Bard may not have scheduled its upcoming mini-festival of the music of Friedrich Gernsheim as a mea culpa for August’s “Mozart and His World,” but I choose to take it as such. Not that “Mozart and His World” was not a success. Just the opposite! Music director and co-artistic director Leon Botstein announced from the podium that it was the most successful Bard Music Festival ever. But Bard is known for its questing spirit, flipping the monoliths of the standard repertoire to see what lurks beneath. Unquestionably there were plenty of discoveries to be made even with Mozart and his “wolf pack.” But Gernsheim is more in Bard’s wheelhouse.
Who exactly was Gernsheim? I didn’t know myself until I happened to catch one of his symphonies by chance on the radio. And it was an ear-opener! He can sound a bit like Brahms in his colors, but the similarity ends there. His symphonies, anyway (I’ve since acquired recordings of all of them), strike me as sounding more unbuttoned than Brahms’, more polymorphous, which make them less consistent, perhaps, but also more surprising. That said, I hope I’m not falling into the trap of something being more familiar being “better” when I say it doesn’t surprise me that Brahms’ symphonies gained more traction. But isn’t there room in concert programs for both?
Botstein will conduct the young but able performers of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), the graduate training ensemble he founded, in two of Gernsheim’s orchestral works on Friday evening at 7:00 (with the program repeated on Saturday) at the campus’ Fisher Center at Bard: “Zu einem Drama,” a late Romantic tone poem from 1902 (remember, Brahms died in 1897), and the Symphony No. 3, subtitled “Song of Miriam” (or simply “Miriam”), from 1887. The symphony was inspired by a performance Gernsheim had attended of Handel’s “Israel in Egypt,” after which he couldn’t get the Biblical character of Miriam out of his head.
On the second half of the program, Orion Weiss will be the soloist in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. Yes, Gernsheim and Brahms knew and admired one another.
On Saturday morning at 11:00, across campus at Bard’s Olin Hall, scholars and historians will discuss Gernsheim’s life, music, and legacy.
That will be followed on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 by a concert of the composer’s chamber music, including the Piano Quartet No. 3 and the Piano Quintet No. 2.
To round out the weekend, another chamber concert, Sunday morning at 11:00, will feature the String Quartet No. 2 and the String Quintet No. 2.
The scholarly panel and chamber music concerts are free, though reservations and a donation are encouraged. Seats for the orchestra concerts are reasonably priced.
I should add, the Nazis were not favorably disposed to Gernsheim’s music, because of his Jewish heritage, which may account to some extent for his subsequent neglect. TŌN is to be applauded for its efforts to restore Gernsheim’s reputation in what will be a multi-year project. A lot of this will be new territory for me (I’ve never heard any of the composer’s chamber music), so I am very much looking forward to it. It seems like a good time of year for a weekend or even a day trip to Upstate New York!
The inaugural Gernsheim Festival will be held at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, from Friday, September 18, to Sunday, September 20. For more information, visit:
https://ton.bard.edu/gernsheim/
Symphony No. 3 “Song of Miriam”
Dave Hurwitz waxes enthusiastic