Bard Music Festival To Present BERLIOZ AND HIS WORLD This August

On Friday, August 9, the Bard Music Festival returns with an intensive two-week exploration of “Berlioz and His World.” In eleven themed concert programs, the festival's 34th season examines Hector Berlioz, the visionary French composer who helped redefine musical Romanticism, first by contextualizing him within an age of Revolutionary Spectacle and Romantic Passion (Weekend One: August 9–11), and then investigating his crucial role in uniting Music and the Literary Imagination (Weekend Two: August 15–18). Aside from Program Six, presented in nearby Rhinebeck, all concerts take place in the stunning Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's idyllic Hudson River campus. Six programs will also stream live to home audiences worldwide on Upstreaming, the Fisher Center's virtual stage, and chartered coach transportation from New York City will be available for the final performance (see details below). A centerpiece of the 21st Bard Summerscape festival, the Bard Music Festival is set once again to prove itself “the summer's most stimulating music festival” (Los Angeles Times).
 
“One of the most remarkable figures in the worlds of arts and culture” (NYC Arts, THIRTEEN/WNET), festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein is music director of both the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Bard's unique graduate training orchestra, The Orchestra Now (TŌN). In a concert with commentary by Botstein himself, he and TŌN open the festival with a pairing of Berlioz's most famous work – the revolutionary, semi-autobiographical Symphonie fantastique – with its seldom-programmed sequel – Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie – for which they will be joined by British-American tenor Joshua Blue, bass-baritone Alfred Walker, and the Bard Festival Chorale [Program 1]. Botstein, TŌN, and the choir also give livestreamed accounts of Berlioz's choral setting of the Te Deum hymn and of excerpts from his grand opera Les Troyens, featuring vocal soloists Megan Moore and Blue [Program 3]. With the ASO, Botstein conducts two substantive Romantic rarities, both overdue for restoration to the canon: Louise Farrenc's masterly Third Symphony and Joseph Joachim Raff's programmatic Tenth, “In Autumn” [Program 9]. To conclude the festival, Botstein and the ASO join forces with the Bard Festival Chorale for La damnation de Faust, Berlioz's epic setting of Goethe's tragedy, starring Blue as Faust, Walker as Méphistophélès, Stefan Egerstrom as the student Brander, and two-time Grammy-winner Sasha Cooke as Marguerite [Program 11]. All four orchestral concerts will be livestreamed.
 
As in previous seasons, the festival also presents a wide range of vocal and chamber music. Le dernier sorcier – a little-known two-act chamber opera by Berlioz's colorful contemporary Pauline Viardot – will be heard in her original salon arrangement for voices and piano, in a semi-staged, livestreamed production by Sharyn Pirtle [Program 5]. Soprano Jana McIntyre, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, tenor Maximillian Jansen, and baritone Tyler Duncan explore the rich variety of songs heard in the Parisian salon, in a concert with commentary by musicologist Byron Adams [Program 4]. Ringle Kamarei and Duncan later join tenor Noah Stewart for Berlioz's Les nuits d'été, a jewel of the art song repertoire, which they perform in its first incarnation, with each song sung to piano accompaniment by a different vocalist [Program 8].
 
Tokyo International Viola Competition laureate Luosha Fang gives a complete, livestreamed account of Berlioz's Harold en Italie, in Franz Liszt's arrangement for piano accompaniment [Program 7]. The Cleveland Quartet Award-winning Balourdet Quartet performs the underrated C-minor String Quartet by Berlioz's Czech-born teacher, Anton Reicha [Program 2] and joins Fang for the posthumously published Second String Quintet of Felix Mendelssohn [Program 8]. Among other chamber highlights, Noël Wan, the first Taiwanese harpist to take first prize at the USA International Harp Competition, plays the Introduction and Variations on Themes from Bellini's “Norma” by Elias Parish Alvars, whom Berlioz considered “the Liszt of the harp” [Program 2]; festival favorite Anna Polonsky interprets piano music by Clara Schumann [Program 5]; and the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet plays Berlioz's Chant sacré, in a reconstruction of the lost version for instruments developed by Adolphe Sax, on a program that also presents the Six Bagatelles by Hungarian modernist György Ligeti, and a performance of Edgard Varèse's Density 21.5 by flutist Alex Sopp [Program 10]. “One of New York's finest organists” (New York Times), Renée Anne Louprette plays works by Alfred Lefébure-Wély, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Olivier Messiaen on the newly renovated organ of the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in nearby Rhinebeck [Program 6].

