Bard Music Festival

Program Six • The Spiritual Quest

August 14–15

Program Six
Add to Calendar2025-08-14 7:00 pm2025-08-14 7:00 pmEDTProgram Six • The Spiritual QuestChurch of the Messiah, Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, New York, United States
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Featuring James Bagwell, the Bard Festival Chorale, and the renovated organ of the Rhinebeck Episcopal Church of the Messiah, played by Renée Anne Louprette GCP ’19, this program intersperses organ solos with masterworks of the Czech choral tradition.

Two late Martinů works—Vigilie, his sole composition for organ, and The Mount of Three Lights, which sets texts from Czech folk song, contemporary travel-writing, and the New Testament—will be heard alongside the opening movements of Dvořák’s Mass in D, in which old church modes meet modern harmonies; the finale from Musica dominicalis, an organ symphony by the late Czech composer Petr Eben; three works for male voices by Leoš Janáček; and an organ solo from the same composer’s Glagolitic Mass, long recognized as a celebration of Slavic culture.

Schedule

The beautiful Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck, NY, has limited capacity, so to best accommodate patrons, we will offer Program Six on both Thursday, August 14 at 7 pm as well as Friday, August 15 at 3 pm.

Program

Performance: Kendra Berentsen, soprano; Teresa Buchholz, mezzo-soprano; Steven Hrycelak, bass; Chad Kranak, tenor; Renée Anne Louprette GCP ’19, organ; Joseph Parrish, baritone; Devon Russo, bass-baritone; Nathan Wiley, tenor; members of the Bard Festival Chorale, conducted by James Bagwell

Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Vigilie, H382 (1959)

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
Veni Sancte Spiritus (ca. 1903)
Ave Maria (1883) (Byron; trans. Durdík)
Constitues eos (1903)

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
From Mass in D Major, Op. 86 (1887)
Kyrie
Gloria

Petr Eben (1929–2007)
From Sunday Music (1959)
Finale

Bohuslav Martinů
Mount of Three Lights, H349 (1954) (Morton; trad.)

Leoš Janáček
From Glagolitic Mass (1926–27; rev. 1928)
Postludium

Artists

James Bagwell

James Bagwell

Director and Conductor, Bard Festival Chorale

Kendra Berentsen

Soprano

Teresa Buchholz

Mezzo-soprano

Steven Hrycelak

Bass

Chad Kranak

Tenor

Renée Anne Louprette

Renée Anne Louprette GCP ’19

Organ

Joseph Parrish

Baritone

Devon Russo

Bass-baritone

The Organ

The organ at the Church of the Messiah was installed in 1923 by the celebrated E.M. Skinner Company of Boston. The company, which had a reputation for creating instruments of superb quality and great tonal beauty, built organs for prominent churches and universities, including both the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and St. Thomas Church in New York. A gift to the parish by Captain Vincent Astor, the organ has just returned to the church following a major reconditioning by Quimby Pipe Organs of Warrensburg, Missouri.

Artwork: František Kupka, Study, 1913.

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