20th Annual Bard Music Festival “Wagner and His World” Opens
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. –
The 20th annual Bard Music Festival opens here on Friday, August 14
for Weekend One: Wagner and His World – The Fruits of Ambition. Leon
Botstein, co-artistic director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival,
delivers a pre-concert talk entitled “Genius Unanticipated” before conducting
the resident American Symphony Orchestra in the first all-Wagner concert of the
Festival. The program includes the
seldom-performed Symphony in C, excerpts from Rienzi, the Faust Symphony, Die Feen, Das
Liebesverbot, and Parsifal, and the concert ends with selections from Tristan
und Isolde. Each of the six concerts is augmented
by a pre-concert talk delivered by a distinguished scholar; John Deathridge,
Alexander Rehding, Dana Gooley, Thomas S. Grey, R. Larry Todd, Kevin Karnes, Lawrence Kramer, and Jann Pasler will
discuss Wagnerian themes. Such
noted singers as Christine Goerke, Erin Morley, John Hancock, and Marjorie
Owens; pianists Jeremy Denk, Piers Lane, and Danny Driver; the Bard Chamber
Players, the Borromeo String Quartet, violinist Stefan Jackiw, and many other
musicians will perform music by Richard Wagner and numerous other composers,
ranging from Palestrina, via Bruckner and Brahms, to Auber, Bellini, Berlioz,
Cherubini, Chopin, Meyerbeer, and Rossini.
During this first weekend (a
second follows, August 21-23), Bard Music Festival audiences may take in an
illustrated talk on “Reality and Image: Wagner in Film,” attend a panel
discussion on “Warring Aesthetics,” and witness how inauspiciously the
composer’s career began. The first
weekend explores the transformation of a highly ambitious but obscure young man
into a world-famous revolutionary artist.
“Wagner in Paris” – the weekend’s final program, on Sunday at 5:30 pm –
sees the subject at the pinnacle of his pre-Bayreuth career; round-trip
transportation by coach from Columbus Circle for this performance is available
(call 845-758-7900 for details).
Notable and notably rare
music is offered during the weekend, including parlor- and art songs by Wagner;
his arrangements of music by others; others’ arrangements of his music; and
sacred and secular choral compositions – in short, much that is offered the
same way most people heard music in the 19th century: in reductions
from full concert scores.
Critical acclaim:
Writing for the Wall
Street Journal, Barrymore Laurence
Scherer recently observed, “The Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY,
which begins its 20th season in mid-August, no longer needs an
introduction. Under the
provocative guidance of the conductor-scholar Leon Botstein, it has long been
one of the most intellectually stimulating of all American summer festivals and
frequently is one of the most musically satisfying.” Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed has described the Bard Music Festival as “uniquely
stimulating,” while Steve Smith, reporting for the New York Times, has called it “part boot camp for the brain, part
spa for the spirit.”
Complete programs for
Weekend One of the 2009 Bard Music Festival follow.
THE
BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL PRESENTS “WAGNER AND HIS WORLD”
Weekend
One: August 14-16
Friday, August 14, 2009
BMF
Program One
Genius
Unanticipated
Friday,
August 14, 2009 at 8 pm
Fisher
Center, Sosnoff Theater
7:00 pm Preconcert Talk: Leon Botstein
8:00 pm Performance:
Christine Goerke, soprano; Daniel Mobbs, bass-baritone; American Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Richard
Wagner (1813–83)
Symphony in C major (1832)
Overture to Rienzi, the Last of the
Tribunes (1840)
Faust Symphony, First Movement WWV 59
(Faust Overture, First Version) (1840)
Excerpts from Die Feen (1834); Das
Liebesverbot (1836); Tristan und Isolde (1859); and Parsifal (1882)
Tickets:
$25, $40, $55
_________________
Saturday, August 15, 2009
BMF
Illustrated Talk
Reality
and Image: Wagner in Film
Saturday,
August 15, 2009 at 10:00 am
Olin
Hall
Speaker: John Deathridge
Free and open to the public
BMF
Program Two
In
the Shadow of Beethoven
Saturday,
August 15, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Olin
Hall
1:00 pm Preconcert Talk: Alexander Rehding
1:30 pm Performance: Danny Driver, piano; Erin Morley, soprano;
Marjorie Owens, soprano; Pei-Yao Wang, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
Fantasy in
F-sharp minor, for piano (1831)
Der
Tannenbaum (1838)
From Seven
Compositions from Goethe’s Faust (1831)
Louis Spohr (1784–1859)
Nonet, Op. 31,
for strings and winds (1813)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826)
Arias from Der
Freischütz (1821) and Oberon (1826)
Carl Czerny (1791–1857)
Variations
brillantes, Op. 14 (1821)
Arias and Songs by Carl Loewe
(1796–1869); Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861); Robert Franz (1815–
92); Friedrich
von Flotow (1812–83); Ferdinand Hiller (1811–85); and Carl Maria von Weber
(1786- 1826)
Tickets: $35
BMF
Program Three
Wagner
and the Choral Tradition
Saturday,
