Image Credit: W.A. Rieder, 1825

Final Weekend of 25th Anniversary Bard Music Festival, “Schubert and His World,” Opens Friday, August 15

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY—The second and final weekend of the Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its Silver Jubilee with an exploration of “Schubert and His World,” opens on Friday, August 15. Addressing the nature of Schubert’s originality and of his subsequent legacy and influence, “A New Aesthetics of Music” kicks off with a trio of special events, comprising performances of the Austrian composer’s Octet and Kosegarten Liederspiel settings, as well as showing of Fritz Lehner’s three-part film Notturno. Next follows the weekend’s first concert, “Beethoven’s Successor?”, an historic recreation of the sole public program that Schubert devoted entirely to his own music, with the Horszowski Trio’s account of his profound Piano Trio in E-flat as its centerpiece. Among the weekend’s other highlights are a pair of programs featuring the festival’s resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director and festival co-artistic director Leon Botstein, who was recently recognized as “one of the most remarkable figures in the worlds of arts and culture” (THIRTEEN’s NYC-Arts). The first juxtaposes three of Schubert’s late choral works with Rendering, a completion of his unfinished tenth symphony by Luciano Berio, while the second presents Fierrabras, Schubert’s greatest though neglected opera, in a semi-staged production starring Joseph Kaiser, drawing the 25^th anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival – and, indeed, the entire seven weeks of Bard SummerScape – to a gripping close.

Three vocal and chamber programs further contextualize Schubert. “The Music of Friendship” examines the lighter, more social fare for which he was best-known in his lifetime, while “The Final Months” presents some of his most important mature masterpieces, including his incomparable setting of Heine’s Der Doppelgänger, and the harrowing yet uplifting Piano Sonata in A, D959. “Fellowship of Men: The Male Choral Tradition” investigates the key role played by secular male choral singing in Austro-German culture, through works by Schubert, Michael Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner, Brahms, and others.

A free panel discussion on Saturday morning, moderated by Morten Solvik, one of Bard’s two Scholars-in-Residence, considers “Music’s ‘Far Fairer Hopes’: Originality and Influence,” and five of the weekend’s six programs are augmented by pre-concert talks from distinguished experts, namely John M. Gingerich, Walter Frisch, Scott Burnham, Michael P. Steinberg, and Bard’s co-artistic director and second Scholar-in-Residence, Christopher H. Gibbs. Solvik also provides illuminating commentary to the performance of Schubert’s Kosegarten Liederspiel, a set of the musical charades so popular within Schubert’s circle.

As in previous seasons, Weekend Two’s choral programs feature the Bard Festival Chorale directed by James Bagwell, and among the many other notable musicians who perform are tenor Paul Appleby, “a marvel: an intelligent young singer equipped with the elegance and expressivity of an old pro” (New York magazine); tenor Joseph Kaiser, silver medalist in the Operalia International Opera Competition; Laura Flax, principal clarinetist with the New York City Opera, American Symphony, and Bard Festival Orchestras; and pianist Piers Lane, for whom “no praise could be high enough” (Gramophone).

NYC-Arts’ recent interview with Leon Botstein may be viewed here, and the conductor may also be seen in conversation with his fellow artistic director, Christopher Gibbs, here.

Critical acclaim:

The Bard Music Festival has impressed critics worldwide. NPR Music named it one of the “Ten Can’t Miss Classical Music Festivals,” the Wall Street Journal calls it “A highlight of the musical year,” and the New York Times, which dubs it “part boot camp for the brain, part spa for the spirit,” reports that “performers engaged by Bard invariably seem energized by the prospect of extending beyond canonical routine, and by an audience that comes prepared with open ears and open minds.” As the Wall Street Journal’s Barrymore Laurence Scherer observes, the Bard Music Festival “has long been one of the most intellectually stimulating of all American summer festivals and frequently is one of the most musically satisfying.” Reviewing a previous season of the festival, the New York Times marveled, “As impressive as many of the festival performances were, they were matched by the audience’s engagement: strangers met and conversed, analyzing the music they’d heard with sophistication, and a Sunday-morning panel discussion of gender issues in 19^th-century culture drew a nearly full house. All told, it was a model for an enlightened society.” 

Getting to the Bard Music Festival: New York City Round-Trip Bus Transportation

A round-trip bus service is provided exclusively to ticket-holders for the performances listed below. Reservations are required, and may be made by calling the box office at 845-758-7900. The newly reduced round-trip fare is $20, and the bus departs from Lincoln Center at the times indicated:

Program 7: Friday, August 15 at 8 pm (preconcert talk at 7:30 pm) 3:30 pm

Program 12: Sunday, August 17 at 4:30 pm (preconcert talk at 3:30 pm)     12:00 pm

Further details are available at fishercenter.bard.edu/transportation.

Bard’s sensationally popular European Spiegeltent will be open for lunch and dinner throughout “Schubert and His World.”

Program details of 2014 Bard Music Festival, “Schubert and His World”

WEEKEND TWO: A New Aesthetics of Music

Friday, August 15

SPECIAL EVENTS

The “Path toward a Grand Symphony”: Schubert’s Octet

László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building

3 pm Performance: Faculty and students of The Bard College Conservatory of Music

Schubert’s Kosegarten Liederspiel

László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building

5 pm Performance: Commentary by Morten Solvik; with Paul Appleby, tenor; Deanna Breiwick, soprano; Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Reiko Uchida, piano

Schubert on Film

Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center

11 am Introduction by Christopher H. Gibbs

11:30 am Screening of Notturno: Mit meinen heissen Tränen; Fritz Lehner, 1986, 3 parts, approx. 90 minutes each

Free and open to the public

Program SEVEN

Beethoven’s Successor?

