of the Albany Symphony
