by Sedgwick Clark
I wandered over to Lincoln Center on Wednesday to see the opening act of Kronos Quartet’s five-night 40th-anniversary gig. Mark Dendy’s new site-specific modern-dance work for 80 dancers, Ritual Cyclical, was being staged in and around the Henry Moore reflecting pool in front of the Vivian Beaumont Theater and set to Kronos recordings on Nonesuch. The Times had given a big spread to it on Monday the 22nd, dominated by a dramatic photo of two dancers in the pool in a balletic pose. Alas, by the time I arrived there were so many people standing on the plaza around the pool that only the tops of the sculptures were visible, and attempting to walk around for a different view without seeming pushy was not possible.
After about half an hour several disagreeable-looking women dressed in army fatigues cleared out a circular area between the pool and Avery Fisher Hall so that a few dancers could run around gazelle-like in an effort to open up the available stage area, but the most interesting choreography presumably was out of view for all but those lining the pool. Eventually, for some reason, the crowd began to shift toward Alexander Calder’s Box Office sculpture in front of the Performing Arts Library entrance. The Kronos recordings, which had been easy on the ear up to this point, segued to the 1943 recording of Charles Ives playing piano and singing his antiwar song They Are There, followed by Jimi Hendricks’s electronically distorted arrangement of Kronos scratching out The Star-Spangled Banner – a rendition that makes Roseanne Barr’s infamous 1990 San Diego Padres pre-game performance seem mellifluous by comparison – and the audience quickly thinned out.
Bard Festival’s Stravinsky Weekends
There’s been a lot of Stravinsky in this blog so far this year, and there will be more as the world continues to celebrate the centennial of his Le Sacre du printemps. Those who share my passion for his music and wish to hear other composers’ works from the same period as well should comb the schedule of events below and plan to be at the Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson, August 9-11 and August 16-18.
Program details of Bard Music Festival, “Stravinsky and His World”
WEEKEND ONE: Becoming Stravinsky: From St. Petersburg to Paris
Friday, August 9
PROGRAM ONE
The 20th Century’s Most Celebrated Composer
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm Pre-concert Talk: Leon Botstein
8 pm Performance: Alessio Bax, piano; Andrey Borisenko, bass; Lucille Chung, piano; Kiera Duffy, soprano; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Mikhail Vekua, tenor; Orion Weiss, piano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; members of the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music directorIgor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Les Noces (1914–17)
Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, rev. 1947)
Symphony of Psalms (1930)
Concerto for Two Pianos (1935)
Abraham and Isaac (1962–63)
Tickets: $25, $35, $50, $60
Saturday, August 10
Panel One
Who Was Stravinsky?
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Christopher H. Gibbs, moderator; Leon Botstein; Marina Frolova-Walker; Olga Manulkina; Stephen Walsh
Free and open to the public
Program Two
The Russian Context
Olin Hall
1 pm Pre-concert Talk: Marina Frolova-Walker
1:30 pm Performance: Matthew Burns, bass-baritone; Dover Quartet; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; Laura Flax, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Piers Lane, piano; Orion Weiss, piano
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Faun and Shepherdess, Op. 2 (1906–07)
From Four Studies, for piano, Op. 7 (1908)
Three Movements from Petrushka, for piano solo (1921)
Mikhail Glinka (1804–57)
Trio Pathétique in D minor (1832)
Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936)
Five Novelettes, for string quartet, Op. 15 (1886)
Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
Vers la flamme, Op. 72 (1914)
Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
Preludes, Op. 23, Nos. 8 & 9 (1901–03)
Songs and piano works by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–81), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93), Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951), and Mikhail Gnesin (1883–1957)
Tickets: $35
SPECIAL EVENT
Film: The Soldier’s Tale
Lászlo Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building
A film by R. O. Blechman, with live musical accompaniment
Tickets: $12
Program Three
1913: Breakthrough to Fame and Notoriety
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm Pre-concert Talk: Richard Taruskin
8 pm Performance: American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Fireworks (1908)
The Rite of Spring (1913)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
Suite from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (c. 1907)
Anatoly Liadov (1855–1914)
From the Apocalypse, Op. 66 (1910–12)
Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946)
Les Métamorphoses, Op. 10 (1913)Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75
Sunday, August 11
Panel Two
The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Stravinsky and Dance
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Kenneth Archer; Lynn Garafola; Millicent Hodson
Free and open to the public
Program Four
Modernist Conversations
Olin Hall
1 pm Pre-concert Talk: Byron Adams
1:30 pm Performance: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano; Gustav Djupsjöbacka, piano; Kiera Duffy, soprano; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Judith Gordon, piano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Sharon Roffman, violin; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Lance Suzuki, flute; Benjamin Verdery, guitar; Lei Xu, soprano; Bard Festival Chamber Players
