I am a huge baseball fan. But while I would have loved to have had a ticket to the Yankess and Red Sox classic Friday night, I don't regret the ticket I did have. While the Yankees and Red Sox took 15 innings to score a run Friday night, my wife and I were enjoying the music scores performed by Chris Botti and the Boston Pops. We might not have started with the Star Spangled Banner, but we did get Stars and Stripes Forever to cap off a beautiful August evening at Tanglewood.
Tanglewood is truly a treasure for residents of the Capital Region. Nestled among the mountains in the Berkshires less than an hour's drive from Albany, the scenery sets the stage before the first note is hit. On this particular night, the audience was treated to a wide variety of music, from Big Band Swing with guest Thomas Martin on the clarinet to Jazz with Chris Botti on the trumpet. The ensemble is indicative of the line up Tanglewood has for 2009. Already this season, Steve Martin and Martin Sheen have joined Garrison Keillor for the tenth annual live broadcast for "A Prairie Home Companion". There was the always popular Film Night, this year conducted by John Williams. Yet, much more is yet to come before the season winds down with the Jazz Festival on Labor Day. James Taylor will be involved in several events at Tanglewood the last week of August.
Tanglewood offers a classy yet relaxed atmosphere. The crowd is pleasant, even the traffic cops and parking attendants are in a good mood. If you choose, you can picnic out on lawn and a get a ticket for as little as $21. I encourage you to check at tanglewood.org. I look forward to my next visit.
Oh, by the way, I saw Friday's entire show, drove the hour back home and still saw the last couple of innings of the Yankees- Red Sox game. A classic night all the way around.
