Believe it or not, 2020 marks the Boston Landmarks Orchestra's twentieth season! To commemorate this grand achievement, we'll be looking back at some of Landmarks' "greatest hits" over the years.
Starting in 2007, Boston Landmarks Orchestra began its tenure at the Hatch Memorial Shell with a nine-week concert series. Landmarks had performed at the Hatch Shell only once before in 2006. On Wednesday, July 11, 2007, the first night of the "Landmarks Festival at the Shell," the orchestra performed Haydn's Symphony No. 104 as well as Beethoven's iconic Ninth Symphony.
In a July 6, 2007 article in the
Back Bay Sun, then-conductor and founder Charles Ansbacher said that "the history and the setting of the Hatch Shell make it a unique outdoor venue for classical music." The Hatch Shell was specifically built for orchestral concerts in 1940, after a $300,000 trust for a public space from Back Bay resident Maria Hatch was discovered in 1935. Before then, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops had been giving free summer concerts in a temporary bandshell on the Esplanade starting in 1929. The Pops concert series on the Esplanade continued until 2004, leaving the Hatch concert-less for about three years until the Landmarks Orchestra picked up the torch in 2007. It has been a joy to perform at what is indeed an historic and unique space, and we are so excited to continue on in 2020 and for years to come!