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Three Japanese Lyrics (1912)
Pribaoutki (1914)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
En blanc et noir (1915)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
Pierrot lunaire (1912)
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913)
Maurice Delage (1879–1961)
Quatre poèmes hindous (1912–13)
Works by Erik Satie (1866–1925); Manuel de Falla (1876–1946); and Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Tickets: $35
Program Five
Sight and Sound: From Abstraction to Surrealism
Sosnoff Theater�
5 pm Pre-concert Talk: Mary E. Davis
5:30 pm Performance: Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano; John Hancock, baritone; Melis Jaatinen, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Orion Weiss, piano; members of the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director; designed and directed by Anne Patterson; projection design by Adam Larson; choreography by Janice Lancaster
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Ragtime (1918)
Mavra (1921–22)
Erik Satie (1866–1925)
Parade (1916–17; arr. piano four-hands)
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Le travail du peintre, song cycle for voice and piano (1956)
Georges Auric (1899–1983), Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921)
André Souris (1899–1970)
Choral, marche, et galop (1925)
WEEKEND TWO: Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles
Friday, August 16
SPECIAL SHOWING
Filming Stravinsky: Preserving Posterity’s Image
Weis Cinema
Free and open to the public
PROGRAM SIX
Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm Pre-concert Talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
8 pm Performance: Eric Beach, percussion; Judith Gordon, piano; Jonathan Greeney, percussion; Imani Winds; Piers Lane, piano; Peter Serkin, piano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players and students of The Bard College Conservatory, conducted by Leon Botstein
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923–24)
Sonata for Two Pianos (1943–44)
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz 110 (1937)
Edgard Varèse (1883–1965)
Octandre (1923)
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2 (1922)
Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
From Quatre études de rythme (1949–50)Tickets: $25, $35, $50, $60
Saturday, August 17
PANEL THREE
Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Music, Ethics, and Politics
Olin Hall
10 am—noon
Tamara Levitz, moderator; Tomi Mäkelä; Simon Morrison; Michael Beckerman
Free and open to the public
PROGRAM SEVEN
Stravinsky in Paris
Olin Hall
1 pm Pre-concert Talk: Manuela Schwartz
1:30 pm Performance: Xak Bjerken, piano; Randolph Bowman, flute; Sara Cutler, harp; Jordan Frazier, double bass; Marka Gustavsson, viola; Robert Martin, cello; Jesse Mills, violin; Harumi Rhodes, violin; Sharon Roffman, violin; Laurie Smukler, violin; Bard Festival Chamber Players
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Les cinq doigts, for piano (1921)
Octet for Wind Instruments (1922–23)
Duo concertant (1931–32)
Albert Roussel (1869–1937)
Sérénade, for flute, harp, and string trio, Op. 30 (1925)
Bohuslav Martinu (1890–1959)
String Quartet No. 4, H. 256 (1937)
Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56 (1932)
Arthur Lourié (1892–1966)
Sonata for Violin and Double Bass (1924)
Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986)
Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1925)
Tickets: $35
PROGRAM EIGHT
The Émigré in America
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm Pre-concert Talk: Leon Botstein
8 pm Performance: John Relyea, bass-baritone; Rebecca Ringle, mezzo-soprano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Jeu de cartes (1936)
Symphony in Three Movements (1942–45)
Ode (1943)
Requiem Canticles (1965–66)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
Kol Nidre, Op. 39 (1938)
Hanns Eisler (1898–1962), Score for Night and Fog (1955), a film by Alain Resnais
Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75
Sunday, August 18
PROGRAM NINE
Stravinsky, Spirituality, and the Choral Tradition
Olin Hall
10 am Performance with commentary by Klára Móricz, with the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; Frank Corliss, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players
Choral works by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971); Gesualdo da Venosa (1566–1613), Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643); Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943); Francis Poulenc (1899–1963), Lili Boulanger (1893–1918), and Ernst Krenek (1900–91)
Tickets: $30
PROGRAM TEN
The Poetics of Music and After
Olin Hall
1 pm Pre-concert Talk: Richard Wilson
1:30 pm Performance: Rieko Aizawa, piano; Imani Winds; Alexandra Knoll, oboe; Piers Lane, piano; Jesse Mills, violin; Bard Festival Chamber Players
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Circus Polka, arranged for piano (1942, arr. 1944)
Septet (1952–53)
Anton Webern (1883–1945)
Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (1936)
Walter Piston (1894–1976)
Suite, for oboe and piano (1931)
Aaron Copland (1900–90)
Nonet (1960)
Elliott Carter (1908–2012)
Woodwind Quintet (1948)
Ellis Kohs (1916–2000)
Sonatina for Violin and Piano (1948)
Carlos Chávez (1899–1978)
From Ten Preludes (1937)
Tickets: $35
PROGRAM ELEVEN
The Classical Heritage
Sosnoff Theater
3:30 pm Pre-concert Talk: Tamara Levitz 4:30 pm Performance: Gordon Gietz, tenor; Jennifer Larmore, mezzo-soprano; Sean Panikkar, tenor; John Relyea, bass-baritone; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director; and others
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Perséphone (1933–34, rev. 1948)
Oedipus Rex (1926–27, rev. 1948)Tickets: $30, $50, $60, $75All programs subject to change.