The Berkshires, Massachusetts
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, Massachusetts
Joshua Bell as soloist and something by Max Bruch, surely not the every-hour G-minor Violin Concerto, again? In fact the wonderful Fantasie für die Violine mit Orchester und Harfe unter freier Benutzung schottischer Volksmelodien, aka Scottish Fantasy. Superbly played by Bell, too, relishing the virtuosity needed and serving the lovely melodies with affection and rich tone from his ‘Huberman’ Strad, the tuneful sources so handsomely dressed by Herr Bruch, characterfully backed by the BSO and Andris Nelsons, the named harp(ist) in front of the orchestra next to Bell, who went on to play Henri Vieuxtemps’s showpiece Souvenir d’Amerique – essentially variations on ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ – with style, wit and panache.
Opening the concert, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Marmoris, a sea-related piece, well-scored, atmospheric, suggestive of the water’s surface and below, and an impressive introduction (for me) to her music, and the evening closed with Robert Schuman’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony, enjoyably spontaneous and, in the first movement, gloriously panoramic, the middle three movements highlighting lyricism, with the one illustrating Cologne Cathedral solemn and affecting, the Finale joyous and deft. No complaints about Schumann’s orchestration, here trusted.