WE SPEND A WEEKEND EXPLORING CULTURAL OPTIONS JUST ACROSS THE BORDER
FRANK GEHRY’S WHIMSICALLY ROOFED FISHER CENTER IS THE SETTING FOR THE ANNUAL BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL
PHOTOGRAPH BY NOAH SHELDON
While summer in New York City offers the cultural richness of Shakespeare in the Park, Mostly Mozart and the Fringe Festival, try eschewing urban offerings and head north, where a plethora of cultural opportunities is giving Manhattan a run for the money. I just spent a weekend at a classical concert, a folk hootenanny, a film, a museum, a musical play and a jazz concert—all within an hour’s drive of rural Litchfield County.
Driving out of the city on Friday night, I stopped at the BARD COLLEGE MUSIC FESTIVAL. Every summer for more than 20 years the festival has focused on a significant musician; this year it’s Jean Sibelius, the great Finnish composer whose work evokes icy Northern landscapes and Finnish heritage and folklore. Familiar with his great classic Finlandia, I was interested to hear other pieces he’d written. In “The Wood Nymph,” for instance, a narrator augments the music by telling of the curvaceous forest creature who lures hero Bjorn into making love to her so that he leaves his wife and dies of yearning.
The Sosnoff Theater in Bard’s curving metal-capped Fisher Center designed by Frank Gehry is remarkably intimate and comfortable inside. I said hello to Bard President and Festival Co-artistic Director Leon Botstein, an old acquaintance, and ran into a couple of friends from Manhattan. As we dispersed, I noticed some noise and colorful lights and walked over to look at Spiegelclub where a happy crowd was sipping cocktails and dancing to swing classics.www.fishercenter.bard.edu
JIM PALERMO AND TOM HANFORD LIVEN UP THE MILLERTON LIBRARY’S “MUSIC IN THE ANNEX”
The next evening, just minutes from home I went to MUSIC IN THE ANNEX, a series at the Millerton Library. Playing guitar, fiddle, and harmonica, lively folk singers Jim Palermo and Tom Hanford offered up a range of jazz, blues, pop, and country tunes—from a rendition of the old favorite “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” to an original song about “that red hair woman I just can’t get her off of my mind.” www.nemillertonlibrary.org
At intermission I walked over to the MILLERTON MOVIEHOUSE, a local treasure playing a trio of first-run movies. I’d already seen “The Help,” so I solicited audience members spilling out after the early showings to help me choose which film to see. All the men were crying after “Sarah’s Key,” so I opted for “One Day,” bought a senior ticket for $6.75, and joined the dozen or so people watching Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess string out their romance over a couple decades. www.themoviehouse.net
Sunday I drove up to the Williamstown; wary of the distance, I allotted myself three hours, and was astonished to arrive in a hour and a quarter. I’d always intended to visit the CLARK MUSEUM, and having just read the New York Times review of its show on Camille Pisarro, I was eager to see the exhibit. The “dean of impressionism’s” paintings focus on family members and rural workers with a generous spirit and understanding. Fascinating additional commentary describes the artists anarchist views promulgating rural life over the strife of the cities. I took a too-quick walk through the permanent galleries glimpsing exceptional seascapes by Winslow Homer, one of the classic Gilbert Stuart portraits of George Washington, and delicate painted Sevres porcelain collected by Sterline and Francine Clark, the museum’s founders .
I was surprised that even on a Sunday afternoon, the museum was mobbed with visitors studying the pictures and listening intently to their audio guides. I inquired about a basket of lovely green shawls, and the guard explained they were there for visitors to borrow if the air conditioning temperature felt too cold. www.clarkart.edu
PHOTOGRAPH BY STU ROSNER
After 57 years, the WILLIAMSTOWN THEATER FESTIVAL is a well-established institution, and I headed over to the Main Stage for a matinee of “Ten Cents a Dance.” Five gorgeous “redhead” women and a piano player crooned the wonderfully sophisticated and melodious songs of Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart who penned familiar classics: “Blue Moon,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and dozens more. Besides singing, each of the women performed on at least one other instrument—cello, violin, trumpet and sax—and Chorus Line Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie displayed her instrumental virtuosity on the triangle and drums. www.wtfestival.org
JOHN PIZZARELLI INTERVIEWS SINGER FREDDY COLE ON STATE AT TANGLEWOOD’S OZAWA CENTER
PHOTOGRAPH BY HILARY SCOTT
Leaving Williamstown, I drove three quarters of an hour south to TANGLEWOOD. The afternoon of Mozart Symphonies was being broadcast on my car radio so that was a bonus extra. But I was there for the jazz in Ozawa Hall. Wonderful guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife singer Jessica Molasky were taping their show “Radio Deluxe” and Nat “King” Cole’s brother Freddy, also a singer, was a guest. No one minded the pouring rain; the show was lively and chatty and a total treat. www.tanglewood.org
I hated departing during the final song, but I had a train to catch and wanted to avoid the traffic. Within an hour I’d left my car at the station and was on the rails back to Manhattan. I may have missed a weekend in the city, but the “near Northwest” had offered a rich alternative.