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January 2023
01-24-2023
Second annual festival highlights include Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing U.S. premieres of Kurtág solo piano works and The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, Op. 7: Concerto for Soprano and Piano with Aimard and Tony Arnold; Kurtág’s quartet Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, with movements from Cristóbal de Morales' 16th century Officium Defunctorum; and Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben paired with Kurtág’s Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova
Admission is free for all performances
Conceived and curated by pianist Shai Wosner, Signs, Games & Messages is an annual three-day, four-concert festival at Bard College Conservatory of Music that explores the music of Hungarian composer György Kurtág (b. 1926), as well as that of composers who influenced or were influenced by him. Using Kurtág as a point of departure into music regardless of century or style, the Festival places different pieces and composers in a dialogue outside of time. Performances take place at Olin Hall, Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and the Bitó Conservatory Building Performance Space on Friday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, February 25 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., and on Sunday, February 26 at 2:00 p.m. Admission is free for all performances.
Reflecting on his inspiration for the festival, Shai Wosner said:
“The title of the annual festival—Signs, Games & Messages—taken from the work by Kurtág, captures the essence of his music and how it constantly interacts with other music and unfolds as a series of highly personal and condensed utterances. This year, the program centerpieces are 'messages' that reflect on the fragility of life—in particular the rarely-performed and monumental Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, and the great song cycle Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova. While sometimes late 20th-century music has a reputation for being ‘mathematical’ or ‘cerebral’, Kurtág stands for me as one of the big figures who forged a path for unapologetically visceral music, and opened the way for many who came after him.”
This year’s festival begins on Friday, February 24 with Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing solo piano works by Schubert and Kurtág, including U.S. premieres composed for Aimard by Kurtág during the pandemic and selections from the composer’s Játékok (Games)—short pieces stemming from the Hungarian tradition of blurring the lines between "educational" and "serious/concert" music. The program continues with Kurtág’s rarely performed The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, Op. 7: Concerto for Soprano and Piano—a cornerstone of late 20th century repertoire widely considered one of Kurtág’s masterpieces—with Aimard and soprano Tony Arnold.
The second program, during the afternoon on February 25, revolves around Bartok's Mikrokosmos (which inspired Kurtag's Games), performed by Bard Prep Division students ages 8-16, interspersed with other related 'game'-like pieces including Bizet’s Jeux d'enfants, Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs, Ravel’s Ma mère l'Oye, and selections by Bach, Chopin, Fauré, and Beethoven, performed by pianists including Frank Corliss, Kayo Iwama, Blair McMillen, Victoria Schwartzman, Susanne Son, Terrence Wilson, and Shai Wosner.
That same evening, the third program centers on spirituality, juxtaposing Kurtág’s quartet Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky with Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, both of which confront the reality of death and the possibility of renewed life. The pieces are interposed with movements from Cristóbal de Morales' 16th century requiem, Officium Defunctorum. Performers on this program include Bard’s Vocal Ensemble and String Quartet, and musicians from the Orion, Guarneri, and Borromeo quartets — violinists Daniel Phillips and Carmit Zori, violist Melissa Reardon, and cellist Peter Wiley —coming together for special performance of the Beethoven String Quartet.
The final program on February 26 contrasts two song cycles about women: Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -Leben and Kurtág’sMessages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova, performed by pianist Kayo Iwama, members of the Bard Vocal Ensemble, and the Bard Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Benjamin Hochman. Schumann’s piece is based on a male-written text that reflects outdated views on women of the time, while Kurtág's cycle is set to 15 poems by Rimma Dalos that are far more current in their sensibility. Heard side by side, the contrasting cycles explore both how the fragmentation in Schumann's music greatly influenced Kurtág's work, and how male-created art has perceived and portrayed a woman’s experiences through time.
01-17-2023
This January, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the winners of the 2023 Charles Ives Opera Prize and the Marc Blitzstein Memorial Awards. Bard Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek will each receive a Marc Blitzstein Memorial Award of $10,000, which are given in the memory of Marc Blitzstein to composers, lyricists, or librettists to encourage the creation of works of merit for musical theater and opera. Mazzoli and Vavrek have collaborated on the operas Breaking the Waves, Proving Up, Songs from the Uproar, and The Listeners. In 1965 the friends of Academy member Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) set up a fund in his memory for an award, now $10,000, to be given periodically to a composer, lyricist, or librettist, to encourage the creation of works of merit for musical theater and opera. The awards, to be given at the annual Ceremonial in May, “reflect the essential mission of the Academy to recognize, identify, and reward works of highest aspiration and superior craft by contemporary artists in our culture,” said Yehudi Wyner, a composer member and former president of the Academy.
01-13-2023
Mezzo-soprano, and Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program Alumna, Sun-Ly Pierce VAP ’19, whose upcoming roles include Laurene Powell Jobs in Calgary Opera’s production of “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” and Arsamene in Handel’s “Xerxes” at Detroit Opera, is featured as this month's Sound Bite in Opera News. “I love Handel. I love early music. I really love contemporary opera,” says Pierce. “I love the challenge of making a new work as immediate as possible for people who've never heard it before. I love the idea of being able to put my fingerprint on it.” Opera News’ Sound Bites series spotlights up-and-coming singers and conductors in the world of opera.
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