August 15, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Olin
Hall
5:00 pm Performance: Bard Festival Chamber Players; Bard Festival
Chorale, conducted by James Bagwell, choral director
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
Festgesang “Der Tag erscheint”
(1843)
Gesang am
Grabe Julies von Holtei (1839)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(c. 1525–94)
Stabat mater (1590; ed. Wagner,
1848)
Franz Liszt (1811–86)
Ave verum
corpus
(1871)
O salutaris
hostia
(c. 1870)
Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
Os justi
meditabitur, WAB 30 (1879)
Locus iste a
Deo factus est, WAB 23 (1869)
Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
Four Songs, for
women’s chorus, two horns, and harp, Op. 17 (1869)
Vier
Zigeunerlieder, Op. 112b (by 1891)
Fest- und
Gedenksprüche, Op. 109 (?1888–89)
Der
bucklichte Fiedler, Op. 93a, No. 1 (1883)
Verlorene
Jugend,
Op. 104, No. 4 (by 1888)
Von alten
Liebesliedern, Op. 62, No. 2 (1873–74)
Schaffe in
mir Gott,
Op. 29, No. 2 (1856–60)
Tickets: $30
BMF
Program Four
The
Triumphant Revolutionary
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Fisher
Center, Sosnoff Theater
7:00 pm Preconcert Talk: Dana Gooley
8:00 pm Performance: Richard Brunner, tenor; Teresa Buchholz,
mezzo-soprano; Christine Goerke, soprano; John Hancock, baritone; Philip Horst,
baritone; Daniel Mobbs, bass-baritone; Scott Williamson, tenor; Bard Festival
Chorale, with James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Richard
Wagner (1813–83)
Excerpts from The
Flying Dutchman (1841), Lohengrin (1848), and Tannhäuser (1861)
Supplemental
materials for La descente de la courtille (1841) by Th. Marion Dumersan and Ch.-
Désiré Dupeuty and Norma (1831) by Vincenzo Bellini
Tickets:
$25, $40, $55
Sunday,
August 16, 2009
BMF
Panel One
Warring
Aesthetics
__________________
Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Olin
Hall
Warring
Aesthetics
Thomas S. Grey, moderator; Kevin
Karnes; Lawrence Kramer; Alexander Rehding
Free and open to the public
BMF
Program Five
Wagner’s
Destructive Obsession: Mendelssohn and Friends
Sunday,
August 16, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Olin Hall
1:00 pm Preconcert Talk: R. Larry Todd
1:30 pm Performance: Borromeo String Quartet; Edward Arron, cello;
Bernadene Blaha, piano; Jeremy Denk, piano; John Hancock, baritone; Stefan
Jackiw, violin; Piers Lane, piano; Jeffrey Lang, horn
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
Les deux
grenadiers (1839–40)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
From Songs
Without Words, Opp. 19b, 38, and 67 (1829–45)
Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, arr.
piano duet (1830, arr. 1832)
Piano Trio No.
2 in C minor, Op. 66 (1845)
Robert Schumann (1810–56)
“Die beiden
Grenadiere,” Op. 49, No. 1 (1840)
Piano Quintet
in E-flat major, Op. 44 (1842)
Andante and
Variations, WoO 10 (1843)
Clara Schumann (1819–96)
“Die stille Lotosblume,”
Op. 13, No. 6 (1840–43)
Tickets: $35
_______________
BMF
Program Six
Wagner
in Paris
+
Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Fisher
Center, Sosnoff Theater
5:00 pm Preconcert Talk: Jann Pasler
5:30 pm Performance: Borromeo String Quartet; Jeremy Denk, piano;
Danny Driver, piano; Laura Flax, clarinet; Angela Meade, soprano; Erin Morley,
soprano; Pei-Yao Wang, piano; Scott Williamson, tenor; Bard Festival Chamber
Players
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
“Adieux de
Marie Stuart,” for voice and piano (1840)
“Attente,” for
voice and piano (1839)
Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842)
String Quartet
No. 4 in E major (1835)
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber
(1782–1871)
From “Zanetta,”
arr. for flute and string trio (1840; arr. Wagner)
Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864)
“Hirtenlied,”
for voice, clarinet, and piano (1842)
Ferdinand Hérold (1791–1833)
Overture to Zampa, arr. for piano four
hands (1831)
Fromental Halévy (1799–1862)
From Le
Guitarrero, arr. for flute and string trio (1841, arr. Wagner)
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
“March to the
Scaffold,” from Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 (1830; arr. Liszt)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
Polonaise-fantaisie, Op. 61 (1846)
Franz Liszt (1811–86)
“Valse infernale,”
from Réminiscences de Robert le diable (1841)
Arias by Gaspare Spontini
(1774–1851); Giaochino Rossini (1792–1868); and Vincenzo Bellini (1801– 35)
Tickets: $20, $35, $45
+ Round-trip
transportation by coach from Columbus Circle in NYC to the Fisher Center will
be provided for the August 16 performance of Bard Music Festival Program
Six. Reservations are
required. Call the Box Office for
more information.
Weekend Two
of “Wagner and His World” takes place at Bard on August 21-23.
BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL
TICKET INFORMATION
For tickets
and further information on all Bard Music Festival events, phone the Fisher
Center box office at (845) 758-7900 or visit www.fishercenter.bard.edu.
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© 21C Media Group, August 2009