Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams at the Bard Music Festival

When Byron Adams caught sight of me during intermission at the opening concert of this year’s Bard Music Festival, he took my hand and said, “Well, we finally did it!” – suggesting we had been co-conspirators. Which in a sense is true. I knew immediately what he meant, as we had both been lobbying for Vaughan Williams to be the focus of the festival for years.

For his part, Byron, a longtime scholar of English music, had the ear of his colleague, festival co-artistic director Leon Botstein. For my part, I made it a point to suggest the composer whenever I happened to see or interview Botstein.

Byron paid me a terrific compliment when he told me that it was I that had made this year’s Bard Music Festival possible. I asked him why, and he said it was because of an email I had written. However, when I inquired if my name specifically had been mentioned, he confessed it had not – but it was because of people like me, who presumably pushed for it, that Vaughan Williams was made the subject of this year’s festival. Well, okay, I’ll take that, even if it’s manufactured glory. It will give me my moment to humble brag about it on Facebook.

Byron, emeritus professor of musicology at University of California, Riverside – as well as scholar in residence and regular advisor at the Bard Music Festival – is co-editor (with Daniel M. Grimley of Oxford University) of this year’s tie-in book of essays, “Vaughan Williams and His World,” published by University of Chicago Press.

Last week, Byron was interviewed about the festival for WAMC Northeast Public Radio. He beautifully encapsulates who Vaughan Williams was, and the composer’s significance, and manages to give a concise overview of the festival in only 11 minutes! Kudos also to host Sarah LaDuke for this intelligent conversation:

https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2023-08-03/the-33rd-bard-music-festival-vaughn-williams-and-his-world?fbclid=IwAR15hcZLgsxLOXoDvDtkd3MYeLU_g-rtd6jLQQgAbPlCwq69XR2KHDi9JYU

The Bard Music Festival will resume this weekend at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, with a couple of special supplementary events taking place at Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. Some of the concerts will be livestreamed. The complete schedule is posted here:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

Fisher Center at Bard

August 9, 2023
Bard Music Festival Friends & Vaughan Williams

Always an unexpected pleasure of attending the Bard Music Festival: chance encounters with old, likeminded friends.

Here I am, between concerts on Saturday, with two of my former WWFM colleagues: Marjorie Herman, creator of “Sounds Choral” and music director of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, and Israel “Buzz” Herman, creator of “On the Wind” and music director of the Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra. Note that they are wearing the official t-shirt of last year’s festival, “Rachmaninoff and His World.” By Sunday, they had switched to the official Vaughan Williams T, with its lark ascending.

“Vaughan Williams and His World” will resume this weekend at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, with a couple of special supplementary events taking place at Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. Some of the concerts will be livestreamed. See the complete schedule here:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

Fisher Center at Bard

August 8, 2023
Bard Music Festival Vaughan Williams Photos

Over the coming days, I’ll be posting some photos from the Bard Music Festival, including a few with some surprise guests and of course plenty of RVW swag.

Here I am with Ralph Vaughan Williams, outside the 400-seat Olin Hall, where daytime panels and chamber music concerts are held. Evening concerts are held across campus in the 800-seat Sosnoff Theater at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Last night’s blockbuster program of “Job, A Masque for Dancing,” the Concerto for Two Pianos, and the Symphony No. 4 was a notable highlight, as was a gorgeous performance on Friday of the “Serenade to Music.”

“Vaughan Williams and His World” will continue at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, through August 13. Select concerts are being livestreamed. Next weekend’s evening programs are especially strong. For streaming information, check here:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/upstreaming/?fbclid=IwAR1S5x_nXSMKozIRBMgY0NYP_dfMudQ9Ks2dA3G56MB-MQRhajoxrFpBxe8

The complete schedule:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

Don’t begrudge me Bard, as it’s really my only vacation, albeit a working one. But you know what they say: do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Fisher Center at Bard

August 6, 2023
Vaughan Williams Livestream from Bard College

Adore the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams but can’t make it to this year’s Bard Music Festival? Some of the concerts will be made available via livestream. The lark ascends at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, August 4 -13. If you’re trapped in the Antarctic, watch online for a modest fee.

Please note the concerts can be viewed in real-time only, and not on demand. So reserve your tickets, and don’t be late!

