Destination: Massachusetts : Notes From the Berkshires : Orchestrating Culture--From Tanglewood to Norman Rockwell to Shakespeare

Dawn in the Berkshires. Well, maybe more like 9-ish. A haunting riff from a distant flute drifts across the meadow, flutters tantalizingly through the pine boughs above my head, then before I can catch it is lost in a crescendo of horns and strings.

A music student’s dogged practice session has been momentarily eclipsed by a shirt-sleeve rehearsal of the entire Boston Symphony.

The orchestra will return in full dress that evening to enthrall hordes of music lovers on their annual pilgrimage to Tanglewood. Thousands enjoy the summer concerts--this year June 26 through Sept. 4--from picnic blankets that cover almost every inch of the sprawling lawn within earshot of the Music Shed. They probably would sit on hot coals, if necessary. And though they don’t show up in quite such numbers for the student recitals, Tanglewood audiences show the young performers the same reverence for their talent, which invariably is considerable.

Nowhere this side of Camelot can you enjoy a more magically rejuvenating weekend than in the 20-mile radius around the tiny town of Lenox, Mass.

Besides the centerpiece Tanglewood Music Festival, which in addition to the Boston Symphony includes guest orchestras and jazz and folk artists, as well as classical musicians, Lenox offers the Berkshire Opera Company and Shakespeare & Company productions at the Mount, the estate built by novelist Edith Wharton.

A few miles away in Stockbridge, there’s the Stockbridge Summer Music Series and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Great Barrington, about 10 miles south, offers the Aston Magna Festival of early music and the Stockbridge Chamber Music Concerts at historic Searles Castle. The Berkshire Choral Festival takes place a few miles farther south in Sheffield. The renowned Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is about 10 miles east of Lenox in Becket. Venture about 20 miles north and you can include the acclaimed Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Many of these seasonal attractions, such as Tanglewood, offer outdoor open seating, workshop performances or lecture series that are much cheaper than the main events. And casual rehearsals, which often can be more absorbing than the finished product, generally are free. (The hills are alive with mosquitoes too, so be sure to pack insect repellent.)

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Writers and artists have been coming to the western Massachusetts Berkshires for R&R; since the middle of the last century, and when Newport started getting crowded, wealthy New Yorkers looking for vacation retreats converted old farms into grand Berkshire cottages. A number of these restored estates, such as Edith Wharton’s, now are venues for this staggering array of culture in the country. The programs tend to run through Labor Day; some of the estates are open through the October foliage season.

In two days last summer I managed to take in one concert, two plays and snatches of countless rehearsals; visit several estates and museums; browse in numerous shops and galleries; dine memorably (at the Apple Tree Inn across the road from Tanglewood, Church Street Cafe in Lenox and the landmark Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge); hike along miles of trails, and still come away feeling more relaxed than I’ve been since about 1988.

There’s something profoundly restorative about the deep-green hillsides, which have remained lush when the rest of the Northeast looks, in comparison, like the Mojave Desert. I’m convinced that the towering trees, too, get nourishment from the daily infusions of Mozart and Mahler, though I’ll concede it might also have something to do with the frequent mountain rainstorms.

Because I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find central Berkshires lodging in midsummer, I turned to the American Country Collection of Bed & Breakfasts, a regional reservation service. They charge a $10 fee for the first night’s booking, which covers any subsequent reservations within six months.

It was well worth it to be directed to Lenox’ lovely Garden Gables Inn. Set back from Main Street amid five acres of gardens and trees, it gives the feeling of a faraway retreat while only a couple of blocks from the center of town. Tanglewood was about a mile away but down a long, steep hill.

Garden Gables’ gracious innkeepers, Mario and Lynn Mekinda, bought the 1780 house seven years ago and offer 18 tastefully decorated rooms, some with fireplaces and private porches. The back-yard pool, a rarity in the Berkshires, is good-sized. Add a comfortable living room with TV for guests to catch up on news of the outside world, the pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator and the delicious breakfast buffet, and I was ready to move in for good.

