VOICE ONE:
This summer, many people have enjoyed music concerts at parks inthe United States. Some of the world’s best musicians perform in theopen air at these parks. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about two of America’smost famous open-air music parks on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.
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VOICE ONE:
It is late summer at Ravinia Park,in the American Midwest, near Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot.But the wind cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra isperforming Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands ofpeople are in the park.
A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the music iscoming. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the skybecomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often,they all look up, beyond the trees, at the stars. The sound of theBrahms music surrounds them.
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VOICE TWO:
As someone once said, “Musicplayed outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasuresof summer.” Millions of Americans attend outdoor concerts eachsummer. The concerts are performed at parks across the country.
Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a cityorchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well-known classicalmusic, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazzor popular music.
VOICE ONE:
Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north ofChicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit onthe ground. People also can sit inside, in a pavilion. The front andsides of this kind of building are open so everyone can see theperformers.
The music of some of the great composers floats out from thepavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings”How Long Has This Been Going On?” by George Gershwin.
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VOICE TWO:
People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost acentury. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseballfield. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was anopen-air theater.
An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened innineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer homefor some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitorsheard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Forpeople who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James andLionel Hampton.
VOICE ONE:
The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization toclose in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmenformed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the ChicagoSymphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six.
One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestraat Ravinia is James Levine (leh-VINE). He was appointed musicdirector in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. Hecontinued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three.
Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago.There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summermusic in the park for many years to come.
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VOICE TWO:
Another of America’s most famousmusic parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival atTanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northeastern stateof Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston SymphonyOrchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs atTanglewood.Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestraand the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditionalspiritual, “Deep River.”
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VOICE ONE:
Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky (sairzhkoo-suh-VIHT-skee). Born in Russia, he earned great success inEurope as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he cameto the United States.
Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra innineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautifulmountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That iswhen he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts atTanglewood.
Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center atTanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes forsome of America’s most promising music students. One was LeonardBernstein, remembered as one of the country’s best composers andconductors. Bernstein himself later directed students at the musiccenter.
VOICE TWO:
Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served asKoussevitsky’s first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two menprepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of yearsearlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers who wrotepieces for the Boston Symphony. And the orchestra played the worksof two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe:Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky.
Over the years, Tanglewood hasalso won praise for presenting operas. Here is music from one ofthese traditional stories told through song: “Falstaff,” by GiuseppeVerdi.
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VOICE ONE:
Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. Weleave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States andBenjamin Luxon of England. They sing the American folk song “SimpleGifts” combined with the British “Lord of the Dance.”
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced byCaty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.