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/upstreaming/

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, at 7 PM
PROGRAM ONE – VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: BECOMING AN ENGLISH COMPOSER

Down Ampney (Come Down, O Love Divine) from “The English Hymnal” (1906)

Quintet for piano and strings in C minor (1903)

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910)

Concerto in D minor for violin and strings (1925)

Serenade to Music (1938)

O taste and see (1953)

Songs

Selections from “Five English Folk Songs” (1913)

Old Hundredth Psalm Tune (1953)

Horszowski Trio and guests; William Ferguson, tenor; Theo Hoffman, baritone; Renée Anne Louprette, organ; Grace Park, violin; Sun-Ly Pierce, mezzo-soprano; Brandie Sutton, soprano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, music director; The Orchestra Now (TŌN) conducted by Leon Botstein, music director

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, at 8 PM
PROGRAM THREE: THE SYMPHONY AND COMPOSING FOR THE STAGE

Job, A Masque for Dancing (1930)

Concerto in C, for two pianos and orchestra (1931, rev. 1947)

Symphony No. 4 in F Minor (1934)

Danny Driver & Piers Lane, pianos; The Orchestra Now (TŌN) conducted by Leon Botstein

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 at 5 PM
PROGRAM SIX: LONDON CALLING! FUN IN COCKAIGNE!

A celebration of Music Hall and pop traditions from Gilbert and Sullivan to the Beatles, including works by Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), Roger Quilter (1877–1953), Percy Grainger (1882–1961), Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Lord Berners (1883–1950), Eric Coates (1886–1957), Ivor Novello (1893–1951), Noël Coward (1899–1973), Arthur Benjamin (1893–1960), and others, with selections from Vaughan Williams’ “The Poisoned Kiss” (1927–29; rev.)

Martin Luther Clark, tenor; Theo Hoffman, baritone; Sun-Ly Pierce, mezzo-soprano; Ann Toomey, soprano; Bard Festival Ensemble; and others

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, at 8 PM
PROGRAM SEVEN – THE LARK ASCENDING: BRITISH MUSIC FOR SMALL ORCHESTRA

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Five Variants of “Dives and Lazarus” (1939)

Edward Elgar (1858–1934)
Serenade for Strings, Op. 20 (1896)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Flos Campi (1925)

Grace Williams (1906–77)
Elegy for String Orchestra (1936, rev. 1940)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
The Lark Ascending (1914, orch. 1921)

Peter Warlock (1894–1930)
Capriol Suite (1926)

Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
Two Aquarelles (1932)

Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29, No.2 (1913)

Luosha Fang, viola; Bella Hristova, violin; members of the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; The Orchestra Now (TŌN) conducted by James Bagwell and Zachary Schwartzman

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, AT 8 PM
PROGRAM NINE: A NEW ELIZABETHAN AGE

Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–94)
Proud Thames, coronation overture (1953)

William Walton (1902–83)
Partita for Orchestra (1957–58)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Symphony No. 8 in D Minor (1955)

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
Andante Festivo (1922/1938)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
“Sinfonia Antartica” (Symphony No. 7) (1952)

Brandie Sutton, soprano; members of the Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein, music director

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, at 3 PM
PROGRAM ELEVEN – VAUGHAN WILLIAMS AND SHAKESPEARE

“Sir John in Love” (1928), after Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor”

Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein

In order of vocal appearance:

William Ferguson, tenor, as Robert Shallow
Theo Hoffman, baritone, as Sir Hugh Evans
Martin Luther Clark, tenor, as Master Slender
Maximillian Jansen VAP ’21, tenor, as Peter Simple
Troy Cook, baritone, as Page
Craig Colclough, bass-baritone, as Sir John Falstaff
Julius Ahn, tenor, as Bardolph
Tyler Duncan, baritone, as Corporal Nym
Kevin Thompson, bass, as Pistol
Brandie Sutton, soprano, as Anne Page
Ann Toomey, soprano, as Mrs. Page
Sarah Saturnino, mezzo-soprano, as Mrs. Ford
Joshua Blue, tenor, as Fenton
John Brancy, baritone, as Dr. Caius
Justin Hopkins, bass-baritone, as Rugby
Lucy Schaufer, mezzo-soprano, as Mrs. Quickly
Lucia Lucas, baritone, as Host of the Garter Inn
William Socolof, bass-baritone, as Ford

Pre-concert talks will be offered before some of the events. It’s unclear whether or not these will be included as part of the livestreams. It might be worthwhile to check-in a little early.

Fisher Center at Bard

August 3, 2023
Bard Music Festival Book Preview Vaughan Williams

Here’s a glimpse at this year’s tie-in volume to the Bard Music Festival, coming up at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, August 4-13. The Bard books offer scholarly perspectives on the highlighted composer’s life and works. Also included is Vaughan Williams’ lecture on the “St. Matthew Passion.” Looking forward to picking up my copy this weekend! More information on the book’s contents by following the link to @[100063452955898:2048:University of Chicago Press] in the @[100063807330266:2048:Fisher Center at Bard]’s post.

August 2, 2023

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS