With the Bard Music Festival (“Mozart and His World”) coming up this weekend at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, one thing I forgot to mention is that, if you’re unable to make the pilgrimage for whatever reason, concerts at Sosnoff Hall, in the campus’ Frank Gehry designed Fisher Center at Bard, will be available for livestreaming. This might be of particular interest to anyone hoping to attend opening night, as the concert appears to be sold out. (Of course, there’s always the possibly of lucking into standby tickets.)

“The Many Facets of Mozart” (Friday at 7 p.m. EDT) will feature an assortment of orchestral, vocal, and chamber performances, with old favorites such as the “Paris” Symphony, the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, and the Quintet for Piano and Winds (which the composer considered his best work), but also lesser-known pieces such as the Freemasonry influenced “Eine kleine deutsche Kantate” and the concert aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?,” a very interesting work for soprano and orchestra with piano obbligato. The musical selections will be interleaved with commentary by conductor and co-artistic director Leon Botstein.

“Mozart and Prague” (Saturday at 7 p.m. EDT) will include the “Prague” Symphony, alongside works by the composer’s older Bohemian contemporaries Christoph Willibald Gluck and Josef Mysliveček. Simone Dinnerstein will be the soloist in Mozart Piano Concerto No. 18. As an added bonus, soprano Jana McIntyre, who I made such a fuss over when writing about her appearances at the Bard Berlioz festival, two years ago, and this summer’s production of Richard Strauss’ “The Egyptian Helen,” will sing the motet “Exsultate, jubilate” and an aria from Mysliveček’s opera “Il Bellerofonte.” It’s unclear to me whether the pre-concert talk, by Columbia University’s Elaine Sisman (at 6 p.m.), will be available as part of the livestream, but it has been the case when I’ve viewed some of these concerts in the past.

“Rivalries and Conspiracies (Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT) looks to be an especially fascinating program, illuminating the true nature of the relationship between Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Included will be a collaborative effort by the two composers, rediscovered as recently as 2015, “Per la ricuperate salute di Ofelia” (“For the recovered health of Ophelia”).

The second half of the concert will juxtapose selections from two operas – Mozart’s “Der Schauspieldirektor” (“The Impresario”) and Salieri’s “Prima la musica e poi le parole” (“First the music and then the words”) – which were first performed at opposite ends of an orangery AT THE SAME TIME, with the audience seated in the middle! The aim was so that the emperor, Joseph II, could determine which of the operas would delight the court more.

Both operas satirize the behind-the-scenes antics that occur during the creation of an opera. Between the meta-concept and its Ivesian realization, it all seems surprisingly modern. Also, the mad whim of a daffy ruler. I wonder if Hugo von Hofmannsthal had this in mind when he wrote the libretto for Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos?” In the Strauss opera, a wealthy patron (the richest man in Vienna) decides that the two works he commissioned, a drama and a comedy, should performed simultaneously, so that the entertainment will conclude in time for a fireworks display!

The Sunday program will also include a piano sonata by another Mozart rival, Muzio Clementi, whom Mozart once faced down in a piano duel. The match was deemed a tie, when the Emperor backed Mozart, but the Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna of Russia chose Clementi. Regardless, it was Mozart who had the last laugh, when he used a passage from Clementi’s sonata as the germ for his overture to “The Magic Flute.”

The pre-concert talk, at 2:00, will be delivered by McGill University’s Dorian Bandy.

Livestreams will also be offered from the Fisher Center during the festival’s second weekend (“Beauty, Charity and Reason” on Friday, August 14, at 7 p.m., “Family, Friends and Students” on Saturday, August 15, at 7 p.m., and a semi-staged performance of “The Abduction from the Seraglio” on Sunday, August 16, at 3:00 p.m. EDT).

Sorry, but in order to enjoy the morning and afternoon programs and panels across campus at Olin Hall, you’ll actually have to be in attendance!

“Mozart and His World” will take place at Bard College August 7-16. For more information, follow the link.

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/what-we-do/bard-music-festival/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23614040550&gbraid=0AAAAACyZZJveNzj1-YYl9V6bTicb364wl&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1_HItIyMlgMVTkP_AR0-tRbFEAAYASABEgK4afD_BwE