Bard Music Festival
Program Four • Rachmaninoff and the Female Muse
August 7, 2022
Bard Music Festival
August 7, 2022
As Bard’s Scholar-in-Residence, Philip Ross Bullock, discovers in a concert with commentary many of the composer’s songs were inspired by women. He dedicated them variously to Vera Skalon, his teenage sweetheart; Anna Ladyzhenskaya, with whom he became infatuated; Natalya Satina, the cousin he would defy the church to marry; Mariya Olferyeva, his brother’s common-law wife; and Antonina Nezhdanova, the great soprano who not only premiered his famous Vocalise, but collaborated closely on its creation.
Rachmaninoff also set songs to texts by distinguished Russian female poets, including Marietta Shaginyan, who likewise inspired songs by the composer’s lifelong friend and correspondent Nikolai Medtner.
10 am Performance with commentary by Philip Ross Bullock; with Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Duncan, baritone; Erika Switzer, piano; and others
Songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943); Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951); and others
The 2022 SummerScape season is made possible in part by the generous support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, the Advisory Boards of the Fisher Center at Bard and Bard Music Festival, and Fisher Center and Bard Music Festival members. The 2022 Bard Music Festival has received funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Grab a bite and a drink while you’re at the Fisher Center! We offer theater concessions at Sosnoff theater, LUMA theater, and Olin Hall. Across the way, is the al fresco Spiegeltent Garden—or grab a nosh while seeing a Spiegeltent Performance. There is ample space for outdoor picnics across Bard’s campus. 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
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