If I let my imagination run wild, I would frame this writing around Robin Hood.
The backdrop was the Merrywood Music Camp, nestled in the Berkshires in a dense forest where a friendly outlaw could easily rob from the rich in Lenox, and retreat into the pines, practically unnoticed.
Merrywood was a stone’s throw from Tanglewood, home of the well-established music festival. The camp owner, Ruth Hurwitz, who resided for most of the year in upscale West Hartford, Connecticut brought a contingent of Hartt School of Music students and teachers to her rustic summer sanctuary where she housed two dozen or so campers in a three-story abode with a charming attic space. The place resembled a college co-op like the one I’d remembered at Oberlin. May Cottage, my Frosh digs had the same look with an added roomy basement that gave refuge during tornado warnings.
Merrywood’s space accommodated rows of cots on the two highest floors and down below in the living room was a grand piano, a quaint fireplace, and a Bay window with a view of the magnificent wooded landscape. A stone’s throw from the property, James Stagliano, Principal French Hornist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra serenaded neighbors with his mid-morning horn calls, when otherwise in the ranks of the orchestra, rumor had it he took a swig of spirits from the brass instrument itself.
Campers were awakened promptly at 6:00 a.m. to a blasting Bach Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 piped into rooms on insensitively loud speakers. Jarred out of their sleep, they were conditioned to revile otherwise heavenly music.
By a strange quirk of fate, I was selected to play the last movement of this very Brandenburg 5 (piano part–really meant for the harpsichord) at the final concert concluding camp. The Allegro in 2/4 meter, laden with triplets and tricky rests in between, was a challenge to count, and my first entrance of the subject, imitated by a violinist, flautist, and the whole ensemble, was a hefty undertaking. All I remember was fumbling when my motif returned one last time in advance of the culminating cadence. Before I knew it, the whole composition folded like a house of cards. The music came to a grinding halt as conductor, Neil, articulately whispered, “Back to the recapitulation.”
My heart was racing! In a frenzy, I wondered if I could acquire the presence of mind to count beats leading to my encore entrance?
Like a cyclone, a string of triplets flew by as pulsations quickened.
Suddenly I lost all consciousness of what we’d rehearsed!
Like a racing car driver, revving the engine for the last lap, I skirted into the ensemble, like merging into 3 lanes of traffic!–Meanwhile, the ensemble held its own catapulting into the final cadence!
We made it! And the ordeal was over! Thankfully it was in the past, until revisited at Merrywood’s campfire farewell.
After we gorged ourselves on barbecued franks, baked beans, and s’mores, staff presented an improvised skit, highlighting the summer’s events.
On the front burner was “Back to the Recapitulation,” repeated several times over, earning a ripple of applause amidst a good deal of chuckles. Right then and there I experienced a flush of embarrassment.
To say I felt like a social outcast, was an understatement!
After my ill-fated performance, I never returned to Merrywood, but nonetheless, i cherished memories of Stagliano’s horn calls; Sunday morning trips to BSO rehearsals with Charles Munch at the helm; pint-size, guest conductor, Pierre Monteux climbing to the podium to conduct the War of 1812 Overture; Isaac Stern playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with tears rolling down his cheeks; Lukas Foss, pianist, rendering a magnificent performance of Bach’s D minor concerto, and Eugene Lehner, principal violist, coaching the string quartet where I played second violin.
A tarnished photo
And who could forget the memorable field trip to nearby Stockbridge where Norman Rockwell gave campers a personal tour of his home. It was filled with magnificent paintings, some which graced the covers of the Saturday Evening Post.
Finally, if any Merrywood music campers are out there, please rekindle memories of our Brandenburg summer.
Let’s come out of the woodwork and find each other.
***
RELATED:
Memories, Memories: The Merrywood Property in its current state
http://www.berkshirepropertyagents.com/for-sale/sold/ma/stockbridge/158/
Another Music Camp Journey:
http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/appel-farm-music-camp-and-the-chicken-coops/
I attended Merrywood in the summer’s of 1961 and 1962. as the one and only french horn player. I have many wonderful memories of the camp, Mrs. Hurwitz, the counselors and my fellow campers who I was able to keep up with at least through high school and my years at Manhattan School of Music. It was at Merrywood that I decided I wanted to be a professional musician. It was my fellow campers who had so much influence on my musical life. Merrywood was where I found out how much I really loved music and musicians. It was the beginning for me of a career that has spanned almost 50 years of incredible delight. I am so thankful for the opportunity that Merrywood afforded me to explore and to grow under gentle, loving hands. If you are from my era at Merrywood, I do remember quite a few names of fellow campers. I would love to hear more of your memories. Thank you for sharing this memory. Blessings, Jeff Girdler (if you would like to read a brief bio of my career, you can go to the Columbia (Maryland) Orchestra website).
did you see the current state of the property?
http://www.berkshirepropertyagents.com/for-sale/sold/ma/stockbridge/158/
I now remember clearly who you are.. You were a chubby fellow, right.. just for purposes of ID.. The image is like it was yesterday.
I went to Merrywood in the Summers of 1969-1973 on violin. It was one of my favorite summer camps I remember and I was always looking forward to it.
I now play violin and viola in Massachusetts and teach privately after getting my degree in Music at Boston Univeristy in ’81. I really haven’t run into too many people over the years who attended Merrywood.
Hi Jacob, Nice hearing from another Merrywood camper. The only other alum I know out there is Douglas Freundlich who lives in MA I think and plays the lute. He was a camper during my time.
I also remember a gal who played violin when I attended with the last name of Mather. I don’t remember her first name. And there was a cellist who hung out with T. Davis Dillon, also cello.
Neil Zaslow or Zaslowksy, (could be with a ‘v”)or something like that conducted the orchestra and was a grad of Harvard. Do you remember any of those people?
I went to Merrywood the summer of ?1976? and it changed my life. I decided that summer to be a professional violinist, and returned home to practice 4-6 hours a day for the rest of high school. I eventually moved away from that career, but I have very fond memories of that camp.
Thanks for sharing—
I remember a violinist there named Lynn Mather–did you know?
I went to Merrywood the summer of 1977, much later than you did, but had a similarly fabulous and intense musical experience. I know Doug Freundlich, not from Merrywood but from much later: he is a lutenist in the Boston area and works in the Isham Library at Harvard.
Thanks for sharing—As you know Doug hooked me up with his aunt Lillian—the most beloved teacher I’ve ever had–
You must know musicologist, Neal Zaslaw-who conducted the Merrywood Orchestra during my time.
Another Ann–at CUNY, specialized in histories of piano factories in Russia. We shared a lengthy correspondence about my forbears and potential ownership of a piano factory in the Old Country. Ruled out based on geography–St. Petersburg being the hub…
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