Music in the Berkshires

Extract

Near the western border of the state of Massachusetts, more than 100 miles from the sea, stand the Berkshire Hills, remnants of an ancient and imposing range of mountains. The countryside is dotted with small one-industry cities, with prosperous farms, with relics of iron mining and the heavy industry of 125 years ago, and with the country estates of the wealthy from Boston and New York. In the heart of the Berkshires, about 140 miles from those two great cities of the North-east, lies the town of Lenox, a near-perfect example of what Americans across all our 3,000 miles like to think of as a typical New England community—wide streets, unbroken expanses of green lawn, an old white and gracefully steepled Congregational Church on the highest hill near the centre of the town. For forty-six weeks in the year the population of Lenox is under 3,000 persons, but on a sunny Sunday afternoon early in August it may hold five times as many within its borders. Lenox is the home of the Berkshire Music Centre and the Berkshire Festival.