Concerts
A Walt Whitman Sampler
Walt Whitman, the defining 19th-century poetic voice of America, inspired several generations of European composers. In the 20th century, Whitman’s poetry was beautifully adapted during World War I by Othmar Schoeck. The catastrophe of World War II inspired Kurt Weill to turn to Whitman’s writings. Franz Schreker and Ralph Vaughan Williams were drawn to Whitman’s…
Read MoreDemon
SummerScape’s production of Anton Rubinstein’s operatic masterpiece Demon first premiered to great acclaim in 1871. Although performed frequently in Russia, the work remains something of a rarity in the West today. Conducted by Leon Botstein and directed by the renowned American director Thaddeus Strassberge. Based on the renowned fantasy poem by Mikhail Lermontov, Demon boasts…
Read MoreDimitrij
A great nation in turmoil after the abrupt end to a ruling dynasty leaving no clear path forward. This was Russia in the Time of Troubles, the seventeenth-century period in which Antonín Dvořák set his 1882 opera Dimitrij. A stellar cast along with the Bard Festival Chorale animate this powerful production by Anne Bogart for…
Read MoreIntolerance
In post-Fascist Italy, Luigi Nono attempted to reverse the darkness of Mussolini and rescue art from being the handmaiden of the state. His one-act opera Intolleranza 1960 speaks out against dictatorship. It follows a migrant worker travelling home as he gets caught up in a political protest, is tortured in prison, and escapes to fight…
Read MoreHollow Victory: Jews in Soviet Russia after the World War
Despite the brutal suppression of Jewish culture in the late 1940s under Stalin, Jewish composers sustained a vibrant and active musical culture, as these grippingly beautiful works reveal. Explore the tenacity of Jewish culture through one of its most embattled phases. Expression cannot be silenced, especially when friends like Shostakovich have the courage to help.…
Read MoreTriumph of Art
Each of these composers was influenced by confrontation with authoritarian regimes, both fascist and communist. This concert reveals the compositional response to resistance, inner emigration, and exile by three leading twentieth-century composers from Russia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Leon Botstein shares the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor’s Notes Q&A at 7 PM…
Read MoreThe Sounds of Democracy
American democracy was shaped by the ideals, vision, and principles of its leaders, particularly Roosevelt and Kennedy. These presidents protected our liberties, including freedom of expression, and stood by the common people against the interests of the rich and powerful. Their legacy inspired the music of Sessions, Bernstein, and Copland, who wrote Canticle of Freedom…
Read MoreIris
At once opulent and eerie, Pietro Mascagni’s Iris, composed in 1898 with libretto by Luigi Illica, received its North American premiere at Bard SummerScape in 2016. The American Symphony Orchestra performs under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein with a brilliant cast of singers including the Australian tenor Gerard Schneider as a menacing and callous Osaka…
Read MoreThe Apostles
England’s greatest composer since Purcell wrote a magnificent but rarely-heard setting of the New Testament. Elgar’s The Apostles follows the story of the Twelve through the Resurrection. On a par with his previous choral work, The Dream of Gerontius, this oratorio is at once sublime and heartbreakingly human. Leon Botstein shares the stories behind the…
Read MorePrague Central: Great 20th Century Czech Composers
Though right in the center of the group of countries that defined the western musical tradition, Czech composers often felt like outsiders looking in. Perhaps it was this strange perspective that led to these four composers producing what has been thought to be some of the most original and influential works of the early 20th…
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