Bard Music Festival Presents STRAVINSKY RE-INVENTED: FROM PARIS to LA Tonight

"Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles," the second and final weekend of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival in New York'sAnnandale-on-Hudson, follows Igor Stravinsky from Europe to post-war Hollywood, investigating his subsequent shift in style from neoclassicism to serialism. The weekend opens tonight, August 16, with a screening of film clips that document the great Russian innovator, with commentary by Professor Charles M. Joseph, author of Stravinsky Inside Out. This special session is followed by the weekend's first concert, "Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization," a program of postmodernist ensemble classics by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, Hindemith, and Messiaen; soloists include Grammy-nominated pianist Peter Serkin and So Percussion's Eric Beach.

Among the weekend's other highlights are two programs featuring the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leon Botstein, co-artistic director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival. The first considers Stravinsky and Schoenberg as émigrés in America, while the second comprises two of Stravinsky's operatic works, Oedipus Rex and Perséphone, in a choral-orchestral tour de force that draws the weekend - and all seven weeks of SummerScape - to a gripping close.

Two chamber programs further contextualize the Russian-born composer. "Stravinsky in Paris" presents three masterpieces of his neoclassical period - Duo concertant, Les cinq doigts, and the Octet for Winds - alongside music by Prokofiev and other Paris-based composers who embraced the new stylistic development. And "The Poetics of Music and After" proffers Stravinsky's late Septet and Circus Polka together with works by Piston, Carter, Copland, and Chávez.

A free panel discussion on Saturday morning, moderated by Bard's Scholar-in-Residence, Tamara Levitz, considers "Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Music, Ethics, and Politics." Five of the weekend's six programs are augmented by a pre-concert talk from a distinguished scholar (Christopher H. Gibbs, Manuela Schwartz, Richard Wilson, Levitz, and Botstein himself); Klára Móricz provides commentary on a sixth, which investigates Stravinsky, his spirituality, and the choral tradition.

As in previous seasons, Weekend Two's choral programs feature the Bard Festival Chorale directed by James Bagwell. Among the many notable musicians who will also perform are eight-time Grammy Award-nominee, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore; bass-baritone John Relyea, winner of both Richard Tucker and Beverly Sills Awards; violinist Jesse Mills, of the Horszowski Trio; cellist Robert Martin, director of Bard's Conservatory of Music; and pianist Piers Lane, for whom "no praise could be high enough" (Gramophone).

A round-trip bus service is provided exclusively to ticket-holders for the performances listed below. Reservation is required, and may be made by calling the box office at 845-758-7900. The round-trip fare is $40, and the bus departs from Lincoln Center at the times indicated:

Program 6: Friday, August 16 at 8 pm (preconcert talk at 7:30 pm) 2:30 pm

Program 11: Sunday, August 18 at 4:30 pm (preconcert talk at 3:30 pm) 11:30 am

Bard's delightful Spiegeltent will be open for lunch and dinner throughout "Stravinsky and His World," and there will be a special closing party in the tent on August 18.

Complete programs for Weekend Two of the 2013 Bard Music Festival follow.

Program details of Bard Music Festival, "Stravinsky and His World"

WEEKEND TWO: Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles

Friday, August 16

SPECIAL SHOWING

Filming Stravinsky: Preserving Posterity's Image

Weis Cinema

5 pm: Commentary by Charles M. Joseph

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; Richard Taruskin

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, $75

All programs subject to change.

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