A conductor opens the orchestra to all
A glimpse at the conducting career of Charles Ansbacher shows two distinct trajectories. On the one hand, he's an international traveler, with frequent guest spots in such far-flung destinations as Belarus, Tajikistan, and, just recently, Lebanon. So well-traveled is he that former President Bill Clinton dubbed him the "unofficial ambassador of America's music." On the other, there is the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the intensely local group he founded in 2001 to bring orchestral music into city neighborhoods that rarely see top-flight ensembles.
What links those two penchants together, Ansbacher says, is a passion for getting orchestral music into places where it's usually not found. "I like bringing music to unconventional audiences who, for whatever reason, don't have access to orchestral music," says the conductor by phone from his Cambridge home. Whether the obstacles are social or financial, and whether the audiences are in Belgrade or Dorchester, Ansbacher's goal is to make the experience less threatening and more inviting.
Ansbacher opens the Landmarks Orchestra's eighth summer season Wednesday night at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. The ensemble will give 10 concerts there, as well as six community concerts in places that include Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury, Codman Square in Dorchester, and Jamaica Pond - spaces the orchestra has made its own.
One of the ideas that informs the orchestra's mission is what Ansbacher calls "the synergy of site and sound" - that music enhances the place in which it's played, and vice versa. That goes not only for the neighborhood venues the orchestra plays, but for the Hatch Shell, too. In its first six seasons, the orchestra performed weekly concerts on the Boston Common; last year it moved to the Esplanade, which he considers the orchestra's new home base. Other than the annual Boston Pops extravaganza on July Fourth at the Hatch Shell, there's little classical music played there now.
Most Landmarks programs offer music that is accessible to new listeners, in keeping with the orchestra's populist mission. Every season features a newly commissioned work for children; this year it's "John Adams: The Voice Heard 'Round the World" by composer Anthony DiLorenzo and writer Marian Carlson.
Yet especially this season, Ansbacher's programming seems to be getting more adventurous. One notable program is the July 30 concert, which features two excerpts from Wagner's "Götterdämmerung," and Stravinsky's ever-astonishing "The Rite of Spring." Another unexpected entry is the orchestra's closing performance on the Esplanade: Verdi's Requiem.
The concert date for the Verdi is Sept. 10, giving it a particular resonance for Ansbacher. "For me, it is commemorative of two tragedies," he explains. "It is not only the tragedy of the deaths and destruction that were caused on 9/11, but for me it's also a commentary on the subsequent war in Iraq. . . . Not only have more Americans been killed, but we caused such death and destruction, and, as far as I'm concerned, unnecessarily," he says, making clear that the significance is a personal one rather than an official statement on the orchestra's behalf.
Sunnier fare will open the season on Wednesday: an Americana-themed program including Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" and Dvorak's "New World" Symphony. The narrator for the "Lincoln Portrait" will be Governor Deval Patrick.
"That is a powerful piece - particularly when the narrator is aware of what he is saying," says the conductor, who's led the piece several times. "The governor has done this once before, many years ago, and I have no doubt that it will be a powerful performance. His presence will add to its importance."
For his part, Patrick is excited, if a bit nervous, about what he calls his "Hatch Shell debut." (He did the piece for the first time five years ago.) "For one thing, I have to find time to rehearse, and finding time for anything besides governing is difficult," he says during a phone interview from his office. Asked why he's undertaking the performance, the governor cites his admiration for Lincoln and adds, "I believe very much that the arts are an important part of our life - and of our economy. This is a way to draw attention to that." In addition, "I love what Charles is trying to do with the orchestra in the larger community."
Wednesday at the Hatch Shell; 617-520-2200, landmarksorchestra.org
New kids in the shed
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is opening its Tanglewood activities this weekend the same way it closed the Symphony Hall portion of its season: with Berlioz's mammoth two-part opera "Les Troyens" (Part I tomorrow night, Part II Sunday afternoon). The cast is intact, with the exception of changes in two major roles: Tenor Marcus Haddock takes over as Aeneas, and mezzo-soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci sings the part of Cassandra. It's worth wondering what it will be like for those two to fit in with a cast that's already rehearsed and performed the piece extensively: probably akin to your first day at a new school, only more nerve-racking and with a lot more people watching. tanglewood.org 