City of the month

Boston and music

Venues & Orchestras

History

Moving freely between tradition and modernity, Boston’s musical history, like that of the United States as a whole, swings between its cultural heritage and contemporary composition.
The first opera was performed in July 1769. Companies were soon invited to perform and in 1909 the city’s own Boston Opera Company was formed. It was in Boston that works as diverse as The Trojans or Moses und Aaron were heard for the first time on American soil.
Founded in 1881 and immediately viewed as one of the finest orchestras in the United States, it should be noted that the Boston Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra which has generated the greatest number of commissions to composers in the world.

Pierre Monteux (1875-1964)
Founder of the Paris Symphony Orchestra, he stayed in the United States from 1916 onwards where he conducted the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera then, from 1919 on he reorganised the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A genuine “builder of orchestras”, his name is linked with the first performances of major works of the 20th century composed by Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and Prokofiev
In 1942, he acquired American nationality and settled in Maine. He devoted his time to teaching and conducted the top international orchestras. In 1961, he was appointed to lead the London Symphony Orchestra.

Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951)
Called on in 1924 to succeed Pierre Monteux, Serge Koussevitzky (incomparable interpreter of the Russian composers, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev) has conducted the Symphony Orchestra for 25 years and made it one of the finest in the world. His role in the music of the 20th century was a decisive one as he commissioned a great number of scores from Scriabin, Honegger, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schmidt, Prokofiev, Roussel, Bartók, Hindemith, Respighi, Milhaud and others. The Koussevitzky Foundation, set up in 1943 was behind the creation of Dutilleux’ Second Symphony, the Sixth Symphonies of Milhaud and Martinu, the Fifth Symphonies of Honegger, Dallapiccola, Ginastera and the work of many American composers.
From 1935 he turned the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood into the orchestra’s summer residence. He continued as its director until 1962. In 1940 he founded the Tanglewood Music Centre which gives new talents the opportunity to work with internationally renowned musicians.

Charles Munch (1891 – 1968)
In 1949 the French conductor, considered one of the finest interpreters of Berlioz and Roussel came on the scene. He conducted this orchestra for 13 years, giving a lot of space to the French music that was already popular with audiences, and developing the American repertoire.

Seiji Ozawa (born in 1935)
Appointed artistic director at Tanglewood in 1974, he was appointed director of this orchestra three years later, and he went on to direct it for 26 years. He was involved in the staging of famous operas: Tosca, Boris Godunov, Fidelio etc.

James Levine
New Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine is also artistic director of the New York Metropolitan Opera and the former musical director of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Boston Symphony Orchestra www.bso.org
This very “European” orchestra was directed initially by German conductors exclusively (Arthur Nikisch and the Wagnerian conductor Karl Muck) but in 1918, suspected as potential sympathisers to the German regime, they were banished and replaced by Franco-Russian conductors (Henri Rabaud, Pierre Monteux, Serge Koussevitzky and Charles Münch). These men brought French instrumentalists to Boston who trained their American successors in their particular way of playing.
After brief periods with conductors of Austrian or German origin (Erich Leinsdorf and William Steinberg) the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa took over the baton for nearly thirty years. His successor James Levine was the first American conductor in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to be entrusted with the post of musical director.

Tanglewood Music Festival www.bso.org
Summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood hosts one of the most famous music festivals of the United States each summer. The Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as other leading orchestras and American and international performers participate in this festival each year.

Boston Lyric Opera www.blo.org
The Boston Lyric Opera puts on at least 4 new shows each year and performs in the Shubert Theatre in the historic centre of the city.

Boston Early Music Festival www.bemf.org
This festival, begun in 1980, is dedicated to Baroque music, and at each session top soloists revive rarely played works. It takes place every two years.

Boston Pops Orchestra
An offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this orchestra, set up in 1881 by Henry Lee Higginson, was founded with the intention of offering concerts of lighter music that was accessible to a wide audience. Having become a veritable institution, it gives a great many concerts all over the world and in the United States.
In January 1980, John Williams was appointed director of this orchestra which he continued to direct even after his retirement in 1993.

Origins
Boston was built on the Shawmut peninsula. The early colonisers called it Trimountain because of its three hills. In 1623 the Reverend William Blackstone was the first Englishman to settle there. In 1630 he invited a small group of English pilgrims to join him. The colony then grew rapidly. Thanks to an abundance of cod in the bay, trade grew with the West Indies and the Mediterranean, in exchange for sugar, gold and molasses. In 1670, Boston dominated maritime trade with the West Indies, and in 1700, it was the British Empire’s third most important port.

An intellectual city
Right from the start, Boston represented the social, economic and cultural capital of Puritanism. The Puritans concerned themselves very early on with popular education. Education became widespread from the late 17th century with the creation of The Boston Public Latin School in 1635, Harvard College in 1636 and the MIT in 1861.

Origins of the War of Independence
From 1760 the colonists revolted against the taxes imposed by England and in 1770 the “Boston Massacre” took place in which English soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing three protesters. Then three years later came the “Boston Tea Party” in which the New England colonists demonstrated against the customs tax on tea imposed by King George III. They stormed aboard three English ships blockaded in Boston Harbour and dumped their cargoes of tea into the sea. King George III then closed the port and demanded that the inhabitants pay for the cargo. All the American colonies then made common cause with Massachusetts
The War of Independence properly broke out in Boston after the Battle of Lexington (1775). In March 1776, George Washington had Dorchester fortified to bombard the British who then evacuated the town in 1776 to make way for Washington’s troops. On 4 July 1776 the Unilateral Declaration of Independence drawn up in the presence of 4 Bostonians, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Samuel and John Adams, was presented. After further long battles, the independence of the United States was finally recognised on 3 September 1783 by the Treaty of Versailles.

Outcome of the War of Independence
Just after the War of Independence, the British cut off access to the ports of the empire to American ships. Boston built up new commercial relationships and got its economy back onto its feet thanks to its shipyards and its textile and shoe factories.

Decline
At the end of the 19th century, Boston was eclipsed by other port cities. The factories which made New England rich relocated to the South, where labour was cheaper. At that time, thousands of immigrants landed in Boston from Ireland, Italy, the Ottoman Empire and Portugal.

Today
Boston, which still has a major port, is the “intellectual” city of the United States. A great many engineers, technicians and professors from the North-East of the United States are the product of the universities of Boston, Cambridge and Springfield. Boston is also home to many inventors and writers.

Architecture

Main Architects

Some Highlights

Gardens & in the surrounding area

Cradle of North-American culture, New England has given the United States some great architects. The region produced four different styles: Colonial, Federal, Victorian and Contemporary.

Structure of the City
Boston is a city on a European scale designed with pedestrians in mind.
Each neighbourhood has a distinct personality which is reflected in the architecture and layout of the streets.

South End
A neighbourhood built in the London style, where rich captains of the merchant navy settled.

Back Bay
This neighbourhood, which was originally nothing more than a marsh, was artificially created with the aim of giving Boston the prestige of a great city.
The district’s heart, inhabited largely by rich financiers and businessmen, was designed in the form of a perfectly square grid. Newbury and Boylston are its shopping streets. The rest of the neighbourhood is residential.

Copley Square
A very European neighbourhood built at the end of the 19th century
Worth seeing:
- Trinity Church (1877), John Hancock Tower (1976)

Beacon Hill
A residential neighbourhood with Georgian villas dating from the 1800s and picturesque cobbled streets, where wealthy Bostonians settled in the early 19th century.
Worth seeing:
- Massachusetts State House (1798)
- Old Granary Burying Ground: cemetery in which lie Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams (heroes of the War of Independence)
- Old State House, Old South Meeting House

North End
Established in the early 17th century by the Puritans, this neighbourhood saw the arrival of several waves of immigrants from overseas: Irish, Eastern European Jews, Portuguese. It has been Boston’s Italian neighbourhood since 1890.
Worth seeing:
- Paul Revere House (1680) , colonial style
- St Stephens Church (1804)
- Old North Church (1723)
- Copp’s Hill Burying Ground (1660)

Newbury Street
This epitomises the authentic architecture of the 19th century: eccentric roofs, bay windows, small gardens…

Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
Boston’s market hall neighbourhood, which became rundown in the 1950s, was restored in a regeneration project into a tourism and shopping centre. Its hubbub is the main focus for Boston’s visitors.

Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844): Federal Style
His buildings in Boston:
- Massachusetts State House (1795-1798) with a gilded dome, brick façade, Palladian windows, Corinthian columns and mouldings.
- Faneuil Hall (1805)
- Harrison Gray Otis (1802)
- St Stephens Church

Henry Hobson Richardson (1838 - 1886): Victorian Style
This American architect trained in Paris was one of the first American builders to distance himself from European designs.
His buildings in Boston: Trinity church (1877), Brattle Square Unitarian Church (1869-1873)

Ieoh Ming Pei: Contemporary Style
An American architect of Chinese origin, born in 1917, among whose famous works are the Pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.
His buildings in Boston:
- John Hancock Tower (1972-1975)
- John F. Kennedy Library (1979)

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903): Landscape Architect
He introduced a new concept in urban parks by making them both places of relaxation and spaces for active leisure pursuits. He designed Central Park in New York and the Emerald Necklace in Boston.

Freedom Trail
This 4.5 km long trail indicated by a red line painted on the sidewalks of Boston, recounts the city’s history in 16 historic monuments.

Old State House
Built in 1713 to house the British governor, this is Boston’s oldest public building. A ring of cobblestones marks the site of the “Boston Massacre”, the event that sparked off the Revolution.
On 18 July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony of this building, which then served until 1798 as a meeting house for the government of the State of Massachusetts.
Converted into a museum since 1882, the Old State House presents exhibitions on the history and architecture and early period of Boston.

Trinity Church
Built in 1877, this French medieval style Romanesque Revival church is a veritable hotchpotch of European influences. With a bell tower that is Spanish in style, a porch that recalls Arles, and an enormous tower which is reminiscent of the domes of Venice and Constantinople, it is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Boston. Inside, the walls and ceiling are lavishly painted with colours and Moorish details. The observatory in the tower affords an exceptional view over the city.

John Hancock Observatory
This 60-storey tower in the shape of a rhomboid whose façade of mirror panels reflect the image of the Trinity Church, is the tallest skyscraper in New England. The venue hosts exhibitions and a son et lumière show on the city’s history.

Prudential Tower Skywalk Observatory
Built in the early 1960s, this is an example of urban regeneration and affords a unique sweeping view over the city centre.

Commonwealth Avenue
The design of this avenue, lined with magnificent residences and historic buildings, was modelled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Beacon, Marlborough and Newbury Streets (with their luxury shops and restaurants) run parallel with it.

Boston Public Library
Inspired by the great palaces of the Italian Renaissance, it was built in 1895 by McKim, Mead and White. The library houses many artistic and architectural treasures: murals by John Singer Sargent, paintings by John Singleton Copley, sculptures by Augustus and Louis Saint-Gaudens, and bronze doors by Daniel Chester French.

Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market
Built in 1742, the Faneuil Hall building served as both market and meeting hall. Nicknamed the “Cradle of Liberty”, it became the historic site of the colonial revolt against England. Nowadays it is a very lively area popular with street artists.

Emerald Necklace
A series of 9 adjacent green spaces comprising Boston Common, the Public Garden, Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Back Bay Fens, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum.

Boston Common (1634)
- This park is to Boston today what Central Park is to New York .

Public Gardens
Abundant with flowers, fountains, ornamental lakes and a great variety of trees.
Worth seeing:
- Statue of George Washington
- Swan Boats inspired by a scene from Wagner’s opera Lohengrin

OUTSIDE BOSTON

Cambridge www.cambridge.gov.uk/cambridge.htm
On the other side of the Charles River, Cambridge is home to the famous university of Harvard and the MIT. Considered as the industrial heart of the region, it has a great many high-tech companies have established themselves here.

Salem www.salemweb.com
25 km from Boston, this pretty historic village is famous for its maritime centre.
Worth visiting:
- Maritime Museum
- Peabody Essex Museum (with a collection of treasures from Asia)
- Salem Witch Museum (which tells the story of the famous witch hunts in 1692)

Gloucester www.ci.gloucester.ma.us
48 km north of Boston, this is the oldest seaport of the United States, with a large fishing fleet for cod, tuna, mackerel and swordfish. Whale watching expeditions are organised from the port.

Cap Cod
A seaside peninsula 80 km south of Boston, lined with kilometres of white sand and surrounded by villages of white houses. Its main areas of population are:
- Provincetown: a fishing village with an abundance of restaurants and shops and lots of cultural events
www.provincetown.com
- Hyannis: home to the Kennedy family
- Dennis: from where the whalers used to set out

Plymouth www.plymouth.gov.uk
This is the place, 1 hour south of Boston, where the Mayflower and its passengers from Europe landed in 1620 to seek their fortunes on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Berkshires
A picturesque chain of mountains 160 km to the west of Boston
Worth seeing:
- Tanglewood Music Festival
- Hancock historic village.

Food & Drink

Traditional customs and Festivals

Things to Do

Today a great place for high cuisine, Boston was originally called "Beantown".

