Breaking: Tanglewood cancels

This may be the most obtuse press release of the whole Covid period.

It begins: 2020 TANGLEWOOD LIVE PERFORMANCE AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS, SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE JUNE 19-AUGUST 27, ARE CANCELED DUE TO CONCERNS OVER SPREAD OF COVID-19

That’s really sad, but everything is off.

It continues: SEASON OFFERINGS WILL NOW TAKE PLACE THROUGH TANGLEWOOD 2020 ONLINE FESTIVAL, A GROUNDBREAKING DIGITAL SERIES OF AUDIO AND VIDEO STREAMS.

Everything is still off.

For plain English read BSO president Mark Volpe:
All of us at the Boston Symphony Orchestra deeply wish we could have found a way to present performances at Tanglewood this summer. We explored every possible scenario to try to save all or part of our concert schedule, but with the health of the greater Tanglewood community as our highest priority, performances with audiences are not possible. Since the only time the festival was canceled outright was in 1945 due to World War II, you can only imagine what a difficult decision it was. “I hope everyone wholoves Tanglewood will take advantage of the diverse offerings of Tanglewood 2020 Online Festival,as every effort has been made to bring the spirit of Tanglewood into the numerous video and audio streams featured throughout the summer. With multi-layered content that also focuses on the Tanglewood Music Center and the Tanglewood Learning Institute, we believe these online programs have the potential to break new ground. Most importantly, we hope they will maintain connections with our Tanglewood communityand provide the inspiration needed during this challenging period.“Though we understandthat nothing takes the place of a live performance, during this hiatus summerI hope Tanglewood’s loyal supporters will sit in their yards or homes on a Sunday afternoon watching a video stream of a recent BSO performance from the Shed, or spend a Friday or Saturday evening enjoying newly-recorded performance streams. This content will highlight our wonderful BSO musicians and treasured guest artists who were to be featured on the stages of the Shed and Ozawa Hall this summer.