Supplementary events and companion book

Besides the eleven concert programs, there will be two free panel discussions: “A Revolutionary Life in a Revolutionary Era” and “Musical Romanticism and Literature.” These will be supplemented by informative pre-concert talks, all free to ticket-holders, by scholars Peter Bloom, Francesca Brittan, Christopher H. Gibbs, Dana Gooley, Sarah Hibberd, Jonathan Kregor, Hilary Poriss, and Richard Wilson. SummerScape and ASO also present the first American production in 47 years of Le prophète, a French grand opera by Berlioz's contemporary Giacomo Meyerbeer (July 26–August 4). Edited by Bard's 2024 Scholars-in-Residence – Case Western Reserve University's Francesca Brittan, whose publications include Music and Fantasy in the Age of Berlioz, and the University of Bristol's Sarah Hibberd, author of French Grand Opera and the Historical Imagination – the companion book Berlioz and His World is published by the University of Chicago Press.

Round-trip bus transportation from New York City

Chartered bus transportation from New York City is available for the festival finale, Program Eleven (August 18). This may be ordered online or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900, and the meeting point for pick-up and drop-off is at Lincoln Center on Amsterdam Avenue, between 64th and 65th Streets. More information is available here.

SummerScape tickets

Tickets for mainstage events start at $25 and livestreams are $20. Panel discussions are free of charge and open to the public. For complete information regarding tickets, series discounts, and more, visit fishercenter.bard.edu or call Bard's box office at (845) 758-7900. 

Program details of Bard Music Festival, “Berlioz and His World”

All performances are in the Fisher Center and other locations on Bard College campus, Annandale-on-Hudson, which is accessible by regular Amtrak trains. Program Eleven is serviced by round-trip bus from Manhattan: see below for details.

WEEKEND ONE: Revolutionary Spectacle and Romantic Passion

PROGRAM ONE: Staging the Musical Imagination
Friday, August 9
Sosnoff Theater
7pm performance with commentary by Leon Botstein, with Joshua Blue, tenor; Alfred Walker, baritone; Bard Festival Chorale and James Bagwell, choral director; and The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d'un artiste, Op. 14 (1830)
   Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie, monodrame lyrique, Op. 14b (1831–32, rev. 1855)
 
PANEL ONE: A Revolutionary Life in a Revolutionary Era
Saturday, August 10
Olin Hall
10am–12 noon
Leon Botstein, moderator; Anna Harwell Celenza; Esther da Costa Meyer; Michael P. Steinberg
Free and open to the public
 
PROGRAM TWO: Anxieties of Influence: Models and Teachers
Saturday, August 10
Olin Hall
1pm preconcert talk: Jonathan Kregor
1:30pm performance: Jana McIntyre, soprano; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Duncan, baritone; Daniel Lippel, guitar; Noël Wan, harp; Michael Stephen Brown and Erika Switzer, piano; Zohar Schondorf, horn; Balourdet Quartet
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Le montagnard exilé (1822–23)
   Songs
Luigi CHERUBINI (1760–1842)
   Etude No. 2 (1804)
Anton REICHA (1770–1836)
   String Quartet in C minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (1803)
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786–1826)
   Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 (1819)
Elias PARISH ALVARS (1808–49)
   Introduction and Variations on Themes from Bellini's Norma, Op. 36 (n.d.)
Arias by Jean-François LE SUEUR (1760–1837), Gaspare SPONTINI (1774–1851), and Ambroise Thomas (1811–96)
 
