Lenox, Mass., July 8

Among scores of rotting and deserted New England summer palaces whose owners have decided that taxes and the servant problem were too much for them, one in the Massachusetts hills has achieved a final use which places it in a position unique on this continent. "Tanglewood," the Berkshire estate where Nathaniel Hawthorne reputedly wrote several of his major works, has become the summer home of more than four hundred music students from all over the world, who combine a summer of study under topnotch instructors with the chance to hear a baker's dozen of concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The fulfillment of a lifelong dream of the B.S.O.'s conductor, Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, came with the founding of the school just before the war; and this season found more than even last year's record enrollment crowding school facilities for the first-of-July opening. With a solid week of student concerts already under its belt, the huge outdoor shed echoing to the myriad noises of tuning musicians, and the full-scale Berkshire Festival due to get underway, the Orchestra management announced last week final plans for the season.

The opening series of concerts include a performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D minor on July 24, and the "Harold in Italy" symphony by Berlioz with William Primrose as viola soloist. These will be under the direction of Dr. Koussevitzky, while the final concert of this series will follow the baton of Leonard Bernstein, who will lead the Orchestra in Schubert's Symphony No. 7 and Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps."

The biggest box-office draw of the summer has proved to be the second series, when all nine of Beethoven's symphonies and two of his piano concertos will be presented under Dr. Koussevitzky. The final series, like the first, includes works from Haydn to Hindemuth, with the Festival chorus under Robert Shaw, who last brought his talents before University audiences with his choir concert at the Music Symposium in May, directing one concert which is to feature the Mozart "Requiem."

All in all, the Tanglewood season should produce a varied and expertly-presented program for the music-lover. It's a long haul from Cambridge, taking even the most inspired driver about four hours, but the Cambridge-worn student could hardly find a better place to forget the heat than here where Dr. Koussevitzky and his staff have accomplished a musical miracle for America's youth.