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Check out our what to do section for a complete list of Berkshire cultural attractions.
Kind of corny…
By Bess Hochstein
August 2008
At this time of year, I feel as if I could live on local corn. And local heirloom tomatoes. Both of which I can get at their peak at Guido’s, the Berkshire Co-op Market, or in the Farmers Markets run by Berkshire Grown.  We usually go to the Great Barrington market on Saturday morning with Duffy and Hobbes, but sometimes we hit Lenox, at Aspinwell, on Friday afternoon. For the moment I can round out my diet with green beans, kale, scallions, basil, and peppers from my own garden (zukes and cukes are coming soon, but the high altitude in Tyringham slows things down). I failed at growing corn last year, and I can never grow enough tomatoes. Nor can I ever eat enough sweet, local corn, and this season it has been pretty darn sweet.
The summer season has been awfully sweet, too. We’ve been spending a lot of time at Tanglewood over the past few weeks, taking in Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin starring Rene Fleming one Saturday night, and returning the next afternoon for conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto’s Tanglewood debut, anchored by Yo-Yo Ma in Lalo’s Cello Concerto. There was another soloist in the concert, a bird in the Shed just tweeting his heart out. Prieto and Ma even took a moment between movements to acknowledge their avian accompanist. Monday we caught the final night of an incredible, innovative production of Kurt Weill’s brutal The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
While Tanglewood is justly known for classical music, sometimes the venue switches gears, most famously for annual appearances by James Taylor and Garrison Keillor and the upcoming Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival. But in the past two weeks the gears shifted quite abruptly. On Tuesday, a crowd of over 10,000 flocked to see indie band Wilco. Any birds singing along were overwhelmed, as was the crowd in the Shed and across the lawn, while Wilco rocked the house.  I saw BSO managing director Mark Volpe outside the main gate before the show and asked if he happened to be a Wilco fan. “I hope I will be,” he replied, as a younger- and more casual-than-usual crowd streamed in, and I hope the band’s artistry and power left him duly impressed. Wilco’s lead Jeff Tweedy certainly seemed impressed to be playing at Tanglewood. At one point, when the audience started screaming out favorite song titles, he quipped “Do you yell out requests for the BSO? MAHLER! MAHLER!” The crowd loved it, and also appreciated the endless encores. Andrew Bird, who opened the concert, was a revelation to me. This Juilliard-trained violinist played multiple instruments and even whistled! Sounds kooky, but his music was innovative and melodic, and his stage presence was intriguing.
The prior last weekend was a Tanglewood marathon as we took part in the Sixth Annual Wine & Food Classic. This four-day event kicked off with an elegant wine auction dinner at Seranak, overlooking Tanglewood and the Stockbridge Bowl. The stormy skies did not dampen the evening; rather, close-by thunder and lightening added drama, maybe even sparking spirited bidding. We sat with Nancy Fitzpatrick, owner of the Red Lion Inn -- whose business acumen and philanthropy earned her the cover story of the current Berkshire Business Quarterly -- and her husband, photographer Lincoln Russell, whose book on the Burgundy region of France – and its wonderful wines – will be released any day now.  Dinner was prepared by a culinary dream team of chefs from Wheatleigh and Manhattan’s Bar Boulud. The next day I attended two classes in Tanglewood’s Highwood manor – An Exploration of Fine Cheeses and Loire Valley Wines and a Chocolate Seminar with Joshua Neeedleman of Chocolate Springs Café – before heading to Wheatleigh for the Meet the Winemaker reception. Then we ran off to a private home in Richmond for the Tuscan Twilight Soiree. Others went to a different event, Great Wines in Grand Houses, but that was sold out, and we were quite happy enjoying Italian wines with wood-fired pizza topped with local cheeses and vegetables fresh from the home’s garden. While some guests headed back to Tanglewood for the start of the all-Mozart weekend, we went to Berkshire Theatre Festival to see Waiting for Godot, which was just as good as everyone had told us it was. The next day I took an elucidating class in Pinot Noir with Master of Wine Bill Nesto as a prelude to the Grand Tasting, in which two large tents were filled with purveyors of wine from around the world (including local Furnace Brook wines from John Vittori of Hilltop Orchard and the Garden Gables Inn); cheesemongers handing out samples of sumptuous cow, goat, and sheep milk cheeses; and regional restaurants, including local favorites such as Brix Wine Bar and new comer Alta; upscale resorts Wheatleigh, Blantyre, and Canyon Ranch, and newcomer Alta. There were also cooking demonstrations in professional Viking kitchens; in this epicurean environment, every seat was full.