Straters
- Clam chowder

Main Dishes
- Fresh Fish, sea food
- Oysters row, grilled, fried, in soup, etc…
- Steamed Clams
- Clambake with grilled corn and lobster
- Lobster
- Turkey with Oysters
- Boston baked beans

Desserts
- Local Maple Sirup
- Ben & Jerry ice cream

Drinks
- Samuel Adams Beer

- Wines, Cuisine and Arts Festivals of Boston (January / February )

- St-Patrick Parade and Evacuation day (Mach 17): To celebrate the day when George Washington won the British in Boston in 1776.

- Boston Marathon (April)

- Street Performers Festival (end of May)

- Salem Maritime Festival (June)
Maritime fair, with concerts and cooking specialities in Salem

- Boston Early Music Festival (June)
Festival dedicated to early music, bi-annual, next will take place in 2005

- Boston Harborfest (July)
Festival commemorating the colonial and maritime past of Boston - www.bostonharborfest.com

- Independance Day (July 4)
Concerts, fireworks...

- Tanglewood (July)
Summer season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

- Concerts at Boston Pops with fireworks (July)

- The Big « E » (September)
Each State presents its regional specialities. Big Fair with horses shows and music performances.

- Christmas Tree Lighting (December)

John F. Kennedy Library and Museum - www.jfklibrary.org
The purpose for the library is to advance the study and understanding of President Kennedy's life and career and the times in which he lived; and to promote a greater appreciation of America's political and cultural heritage, the process of governing and the importance of public service

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
www.gardnermuseum.org
Private collection in a 15th century Venetian style Palace.
Paintings from John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Turner, Matisse, Delacroix, works from Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Bellini and Raphaël.

Museum of Fine Arts – www.mfa.org
One of the biggest museum of the United States with great Asian Art collections, Egyptian antiquities, French and American impressionists painters.

Museum Wharf :
- Children's Museum – www.bostonkids.org
Today, after 90 years, the Boston Children's Museum exists to help children understand and enjoy the world in which they live.
- Computer Museum: the first computer was invented in Boston in 1927
Many interactive presentations, children can surf on the web and ride virtual bicycles.

Museum of Science & Planetarium - www.mos.org
Over 400 exhibitions and the Omni Theater with IMAX movies and a Planetarium.

Dreams of Freedom
Relive Boston ancestors' journey by touring multimedia exhibits and interactive stations. See their heirlooms and travel chests, take a US citizenship test.

Hotels		Restaurants		Web Sites
*Sheraton Boston (5)** 39, Dalton Street – Tel : +1 (617) 236 2000 www.sheraton.com/boston In Back Bay area, near the Boston Common, the Fenway Park, the Prudential shopping mall and the Symphony Hall. Millenium Bostonian (5) Faneuil Hall Marketplace – Tel : +1 (617) 523 3600 European style Hotel within the heart of the city. Eliot Suite Hotel (4) 370, Commonwealth Avenue – Tel : +1 (617) 267 1607 www.eliothotel.com Within the Back Bay area, a few minutes from Newbury Street and Copley Place Commonwealth Hotel (4)* 500, Commonwealth Avenue – Tel : +1 (617) 933 5000 www.hotelcommonwealth.com Near Kenmore Square and the Museums area.		Julien Le Méridien Hotel - 250 Franklin St. Tel : +1 (617) 451 1900 Beautiful restaurant decorated in a Renaissance style. French and New England Specialities: Long Island Duck, Maine grilled lobster, Mushrooms soufflé… The Union Oyster House 41, Union Street www.unionoysterhouse.com The oldest restaurant of Boston (1826) which offers an authentique cuisine from the sea, in a rustic decoration. Famous people can often be seen (the Kennedy familly, Paul Newman, Lawrence Olivier, George Bush…) Specialities : Fish soup, steamed sea food, lobters, corn from New England, red potates from North America. Rowes Wharf Restaurant 70, Rowes Wharf - Tel: +1 (617) 439 3995 Restaurant with a view on the port offering meat and see food specialities from New England.		Massachusetts Tourism Office www.mass-vacation.com Tourism Guide of the city www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/north_america/boston/ www.voyagesvoyages.be/reportage/US/boston.html www.usatourist.com/english/places/massachusetts/boston.html www.panoramamagazine.com/panoramamagazine www.cityofboston.gov Boston city map www.panoramamagazine.com/panoramamagazine/map.asp Pictures of Boston www.photographybymaureen.com/boston.html www.ptexpress.com/photo.html History and architecture of Boston www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=arch City-Discovery.com : Choose and book the most popular tours and attractions ! world-airport-transfer.com : Easy and convenient way to move from the airport to your hotel.