Bard Music Festival
Program Three • Music and Freedom
August 9
Bard Music Festival
August 9
Martinů’s life was upended by the Nazi invasion, but his compatriot Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish Communist, suffered the worse fate of dying in a concentration camp. Drawing on influences from neoclassicism to jazz, Schulhoff’s commanding Second Symphony opens this program, the festival’s first all-orchestral concert.
Martinů’s masterly and original Fourth Piano Concerto, “Incantation,” was dedicated to his great friend and fellow exile, the concert pianist – and subsequent mentor to Leon Botstein – Rudolf Firkušný, whose own Piano Concertino receives just its third performance to date. Two more of Martinů’s own works complete the program: the Memorial to Lidice, a searing symphonic response to the Nazis’ annihilation of a Czech village, and his Sixth and final Symphony (Fantaisies symphoniques). Written to celebrate the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniversary, this was recognized with the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award and represents one of the pinnacles of his work in America.
Image: This is Nazi Brutality by Ben Shahn; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jeremy and Nancy Halbreich.
6 pm • Preconcert talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
7 pm • Performance: The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
This concert is dedicated to the memory of the great pianist Rudolf Firkušný (1912–94), an extraordinary interpreter of the work of Martinů who throughout his life was a generous and creative force behind celebrations of Czech music, the Bard Music Festival included. We were lucky to have had him as a neighbor here in the Hudson Valley.
Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942)
Symphony No. 2 (1932)
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante con moto
Scherzo alla jazz
Finale
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Piano Concerto No. 4, “Incantation,” H358 (1956)
Poco allegro
Poco moderato
Jeonghwan Kim, piano
INTERMISSION
Bohuslav Martinů
Memorial to Lidice, H296 (1943)
Rudolf Firkušný (1912–94)
Piano Concertino (1929)
Piers Lane, piano
Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques), H343 (1951–53)
Lento—Allegro—Lento
Poco allegro
Lento
TŌN trumpeters Giulia Rath and Jid-anan Netthai perform an excerpt from Erwin Schulhoff’s Symphony No. 2, featured on Program Three of the 35th Bard Music Festival.
Music Director and Conductor, The Orchestra Now
Piano
Piano
Scholar
Nearby villages and towns in the Hudson Valley boast a large selection of restaurants, as well as a variety of hotels, motels, inns, and bed & breakfasts.
Eat & StayBard College’s main campus is located in Annandale-on-Hudson (a hamlet of Red Hook), New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston. The Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway provide the most direct routes to our campus. Click the Google map below, or get directions by entering the following address into your GPS: 60 Manor Avenue, Red Hook, NY 12571.
From the East
If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.9 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
From the West
If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
Sosnoff Theater
Accessible Seating
Wheelchair-accessible seating is available in all seating areas for patrons in wheelchairs and their companions. There is an elevator to all levels of the Sosnoff Theater and a wheelchair lift is used to access front-row wheelchair seating.
Wheelchair-Accessible Restrooms
Restrooms at all locations are wheelchair accessible. Single-use restrooms are available at most locations.
All-Gender Restrooms
Bard College and the Fisher Center support guests of any gender identity/expression in using the restroom of their choice. Additionally, all-gender restrooms are available at all venues.
Find answers to some of the most common questions patrons have regarding our venues and performances. If you have a question not answered in our FAQs, please call 845-758-7900 or email [email protected] during regular Box Office hours.
Our “Know Before You Go” guide answers all of your pre-show accessibility and navigation questions for your next performance at the Fisher Center!
