Spent the weekend at Tanglewood listening to The Boston Pops and the BSO.
Sat night was Film Night with the Boston Pops. The evening was hosted by John Williams and featured a program of all music from film soundtracks. The concert was mostly conducted by film composer David Newman (Hoffa and Anastasia), son of the great Alfred Newman, who over the course of his career won nine Oscars for film music! But the highlight of the evening was when Williams himself returned to the podium to close out the concert by conducting a suite of music from the Star Wars series.
We returned Sunday afternoon, for what has become a Boston Symphony tradition, the closing of the summer season with a performance of Beethoven's 9th. Not much needs to be said about the Ninth except that hearing it performed by the BSO and the 125 voice Tanglewood Festival Chorus from a pair of prime orchestra seats was simply awe inspiring. And the audience responded with a full ten minute standing ovation at the end of the performance.
Live music..... what a concept.