Bard Music Festival

Program Two • The French Connection

August 9

Add to Calendar2025-08-09 1:30 pm2025-08-09 1:30 pmEDTProgram Two • The French ConnectionOlin Hall,
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Martinů came of age as a composer in the musical melting pot of Paris, where his Czech influences would absorb more international ones. This program examines the worlds that shaped him, contextualizing the composer among his teachers and peers. These include Jaroslav Řídký, with whom he had played in the Czech Philharmonic, and their teacher Josef Suk, whose youthful yet confident First Piano Quartet is dedicated to Suk’s own teacher (and soon-to-be father-in-law), Antonín Dvořák. Two of Martinů’s earliest Parisian works—the ragtimey Foxtrot and assured First Piano Trio—will be heard alongside chamber works by his teacher Albert Roussel, one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar years; the Polish émigré Alexandre Tansman, like Martinů a leading light of the so-called École de Paris; and their elder luminary Maurice Ravel, whose writing would influence the Czech composer’s string quartets.

Program

1 pm • Preconcert talk: Byron Adams
1:30 pm • Performance

Jaroslav Řídký (1897–1956)
Alla Polka (1932)
James Kim, cello
Danny Driver, piano

Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
String Trio No. 1, H136 (1923)
Allegro
Andante
Poco allegro
Luosha Fang ’11, violin
Jason Mellow, viola
James Kim, cello

Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986)
Bassoon Sonatine (1952)
Allegro con moto
Aria: Largo cantabile
Scherzo: Presto
Thomas English, bassoon
Danny Driver, piano

Bohuslav Martinů
Flute Sonata, H306 (1945)
Allegro moderato
Adagio
Allegro poco moderato
Brandon Patrick George, flute
Danny Driver, piano

INTERMISSION

Bohuslav Martinů
Foxtrot for piano, H126b (1920)
Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Albert Roussel (1869–1937)
Jazz dans la nuit, Op. 38 (1928) (Dommange)
Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano
Erika Switzer, piano

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Violin Sonata in G Major (1923–27)
Allegretto
Blues: Moderato
Perpetuum mobile: Allegro
Grace Park, violin
Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Josef Suk (1874–1935)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 1 (1891)
Allegro appassionato
Adagio
Allegro con fuoco
Luosha Fang ’11, violin
Jason Mellow, viola
James Kim, cello
Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Artists and Scholars

Taylor Raven

Taylor Raven

Mezzo-Soprano

Brandon Patrick George

Brandon Patrick George

Flute

Thomas English

Thomas English

Bassoon

Michael Stephen Brown

Michael Stephen Brown

Piano

Danny Driver

Danny Driver

Piano

Erika Switzer

Erika Switzer

Piano

Luosha Fang ’11

Luosha Fang ’11

Violin

Grace Park

Grace Park

Violin

Jason Mellow

Viola

James Kim

James Kim

Cello

Byron Adams

Byron Adams

Scholar

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