Tanglewood

Chronic back pain will cause Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor and artistic director, James Levine, to end his season in Boston. This year he has been absent for 22 performances or 60 % of his schedule. Jayce Ogren will lead the world premiere of Peter Lieberson's Songs of Love and Sorrow March 25, 26, and 27. The following week, April 1, 2, and 3 in Boston, and April 5 at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos will conduct Mendelssohn's Elijah. The conductor for the world premiere of John Harbison's Double Concerto for violin and cello on a program with Mahler's Seventh Symphony, April 8, 9, and 10, will be announced.

The soprano Dawn Upshaw, first vocalist to win a MacArthur genius award for her promotion of new composers, and the infinitely apt pianist Emanuel Ax performed Chopin, Schumann and former poet laureate Billy Collin's Piano Teacher poems set to music by Stephen Prutsman. They brought extraordinary musicality to this performance.

Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 opened the program for the New York Philharmonic. Second up on the program conducted by Riccardo Muti was a symphony composed by Paul Hindemith, composed for Serge Koussevitsky during Tanglewood's first season.

Compared to other Berkshire theatre companies it seems that Barrington Stage plays it safe in running the hits. This season opening with Sweeney Todd. But Julianne Boyd in a recent interview responded that it just smart business in a tough economy. She takes pride in developing six productions that have moved on to New York. She is also excited by the cultural renaissance and economic development in Pittsfield.

In a great Boston tradition the Pops will open its 125th season at Symphony Hall on May 4. Keith Lockhart will conduct. A richly varied program continues through June 20. An evening of Pops will launch the Carole King James Taylor Tanglewood love in on Friday, July 2. A number of concerts have already sold out.

Back in the day the Berkshire Museum, the oldest in the region, collected everything from soup to nuts. The museum's director, Stuart Chase, is challenged to find projects drawn from a vast collection of 30,000 objects. The interactive exhibitions are fun for families and instructive for 13,000 annual visiting students.

In what has become a season ending Labor Day Weekend event the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Frestival will wail in Lenox on Saturday and Sunday, September 4 & 5. John Pizzarelli, his Dad, Bucky, and wife Jessica Molaskey will kick it off at 2 pm with a live broadcast of their popular "Radio Deluxe." Perhaps like last year, Kurt Elling will fall by to scat with John. He is featured that night.

The 2010 Tanglewood season will start with a blokbuster Fourth of July weekend featuring Keith Lockhart and the Pops on Friday, with James Taylor and Carole King on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And that's just the beginning. Tickets go on sale February 14

There is something magical about James Taylor and Tanglewood. But add his pal, Carole King, and wow. With the Pops on Friday, and three concerts by the dynamic duo, Tanglewood is set to draw some 60,000 visitors on the Fourth of July Weekend. Talk about fireworks. Zowie.

Joe Finnegan, a former Wall Street floor trader, who evokes the heart-throb, Don, in TV's Mad Men, moved his family four years ago to Williamstown. He hooked up with boyhood friend Steve Lawson to become President of his Williamstown Film Festival. We talked with Finnegan about gearing up for his first season as General Manager of the prestigious but challenged Williamstown Theatre Festival.

James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra will give the American premiere of Elliott Carter's Flute Concerto, featuring BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe in her Symphony Hall solo debut, on February 4, with repeat performances on February 5 and 9. The program also features Brahms's Symphony No. 4 and the Overture and Entr'actes from Schubert's incidental music to the 1823 play Rosamunde.

The exhibition "Acts & Memory: Paintings by Langdon Quin, 1990-2010" will be on view at the Museum of Art of the University of New Hampshire through April 8. David Carbone is the curator of the exhibition.

Mass MoCA has organized a provocative documentary film series Lie!Cheat! Steal! Fake It! We recently attended the first in the series "American Casino" that explored the sub prime mess that decimated banks and brought down Wall Street. The films are screened on Thursdays once a month through April 29.

The Barrington Stage Company season will start on May 27 with a Stage 2 production of "The Whipping Man" and run through December with "A Christmas Story." Not for the squeamish that arch villain "Sweeney Todd" will be serving up gory meat pies to the delight of one and all starting June 17.

During the cold winter in the Berkshires the hot new restaurants to enjoy is Flavours of Malaysia tucked away in a basement on McKay Street just around the corner from the new Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield. On weekends reservations are recommended.

Dutch early music specialist Ton Koopman leads a program of 18th- and 19th-century works by Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, and Schubert January 6-12. In addition to conducting the BSO from the podium, Mr. Koopman leads the orchestra from the harpsichord in a performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 98, which features harpsichord obbligato. One of Mr. Koopman's close collaborators, Yo-Yo Ma, joins him and the orchestra as the soloist in Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1.

Bazaar Productions, in collaboration with MASS MoCA, will present a work-in-progress showing of The Waypoint, a play that began development during the EarlyStages Program at The Berkshire Fringe in 2008. After a two-week residency with the original ensemble The Waypoint will be performed on Saturday, February 6, at 8 PM in Club B-10 as part of MASS MoCA's Alt Cabaret series.

A near capacity audience braved the first storm of the winter to attend a benefit, solo performance by a Berkshire neighbor, Arlo Guthrie. It was a great evening at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.

Patricia Racette shared insights into operatic performance and Puccini at the Morgan Library. The lecture on "Adventures in Italian Opera" was co-sponsored by the Morgan and the Casa Italiana of New York University. The evening's moderator was opera and Italian culture aficionado, Fred Plotkin.

In a great Boston tradition Keith Lockhart will conduct the Boston Pops in all of the Holiday favorites. The fun begins on December 9 at Symphony Hall. There will be 35 performances through December 27. Followed by a New Year's Eve gala.

In article after article since John Barrett III lost a tough Mayor's race in North Adams the Berkshire Eagle has shed crocodile tears over his unanticipated defeat. To say the Eagle blew its coverage is an understatement. Now columnist Alan Chartock wades in on why he loves "Big John" who was "done in" by a "few disgruntled self styled arts types."

The Music Museum of New England is dedicated to preserving the musical heritage of the region. Currently operating a website, its long-term goal is to build an archive and open a visitors center. Many area musicians will celebrate the season in a benefit for MM/ONE on December 13 at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

Once again the Boston Symphony Orchestra has scheduled a full, rich and diverse season for Tanglewood 2010. Many of the most beloved composers and conductors will be featured.

The Berkshires will be booked solid for the Fourth of July weekend. On Friday night Keith Lockhart will lead the Pops in its 125th anniversary concert. On Saturday and Sunday the legendary song writers James Taylor and Carole King will bring their world tour to Tanglewood.

America's Orchestra, the Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart will launch its annual Northeast Tour on December 5 in Storrs, Connecticut and end in Providence on the 19th. These appearance will coincide with Symphony Hall performances from December 9 to 27. Yo, ho, ho.