PROGRAM THREE: The Sounds of a Nation: Patriotism and Antiquity
Saturday, August 10
Sosnoff Theater
6pm preconcert talk: Sarah Hibberd
7 pm performance: with Jana McIntyre, soprano; Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano; Joshua Blue, tenor; Bard Festival Chorale and James Bagwell, choral director; and The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Hymne des Marseillaise (arr. 1830)
   “Trojan March,” “Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie,” and “Royal Hunt and Storm” from Les Troyens (1856–58)
   Te Deum Op. 22/H.118 (1849)
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–87)
   Overture to Iphigenia in Aulis (1774; arr. R. Wagner 1847)
Daniel-François-Esprit AUBER (1782–1871)
   Overture to Fra Diavolo (1830)
 
PROGRAM FOUR: Chansons, romances, et mélodies: Vocal Music from Cosmopolitan Paris
Sunday, August 11
Olin Hall
11 am performance with commentary by Byron Adams; with Jana McIntyre, soprano; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, mezzo-soprano; Maximillian Jansen, tenor; Tyler Duncan, baritone; and Kayo Iwama and Erika Switzer, piano
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   From Irlande, Op. 2 (1830); songs
Songs and arias by Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791–1864); Gioachino ROSSINI (1792–1868); Franz Liszt (1811–86); Richard Wagner (1813–83); Pauline VIARDOT (1821–1910); Ernest REYER (1823–1909); Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921); Georges Bizet (1838–75); Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93); and Gabriel FAURÉ (1845–1924)
 
PROGRAM FIVE: Women Musicians in Berlioz's Time
Sunday, August 11
Sosnoff Theater
2:30pm preconcert talk: Hilary Poriss
3pm performance: Laquita Mitchell, Monica Yunus, and Camille Zamora, sopranos; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei and Adriana Zabala, mezzo-sopranos; Noah Stewart, tenor; Babatunde Akinboboye, baritone; Anna Polonsky, Erika Switzer, and Lucy Tucker Yates, piano; Sharyn Pirtle, director of Le dernier sorcier; and others (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Le mort d'Ophélie, Op. 18, No. 2 (1842)
   La captive, Op. 12 (1831–32)
Pauline VIARDOT (1821–1910)
   Le dernier sorcier (1869)
Works by Gioachino ROSSINI (1792–1868); Louise BERTIN (1805–77); Clara SCHUMANN (1819–96); and others

WEEKEND TWO: Music and the Literary Imagination

PROGRAM SIX: Sacred Music in France
Thursday, August 15 at 7pm
Friday, August 16 at 3pm
Episcopal Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck
With Renée Anne Louprette, organ, and members of the Bard Festival Chorale and members of The Orchestra Now, conducted by James Bagwell
 
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
   Veni Creator Spiritus (c. 1860-68)
   La fuite en Égypte: Mystère en style ancien (1850)
Choral and organ works by Dmitry BORTNIANSKY (1751-1825), Luigi CHERUBINI (1760–1842), Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791–1864), Gioachino ROSSINI (1792–1868), Pierre-Louis DIETSCH (1808–65), Alfred LEFÉBURE-WÉLY (1817–69), César FRANCK (1822–90), Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921), Gabriel FAURÉ (1845–1924), and Olivier MESSIAEN (1908–92)
 
PROGRAM SEVEN: Berlioz: The Composer as Writer
Friday, August 16
Sosnoff Theater
6:30pm preconcert talk: Peter Bloom
7pm performance: Jana McIntyre, soprano; Noah Stewart, tenor; Alfred Walker, bass-baritone; Oren Fader, guitar; Luosha Fang, viola; Piers Lane and Orion Weiss, piano; and others (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Harold en Italie, Op. 16 (1834; arr. Liszt)
Niccolò PAGANINI (1782–1840)
   Cantabile (1823)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
   Andante and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14 (1830)
Piano works and arias by Louis SPOHR (1784–1859), Fromental HALÉVY (1799–1862), Adolphe Adam (1803–56), Mikhail GLINKA (1804–57), Michael Balfe (1808–70), Charles-Valentin ALKAN (1813–88)
 