Continuing our evening, we set off early for the Saturday evening Mozart concert at Tanglewood. We laid low the next day, skipping the Cheever Hill Brunch at a private home in Richmond, though I daresay I would have enjoyed it, as well as the concluding Sunday afternoon event, Vinous Quintet,  in which Ronald Barron, Principal Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1975, worked with wine festival president Denis Toner to pair great wines with marvelous music, looking at the correlation between sonics and the senses.
But we had other enticing plans that evening, namely the opening of Private Lives at Barrington Stage Company, which was bubbly as a flute of superb champagne, a great play to see as summer draws to a close. After the show, we went to a private home in Pittsfield to toast the show’s success with Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, Tony-Award-winner Bill Finn, who runs BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab, the cast and crew, and various folks who support the estimable theater group.
We’ve had many other delightful experiences recently, including the Nikos Stage production of The Understudy at Williamstown Theatre Festival, which in my book has been one of the best plays of the summer. This world-premiere was written by Theresa Rebeck, whose play Bad Dates will be produced by Shakespeare & Company in early 2009, and I will be sure to it given how good her work is.  On the way home, we stopped at the '6 House Pub for a quick quaff and a light bite on their patio, warmed by the firepit. I also made my first outing to PS/21 in Chatham, NY to see Take Dance in an intimate, tented venue set in a field. We’ve also been to Jacob’s Pillow three times in the past two weeks, for a twisted-tango-tinged, fast-footed full-length piece by Brazilian troupe Mimulus; a complete reversal the next night with Slow Dancing, featuring three dancers performing short snippets of choreography caught on high-speed video at 1,000 frames per second which took about ten minutes each to screen; and Stockholm 59° North, soloists of the Royal Swedish Ballet, performing four pieces of striking contemporary choreography, which K & I thought was one of the Pillow’s best shows of the season. We can’t say that definitively, though, since we are seeing two more programs this week -- Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in the Shawn and Kate Weare Company and Maureen Fleming in the Duke – and another next week: the company debut of Trey McIntyre Project, which has proved so highly anticipated that the Pillow added a matinee performance on Friday, August 22, with $10 tickets for young folks accompanied by an adult.
Meanwhile, I’ve been somewhat occupied with my own parents, if not accompanied by them, as they are pretty self-reliant on their annual summer visits. They’re staying in a sweet suite at Jiminy Peak (they are really happy with the view, and the indoor/outdoor pool!) and running around even more than I do.  Yesterday, after lunch at Alta, they met a friend at Castle Street Café before catching opening night of Noel Coward in Two Keys at Berkshire Theatre Festival. Today they went to the Clark, then to the matinee of Othello at Shakespeare & Co., and in the evening to Tanglewood to see Frederica Von Stade. I recommended they enjoy between-performance refreshments on the Terrace Café at The Mount, with free readings from Wharton’s works on Wednesdays at 5 pm. They are having so much fun that they cancelled their Thursday plans in the City to enjoy another day in the Berkshires; I can’t wait to hear about what else they have planned. They’ve been talking about The Ladies Man at Shakespeare & Company, or maybe they’ll head to Williamstown. Knowing them, I’m sure they’ll stop along the way at a farm stand to pick up some local tomatoes and sweet corn!
About Bess Hochstein
Bess J.M. Hochstein came to the Berkshires as a second-homeowner before deciding to move here full time. Previously a communications executive, she's now a freelance writer living in Tyringham with her corgis Duffy and Hobbs and K. She writes for several publications, including Berkshire Living, the Boston Globe, New England Wine Gazette, and Healing Lifestyles & Spas magazine.
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