February 23, 2005

Brahmin Redux

Concerts at the Gardner Museum

Okay, so maybe they were guilty of tweed overkill. And maybe their methods of acquiring wealth were tantamount to piracy.

But you’ve got to hand it to those Brahmins: They sure did know how to party. And they did it so slyly, too — in the guise of self-betterment. Take Isabella Stewart Gardner’s infamous parties in her extravagant Italian palazzo — they were turn-of-the-century Boston’s HQ for art and live classical concerts.

Gardner’s home is now an internationally lauded art museum. Any culture vulture worth her BSO subscription knows that. But somehow modern Boston’s radar has just never quite picked up that those chamber music concerts are still happening there. And they’re performed in the Museum’s gorgeous tapestry room no less, overlooking the same sun-dappled garden courtyard that the city’s First Families hobnobbed in back in the day.

So go ahead: Make like a Brahmin and mix edification with schmoozing.

No tweed required.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, Boston (617-278-5156 or gardnermuseum.org); every Sunday afternoon from September-April at 1:30 p.m.