PANEL TWO: Musical Romanticism and Literature
Saturday, August 17
Olin Hall
10am–12 noon
Eric Trudel, moderator; Francesca Brittan; Michèle Lowrie; Mark Pottinger
Free and open to the public
 
PROGRAM EIGHT: Literary Romantics
Saturday, August 17
Olin Hall
1pm preconcert talk: Dana Gooley
1:30pm performance: Jana McIntyre, soprano; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, mezzo-soprano; Noah Stewart, tenor; Tyler Duncan, baritone; Kee-Hyun Kim and Russell Houston, cello; Eric Reed, horn; Piers Lane, Anna Polonsky, and Orion Weiss, piano; Balourdet Quartet
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Les nuits d'été, Op. 7 (1841)
Fanny MENDELSSOHN (1805–47)
   From Sechs Lieder, Op. 1 (1846)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
   String Quintet No. 2, Op. 87 (1845)
Robert Schumann (1810–56)
   Andante and Variations, Op. 46 (1843)
Piano works by Ferdinand HILLER (1811–85), Stephen HELLER (1813–88); and Louis Moreau GOTTSCHALK (1829–69)
 
SUMMER SOIRÉE
Saturday, August 17
Blithewood
3:30pm
 
PROGRAM NINE: An Evening with the Orchestra
Saturday, August 17
Sosnoff Theater
6 pm preconcert talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
7 pm performance: American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Waverley Overture, Op. 1 (1827)
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792–1868)
   Overture to William Tell (1829)
Louise FARRENC (1804–75)
   Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 (1847)
Joachim RAFF (1822–82)
   Symphony No. 10 in F minor, “In Autumn,” Op. 213 (1879)
 
PROGRAM TEN: Berlioz's Transformation of the World of Sound
Sunday, August 18
Olin Hall
11 am preconcert talk: Richard Wilson
11:30am performance: Anna Polonsky, piano; Alex Sopp, flute; Hsuan-Fong Chen, oboe; Alec Manasse, clarinet; Thomas English, bassoon; Zachary Silberschlag, cornet; Eric Reed, horn; New Hudson Saxophone Quartet; and others
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   Chant sacré (arr. 1844)
Jean-Baptiste ARBAN (1825–89)
   Fantaisie and Variations on The Carnival of Venice (1861)
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
   Andante, op. posth. (1888)
Edward ELGAR (1857–1934)
   Romance, Op. 62 (1910)
Eugène BOZZA (1905–91)
   Andante et Scherzo (1938)
Edgard VARÈSE (1883–1965)
   Density 21.5 (1936, rev. 1946)
Olivier MESSIAEN (1908–92)
   Le merle noir (1952)
Steve REICH (b. 1936)
   Clapping Music (1972)
Luciano BERIO (1925–2003)
   Sequenza V (1966)
György LIGETI (1923–2006)
   Six Bagatelles (1953)
 
PROGRAM ELEVEN: Faust and the Spirit of the 19th Century
Sunday, August 18
Sosnoff Theater
2pm preconcert talk: Francesca Brittan
3pm performance: with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Joshua Blue, tenor; Alfred Walker, bass-baritone; Stefan Egerstrom, bass; Bard Festival Chorale and James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director (plus livestream)
 
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
   La damnation de Faust, Op. 24 (1846)

SummerScape 2024: other remaining key dates

Until August 17
Spiegeltent: live music and dancing
 
July 26, 28, 31; August 2 and 4
Opera: Meyerbeer's Le prophète (new production)
 
All programs subject to change