Given the daily, even hourly, headlines, I could easily write an entire column on the cruelty, corruption, and betrayal of the lawless, erratic, cowardly and contemptible administration in Washington. Instead I will write about gifts.
August can swamp us with too much: too many cucumbers, zucchinis and little tomatoes; too much heat some days; storms that seem especially intense; a few too many events, gatherings or visits whether planned or spontaneous. August’s bounty both arrests our attention in the present and draws us toward what’s next. Any fall crops to seed? Any canning supplies needed? Our California grandkids have already started back to school!
Sometimes August’s abundance, instead of overwhelming, can resolve into a new and restorative experience. Thanks to a generous family gift we had tickets to see Yoyo Ma at Tanglewood, the first time I had been there since the bicentennial. The orchestra is noting its 145th year. Yoyo Ma was curating a full week of presentations titled: “We the People: Our Shared Past, Present, and Future.” The evening we attended the theme was “Gratitude and Friendship.”
In Ma’s words:
I am an immigrant… The week of concerts, conversations, and gatherings is my attempt to share some of what has helped me understand how we fit into the American experiment and what it means to belong — with one another, to our community, and on this land. We the People is a celebration of the ways that music can help us find sympathy with others…, and of culture’s ability to turn the “other” into “us.” I hope that we will discover… glimpses of truths that can help us navigate the complexities of our present and together choose a path toward a better future.
When Ma spoke to the audience he was at once subtle and crystal clear in his meaning — also, perhaps, a fine definition of his playing.
Aside from our nation’s alarming woes, the Symphony itself is stressed by the unexpected dismissal of Andris Nelsons, music director. Many musicians wore red roses to signal their disagreement with the board’s decision. Yet when it came time to play, their focus was intense and honoring the music was the priority. They played with passion and precision.
The program included four pieces, three of which I did not know. Yoyo Ma soloed in two of them. During the other pieces he quietly joined the cello section at the very back and played along. The final piece was the magnificent Concerto in A Minor, Opus 102 of Brahms. Ma explained that the piece was written as an effort by Brahms to reunite with his best friend from whom he had been estranged for decades. As he played with French violinist Renaud Capuçon, Ma sometimes smiled rapturously, casting a mischievous glance as they came to a particularly tricky part and passed the musical lines back and forth. The joy and camaraderie of these two musicians along with the orchestra and the Berkshire Lyric Chorus, were thrilling to behold.
For the third call of the standing ovation, Ma returned with his cello and offered one surprising last piece: Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Ma and Capuçon richly offered the melody, the symphony joined. The typical symphony performance brings between 5,000 and 10,000 people to Tanglewood. That night thousands of voices responded when Ma invited the audience to sing the chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah. Tears flowed freely. The sound was heavenly. No one left that night unchanged.
The next day, looking for a lovely walk along the Housatonic River in Great Barrington, handsomely built by river lovers in town, we stumbled across another short trail that led to the family homestead of the great scholar W.E.B. Du Bois — one of our nation’s most distinguished and effective advocates for human rights and inclusion for all Americans. The trail signs were fascinating and poignant considering the hatefulness our country now faces. Du Bois’s fascination and deep belief in democracy was apparently sparked by his childhood experience of town meeting in Great Barrington.
His prophetic words:
“[Democracy] is not merely majority rule based on the fact that the majority has the physical force to prevail…. It rests upon the fact that when we have proven knowledge, interpreted through the experience of a large number of individuals, it is possible through this pooled knowledge and experience to come to decisions much more fundamental and much more far-reaching than can be had in any other way.”
A final gift from this trail: “With the right to vote goes everything” — W.E.B. Du Bois, 1906.
Judy Wagner lives in Northfield.