Sosnoff Theater

7:30 pm                    Pre-concert Talk: Christopher H. Gibbs

8 pm Performance: Paul Appleby, tenor; Harlem Quartet; Horszowski Trio; Sarah Shafer, soprano; Zohar Schondorf, horn; Andrew Schroeder, baritone; Brian Zeger, piano; members of the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

   First Movement from String Quartet in D minor, D810 (1824)

   Fragment aus dem Aeschylus, D450 (1816)

   Die Allmacht, D852 (1825)

   Der Wanderer an den Mond, D870 (1826)

   Schlachtgesang, D912 (1827)

   Ständchen, D920 (1827)

   Piano Trio in E-flat, D929 (1827)

   Der Kreuzzug, D932 (1827)

   Die Sterne, D939 (1828)

   Auf dem Strom, D943 (1828)

Saturday, August 16

Panel TWO

Music’s “Far Fairer Hopes”: Originality and Influence

Morten Solvik, moderator; Scott Burnham; Kristina Muxfeldt; Richard Wilson

Olin Hall

10 am–noon

Free and open to the public

Program EIGHT

The Music of Friendship

Olin Hall

1 pm                    Pre-concert Talk: John M. Gingerich

1:30 pm Performance: Paul Appleby, tenor; Deanna Breiwick, soprano; Laura Flax, clarinet; Andrew Garland, baritone; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Benjamin Hochman, piano; Horszowski Trio; Piers Lane, piano; Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Reiko Uchida, piano; and others

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

   Gondelfahrer, D809 (1824)

   Abschied von der Erde, D829 (1826)

   Widerspruch, D865 (1826)

   Grab und Mond, D893 (1826)

   Zur guten Nacht, D903 (1827)

   Selections from 12 Waltzes (Valses Nobles), D969 (1827)

Works by Ferdinand Schubert (1794-1859); Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794–1868); Josef Lanner (1801–43); Benedict Randhartinger (1802–93); Franz Lachner (1803–90); Maximilian Leidesdorf (1787–1840); and others

Program NINE

Late Ambitions

Sosnoff Theater

7 pm                Pre-concert Talk: Walter Frisch

8 pm                Performance: Paul Appleby, tenor; Andrew Garland, baritone; Sarah Shafer, soprano; Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

   Miriams Siegesgesang, D942 (1828)

   Mass in E-flat, D950 (1828)

   Psalm 92, D953 (1828)

Luciano Berio (1925–2003)

   Rendering (1990)

Sunday, August 17

Program TEN

Fellowship of Men: The Male Choral Tradition

Olin Hall

10 am Performance: Members of the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; Teresa Buchholz, mezzo-soprano; Theo Lebow, tenor; Frank Corliss, piano

Works by Franz Schubert (1797–1828); Michael Haydn (1737–1806); Simon Sechter (1788–1867); Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861); Jan Kalivoda (1801–66); Franz Lachner (1803–90); Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47); Robert Schumann (1810–56); Johannes Brahms (1833–97); Anton Bruckner (1824–96); and others

Program ELEVEN

The Final Months

Olin Hall

1 pm                    Pre-concert Talk: Scott Burnham

1:30 pm           Performance: Deanna Breiwick, soprano; Laura Flax, clarinet; Andrew Garland, baritone; Piers Lane, piano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Orion Weiss, piano; Scott Williamson, tenor

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

   Rondo in A for piano four hands, D951 (June 1828)

   Der Doppelgänger, D957/13 (August 1928)

   Piano Sonata in A, D959 (September 1828)

   Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 (October 1828)

   Die Taubenpost, D965 A (October 1828)

Program TWELVE

Schubert and Opera

Sosnoff Theater

3:30 pm           Pre-concert Talk: Michael P. Steinberg

4:30 pm           Performance: Eric Barry, tenor; Cecelia Hall, soprano; Sara Jakubiak, soprano; Joseph Kaiser, tenor; Ryan Kuster, bass-baritone; Andrew Schroeder, baritone; Alfred Walker, bass-baritone; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, and others; directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky; designed by Zane Pihlstrom; video projections by S. Katy Tucker; lighting design by Jeanette Yew

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

   Fierrabras, D796 (1823)

Bard SummerScape ticket information

For tickets and further information on all SummerScape events, call the Fisher Center box office at 845-758-7900 or visit www.fishercenter.bard.edu. Fisher Center members receive priority access to the best seats in advance, and those who join the Center’s email list receive advance booking opportunities as well as regular news and updates.

Bard SummerScape: fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape/2014

Bard Music Festival: fishercenter.bard.edu/bmf/2014

Tickets: [email protected]; or by phone at 845-758-7900.

Updates: Bard’s “e-members” get all the news in regular updates. Click here to sign up, or send an e-mail to [email protected].

All program information is subject to change.

The 25^th annual Bard Music Festival is made possible in part through the generous support of the Board of the Bard Music Festival and the Friends of the Fisher Center, as well as grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Additional underwriting has been provided by Jeanne Donovan Fisher, James H. Ottaway, Jr., Felicitas S. Thorne, Helen and Roger Alcaly, the Bettina Baruch Foundation, Mrs. Mortimer Levitt, Michelle R. Clayman, Margo and Anthony Viscusi, and the Furthermore Foundation. Special support has also been provided by the Mrs. Mortimer Levitt Endowment Fund for the Performing Arts.

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This event was last updated on 08-12-2014

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