As quickly as it came, the summer season in Berkshire County is drawing to a close. Tanglewood, the sprawling summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox and Stockbridge, is reaching the end of its 2023 season. The venue is both a cultural landmark and a major tourist draw in a region whose economy relies heavily on summer visitors. With the orchestra already finished with its annual Tanglewood tenure, the final two weekends include the Boston Pops and Train, Jackson Browne, Guster, and John Legend. It was a year of heavy rain, gridlock traffic, and packed crowds eager to see performances from James Taylor, John Williams, Steve Miller and more. WAMC spoke with BSO Vice President of Artistic Planning Anthony Fogg about the highs and lows of the year.
FOGG: If I can, perhaps, focus on the challenges, first off, it’s a pretty obvious one, which is the weather has been a little unpredictable. And we had really rainy days on some of our key dates like Tanglewood on Parade and a few others. So, you know, that's something that's in the lap of the gods, no control over that one. But that's probably been the biggest challenge that we had this summer. On the other side of the ledger, I think we've had some really, really great content. And now, as we are on the homestretch, I think back to all of the fantastic content starting back in June, probably the popular artists and then with the Boston Symphony concerts, especially those with our music director Andris Nelsons. I think of the wonderful production of Mozart's “Così fan tutte” that we had back in July, concerts in preparation for the Boston Symphony is European tour, terrific concerts with guest conductors and soloists. It’s been really wonderful, a very high musical level. And I think equally the concerts by the students of the Tanglewood Music Center have been quite exceptional. Each year, we tend to say that this is the best young orchestra of musicians that we've had, and this year, I really do believe that. It was a group, from their very first concert, it was an exceptionally high standard. Age group slightly higher than in years past for a great level of refinement and some fantastic recitals in the Ozawa Hall and some really very, very inspiring and insightful programming in the Tanglewood Learning Institute. So, it's been a very, very good summer for us from an artistic point of view. A few challenges in terms of the weather and little traffic snarls on John Williams Film Night. Those aside, I think, pretty smooth sailing this summer.
Let's talk traffic for a minute. While the film night certainly was a good example of that, there were a few nights this summer, where it seemed – certainly as a local perspective – that there was a particular strain in the local infrastructure to get everybody in at a certain time. Any thoughts or comments on that? Obviously, it speaks to the popularity of the programming, but also maybe reflects on some logistical challenges.
Look, the thing about Tanglewood is there are only a couple of ways to get here. We’re either down West Street or along Hawthorne Road with whatever major roads lead into that. So, they are our pain points in terms of access and our parking. And sometimes it's coincidental. It's, sometimes it's just the concentration of patrons arriving at a certain time. We need to go back and really think through some of our parking protocols and see if they are some different approaches that we could take. It's not something that we're at all happy about. It's a good problem to have, as you say, Josh. Look, we'd like to try and refine it each year. I think it gets a little better. But the basic challenge is just the limited ways of getting to the Tanglewood campus, and there's really no way around that short of some major changes.
Now walking through the packed lawn and looking at the stuffed shed, it certainly looked like Tanglewood was starting to see maybe some pre-pandemic levels of attendance. Is that reflected in your internal numbers? Was this a good year for bringing folks back to Tanglewood since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020?
We’ve very happy to see the attendance numbers, and we've still got a final weekend of popular artists to go, which also can swing things significantly. But I think we're very happy with the attendance and the box office figures that relate to that. We can never rest on our laurels. It's been great to see the shed so full for so many of the Boston Symphony concerts. It's great as an audience member, but it's also particularly rewarding for our orchestra to see such a large audience filling out the shed. So, from that perspective, I think we're reasonably happy. We can always do better. But it is slowly, I think slowly getting back to some of those pre-pandemic numbers. Certainly, there's a great feeling around the campus of energy and lightness, and that all reminds us of the old days as they were before we went through this massive cultural event.
As perhaps is inevitable with any summer season there were complaints on social media about behavior and conduct on the iconic Tanglewood lawn. I saw some folks complaining about pop-up tents blocking views or general lawn conduct. Tony, from the management's perspective, were attendees well behaved at Tanglewood this season?
I think reasonably well. You know, sometimes civility is not of a level that one would hope, and I think it’s a societal problem. But I think there is a sense of calm generally about Tanglewood and attending concerts here. Music is a great unifying and bonding force, and I think that plays a lot into audience behavior. But on the other hand, there are there are a few of our attendees who need to think more carefully about how they relate to either their fellow patrons or to some of our staff working around the campus, especially the parking staff who are working under difficult conditions and dealing with people who are often anxious or at a point of frustration. And we just need, as a society, but as attendees here, we need to sit back and think just what impact we're having on our fellow human beings at the time, indeed.
Any standout memories personal or professional from this season that you think might stick with you heading into the next season?
I love looking out across the lawn on big nights. You know, film night, I was over in the tent, the Tanglewood tent club before the concert looking across, and seeing the really incredible gathering of people. And that is really what keeps me sustained right throughout the rest of the year when I'm not here at Tanglewood. Just this sense of a communal experience of great music and of great art and in these incredibly beautiful surroundings. As I'm speaking to you now, I'm actually sitting looking across the lawn and marveling at how much care we take of this great property. We've had a long-range landscaping plan in place and those plans are slowly coming into place, and it's very, very satisfying to see all of that this melding of nature and great music and people attending. And for me, that's a sort of constant, the big nights where we have so many people here to hear great music. For me, that is the standouts.
