Shostakovich at Bard

Sat Oct 23 13:02:24 UTC 2004

Bard Music Festival News Release

For immediate release
Bard's Shostakovich Festival Continues Nov. 5-7
Press Contacts:
Mark Primoff (845) 758-7412, primoff at bard.edu or
Glenn Petry  (212) 625-2038, gpetry at 21cmediagroup.com

WEEKEND THREE OF BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL'S
"SHOSTAKOVICH AND HIS WORLD" TO TAKE PLACE ON
 THE BARD COLLEGE CAMPUS, IN THE BEAUTIFUL
HUDSON RIVER VALLEY, NOVEMBER 5 - 7

CONCERTS AND PANELS TO BE GIVEN DURING THREE-DAY WEEKEND IN BARD'S STUNNING
GEHRY-DESIGNED RICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS IN
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY

THE EMERSON QUARTET, THE SHANGHAI QUARTET, FLUTIST PAULA ROBISON, PIANIST
JEREMY DENK AND THE RESIDENT AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR
LEON BOTSTEIN ARE AMONG THE WEEKEND'S PERFORMERS

It's autumn and time to plan an early-November trip to the Hudson River
Valley to revisit "Shostakovich and His World," through concerts and panels
of the final weekend of the highly successful 15th annual Bard Music
Festival, taking place on the Annandale campus between November 5 - 7.

Press response to Bard's extensive survey of Shostakovich's concert, theater
and film music in August-along with panel discussions and a
symposium-included a rave from the New York Times: "The concerts vividly
conveyed the musical world from which the precocious Shostakovich emerged."
And the New Yorker, in its review of the ASO's performance of Shostakovich's
Symphony No. 4, reported that "the effect was tremendous." This year, for
the first time, the third and final weekend of the annual Bard Music
Festival takes place right on the Bard campus, in the extraordinary Richard
B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, called by the New Yorker "the
first great concert hall of our time."

The three-day weekend begins on Friday, November 5, in the Fisher Center's
Sosnoff Theater, with an 8 p.m. concert by the American Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leon Botstein (with a preconcert talk at 7 p.m. included in the
ticket price). One of the composer's most significant works, the 1941
Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad"), is the concert's centerpiece. The wartime
popularity of the "Leningrad" in the U.S. stemmed in part from the exciting
story of how a microfilm of the score traveled from Leningrad for the
American premiere performance-broadcast live nationwide-by Arturo Toscanini
and the NBC Symphony Orchestra on July 19, 1942. Shostakovich appeared on
the cover of Time magazine that same week. The 900-day siege of Leningrad by
Nazi forces-supposedly depicted in the Symphony-was not to end until January
1944.

Saturday's events comprise a morning panel concerning "Art in Wartime"; an
afternoon chamber concert whose theme is the musical and spiritual
friendship that grew between Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten, with the
Emerson String Quartet; and another evening orchestral concert, a repeat of
Friday's program, complete with the illuminating preconcert lecture.

And on Sunday, November 7, a morning panel called "The Fall of Berlin" will
precede an afternoon chamber concert, this time with Shostakovich's Piano
Quintet and works by Sergey Prokofiev, Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith.

The final weekend of the 15th annual Bard Music Festival will continue to
confront and attempt to untangle the strands in Shostakovich's music,
personality, and career, and go into the politics of his posthumous
reception and the growth of his fame and popularity since 1975. The life and
work of one of the 20th century's greatest composers remain fascinating and
controversial a generation after his death. His career was entwined with the
great central questions of politics and culture, from his birth in 1906
through the Russian Revolution, the two world wars and the Cold War. He was
the Soviet Union's most decorated composer, and died a party member in 1975.
A companion volume to the Bard Music Festival, Shostakovich and His World,
was edited by Laurel E. Fay, America's leading Shostakovich scholar, and
published by Princeton University Press. It is available on the Bard campus,
from http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7842.html, and at other bookstores.

Concert ticket prices range from $20 to $55. Panels are free, and discounts
are available for senior citizens, children, and students. Weekend program
details follow. For further program and ticket information call 845-758-7900
or visit www.bard.edu/bmf, where travel directions and nearby accommodations
are also posted.

Amtrak serves the Bard campus at the nearby Rhinecliff station (code: RHI).
Schedule available from (800) 872-7245 or at www.amtrak.com. Metro North
serves the Poughkeepsie station.

Bard Press Contact:  Mark Primoff, (845) 758-7412, or primoff at bard.edu

#

Bard Music Festival: Weekend Three

Friday, November 5, 2004
Program One
World War II and Its Aftermath
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater

7:00 p.m. Preconcert talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
8:00 p.m. Performance

Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-75):
     From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79a (1948-?64)
     Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60, "Leningrad" (1941)

Makvala Kasrashvili, soprano; American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein,
conductor; others TBA
_______________________
Saturday, November 6, 2004

Panel
Art in Wartime
Olin Hall
10:00 a.m. - noon

Laurel E. Fay; Jennifer Day; others TBA

Program Two
Elective Affinities
A Musical and Spiritual Friendship
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater

1:00 p.m. Preconcert talk: Marina Frolova-Walker
1:30 p.m. Performance

Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-75):
     String Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 68 (1944)
     String Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73 (1946)

Benjamin Britten (1913-76):
     String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36 (1945)

Emerson String Quartet

Program Three
7:00 p.m. Preconcert talk
8:00 p.m. Performance

World War II and Its Aftermath
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater
(Same program as Friday evening.)
______________________
Sunday, November 7, 2004

10:00 a.m. Preconcert panel: "The Fall of Berlin"

Program Four
Music and World War II
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater
2:00 p.m. Performance

Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-75):
     Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57 (1940)

Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953):
     Sonata in D Major, Op. 94, for flute and piano (1943)

Béla Bartók (1881-1945):
     Sonata for solo violin, Sz 117, BB 124 (1944)

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963):
     From Ludus tonalis (1942)

Jeremy Denk, piano; Yoko Matsuda, violin; Paula Robison, flute; Shanghai
String Quartet.

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