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Downtown Lenox and downtown Stockbridge and West Stockbridge,

for that matter, is little more than a country crossroads with a few inns, shops and restaurants, most in old houses. Lenox is the most like an unpretentious small town, rather than a resort. There are no traffic lights or parking limits, and the shops seem predominantly local ventures, including some nice clothing boutiques.

Antiques stores dot village streets and back roads throughout the area, among the general stores selling gourmet coffee along with bait and tackle. And Massachusetts 7, just outside Lenox village, has Lenox House Country Shops factory outlet stores.

But the Berkshires really aren’t meant for shopaholics, who would have been as out of place as Martians in the world depicted by the area’s most beloved artist, Norman Rockwell. His homespun covers for the Saturday Evening Post immortalized Stockbridge, where he lived and worked most of his later life, and the Norman Rockwell Museum, on an estate a couple of miles from town, displays a vast collection of his illustrations. His last studio was also moved to the site. Visitors can join frequent guided talks--some even given by townspeople who served as models for Rockwell. There are picnic tables scattered around the grounds, which display sculpture by Rockwell’s son, Peter.

I also enjoyed nearby Chesterwood, former home of sculptor Daniel Chester French, noted for the Lincoln Memorial and other public monuments. Works by contemporary sculptors are displayed around the grounds of this estate.

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En route to a matinee at the Mount, I spent a peaceful hour walking in the terraced gardens at Naumkeag, a gabled mansion designed by Stanford White for Joseph Choate, ambassador to England at the turn of the century.

The Mount has four theaters, two outdoors and two indoors. While I waited to enter the Italianate mansion to see adaptations of two stories by Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, I watched actors romping through the surrounding woods rehearsing “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” presented outdoors in the evenings.

Another afternoon I drove about half an hour north to Hancock Shaker Village, which has numerous programs and demonstrations about life in this farming community established by the now-vanished sect that was committed to celibacy. I also went to Williamstown, about an hour north of Lenox, to visit its two outstanding museums, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute. Both are free.

GUIDEBOOK: Berkshire Bound

Getting there: From LAX fly nonstop to Boston on American, United, Northwest; lowest round-trip fares start at about $460. From Boston, it is about a three-hour drive to the Berkshires; New York City, about 3 1/2 hours. Airports at Albany, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., are each about a one-hour drive to the Berkshires.

Where to stay: Garden Gables Inn, P.O. Box 52 (at 141 Main St.), Lenox 01240, (413) 637-0193; $90 to $195 daily and weekends in season (three-night minimum July-August and holiday weekends, two nights June, September-October. American Country Collection of Bed and Breakfasts, (518) 439-7001 ($10 fee for booking service); rooms in the Berkshires range from about $45 to $190.

What to do: Most house tours and museum admissions are $4 to $8. Plays and concerts, many of which run between now and Labor Day, $5 to $67 per person. Call individual box offices for more detailed information. Bikes are $20 a day at Main Street Sports & Leisure in Lenox.

Tanglewood, (413) 637-1940 (recording) or (413) 637-1600; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, (413) 243-0745; Berkshire Theatre, (413) 298-5576; Berkshire Opera Company, (413) 243-1343; Shakespeare & Company, (413) 637-3353; Berkshire Choral Festival, (413) 229-3522; Stockbridge Summer Music Series, (413) 443-1138; Berkshire Theatre Festival, (413) 298-5576; Stockbridge Chamber Music Concerts, (413) 528-8227; Berkshire Choral Festival, (413) 229-3522; Aston Magna Festival, (413) 528-3595; Williamstown Theatre Festival, (413) 597-3400; Norman Rockwell Museum (413) 298-4100; Chesterwood, (413) 298-3579; Naumkeag, (413) 298-3239; Hancock Shaker Village, (413) 443-0188; Williams College Museum of Art (413) 597-2429; Clark Art Institute (413) 458-2303.

For further information: Berkshire Visitors Bureau, (800) BERKSHR; Lenox Chamber of Commerce, (413) 637-3646; Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, (413) 528-1510.