Subject: Fwd: Re: From: Ernst Meyer Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:38:13 -0400 To: undisclosed-recipients:; -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:22:39 -0400 From: Nathaniel Meyer To: Helmut Frielinghaus CC: Ernst Meyer Dear Helmut, Thank you so much for your email. When we were asked to write an essay about a personal memory, I immediately wanted to write about Tanglewood-- a place that has already made a tremendous impact on the way I view art, and life. There is just something about the way that nature, music, and humanity come together at this festival. I was there for the first time I think for the Mahler 2nd (that I spoke about in the short essay) and then a few years later when I was a student in the orchestral program for high school students. The summer I spent there as a student was truly life-changing--among other things, I realized I wanted to conduct! My grandparents, Marion Namenworth and I were just out at Tanglewood a few weeks ago to hear the Eroica. We brought some dinner, and drove out in the rain--everything cleared up for the concert, thankfully. Tanglewood has been on my mind for other reasons however--I have been thinking so much about the kinds of implicit barriers that so many people put up between themselves and the realm of art. I believe that people often have conceptions of art as abstract, irrelevant in many ways to their modern lives. I think that Tanglewood is wonderful in the way it helps to break these barriers down. People sit on the lawn--drinking wine and eating cheese, children run around and play ball, the concert hall is called "the Shed". Culture is made egalitarian at a place like Tanglewood, and the inwardness we experience in the presence of glorious nature is echoed in the innerlichkeit of the music, the Mozart, Beethoven, and Mahler. In Belmont, I don't know if my grandfather has told you, I have been putting together music festivals. We've had three so far, and I'm working on the next one for this winter. It will be a New Year's concert, featuring the Eroica. However, I am planning something very different this time. In Belmont we have a program called "One Book, One Belmont". Our public library has organized an event where a book is selected for a certain period of time---everyone reads and discusses the book, and then the author comes and gives a talk. I have an idea of a program called "One Beethoven, One Belmont", where the town will, over the course of two weeks, have the opportunity to learn about, listen to, and hopefully fall in love with Beethoven's Eroica. I am planning to organize several interactive lecture/discussions at the community center and in the public schools that will culminate in a live performance of the symphony by the Belmont Festival Orchestra. I think art is powerful in the way it evokes, creates, and connects memory. I'm so happy to have received your email, and I hope to speak more with you about this! yours, Nathaniel On Sep 13, 2011, at 5:36 AM, Helmut Frielinghaus wrote: > Dear Nathaniel, > Jochen, your grandfather, sent me the essay you wrote. I read it with pleasure. I could not say that I understood all details and implications, but I liked very much your bold thesis. As an so-called editor by profession I tried to correct some German mistakes - but you should look at them carefully, because sometimes "corrections" turn out to be misinterpretations. Your essay is an impressionistic text. > Writing such texts means to keep balance between the Schwebende, the uncertain, and a real ground or foundation, between floating memories or impressions and Wirklichkeit. > Your essay reminded me again how near the arts are to each other - music, literature, the fine arts (the beginning of your text is at the same times an impressionistic painting). > I am very interested in your thoughts about music, and so I hope you got teachers encouraging you and supporting your ideas. > Herzliche Grüsse > von Helmut > Helmut Frielinghaus, Wincklerstrasse 3, 20459 Hamburg > Tel. + Fax 040-364569 >