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| Music - The Elgar Year in North America and Beyond |
Edward Elgar, the Bard Music Festival, 2007
Weekend One August 10–12, 2007
Grandeur and Intimacy in Victorian England
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| Michael Miller |
August 17, 2007 |
| Friday, August 10
Program One
Elgar: From Autodidact to "Master of the King's Musick"
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm Preconcert Talk: Leon Botstein
8 pm Performance: Daedalus Quartet; Piers Lane, piano; Bard Festival Chamber Players; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; members of the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Sursum Corda for organ, brass, strings, Op. 11
Harmony Music No. 4
Chanson de nuit, Op. 15, No. 1
Chanson de matin, Op. 15, No. 2
Salut d'amour, Op. 12
Sevillana, Op. 7
Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84
Choral Works
Saturday, August 11
Panel One
Elgar the Man and His Worlds
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Christopher H. Gibbs, moderator; Byron Adams, Diana McVeagh, and Andrew Porter
Free and open to the public
Program Two
Music in the Era of Queen Victoria
Olin Hall
1 pm Preconcert Talk: Christina Bashford
1:30 pm Performance: Daedalus Quartet; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Simone Dinnerstein, piano; Anna Polonsky, piano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
O Salutaris Hostia
Ave verum, Op. 2, No. 1
Ecce sacerdos magnus
Johann Baptist Cramer (1771–1858), Introduzione ed aria all'inglese, Op. 65, for piano
W. Sterndale Bennett (1816–75), Impromptu, Op. 12, No. 2, for piano; Piano Sextet, Op. 8
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809–47), Fantasia for piano in E Major,"The Last Rose of Summer," Op. 15
Songs and glees by T. F. Walmisley (1783–1866); John Stainer (1840–1901); C. E. Horn (1786–1849); Liza Lehmann (1862–1918); J. L. Hatton (1809–1886); and Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
Choral works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; S. S.
Wesley (1810–76); and F. A. Gore Ouseley (1825–89)
Special Event
Pianistic Anglophilia: Elgar, Ireland, and Grainger
Olin Hall
5 pm Performance with commentary by Kenneth Hamilton
Program Three
Elgar and the "English Musical Renaissance"
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm Preconcert Talk: Byron Adams
8 pm Performance: Piers Lane, piano; American
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
In the South (Alassio), Op. 50
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4, Op. 39, in G Major
Funeral March from Grania and Diarmid, Op. 42
Variations on an Original Theme ("Enigma"), Op. 36
Hubert Parry (1848–1918), Symphonic Variations
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924), Concert Variations on an English Theme ("Down among the Dead Men"), for piano and orchestra, Op. 71
It is especially significant that this year's Bard Music Festival, the 18th, is the first to celebrate a British composer. The first principle of the Bard Festival is that is casts a wide intellectual net, taking into consideration not only the musical predecessors, influences, contemporaries, and so forth of a major composer, but also the broader cultural context of the composer and his music. It is difficult to argue with this premise, as an observer who comes from a background in classics and art history, I find it particularly striking how extensively and deeply the cultural connections of major composers penetrate into their society and culture as a whole. Few composers failed to set words to music, or failed to connect with the visual arts of their time, whether through the architecture of the buildings in which their works were performed, through theatrical design, or through some other association with artists. Few composers failed to read books, have opinions about religion, politics, or current events, or to play at least some small role in public life. It is astonishing how much one can pull together about the culture of a particular time and place through the biography and music of a major composer. Take for example, Bach or Beethoven, Mendelssohn or Schumann, Liszt and Wagner.
Now, after seventeen year of neglect, we have the opportunity to look at a British composer from this perspective, an Englishman, whose life spanned the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, beginning with the Indian Mutiny and ending with Hitler's takeover of Germany...
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Elgar at Bard, Weekend II
Of science and religion, Music Halls and World War I, Elgar's Symphonic work, and Gerontius |
| Michael Miller |
September 6, 2007 |
Friday, August 17
Symposium
Charles Darwin and Cardinal Newman:
Religion, Science, and Technology in the Elgarian Era
Multipurpose Room, Bertelsmann Campus Center
10:00 am – 12 noon
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Deirdre d'Albertis, moderator; and others
Elgar by Ken Russell
Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center
4 pm
Program Six
Elgar and the Salon
Sosnoff Theater
7:30 pm Preconcert Talk: Sophie Fuller
8:00 pm Performance: Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; William Ferguson, tenor; Jupiter String Quartet; Jeremy Denk, piano; Piers Lane, piano
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Concert Allegro, Op. 46
Dream Children, Op. 43 (arr. for piano)
Echo's Dance, from The Sanguine Fan, Op. 81 (arr. for piano)
May Song
Skizze
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), La bonne chanson, Op. 61
Frank Bridge (1879–1941), Piano Quintet in D Minor
Songs by Maude Valerie White (1855–1937); Ethel Smyth (1858–1944); Hubert Parry (1848–1918); and Roger Quilter (1877–1953)
Saturday, August 18
Program Seven
"God Bless the Music Halls": Victorian and Edwardian Popular Song in America and Britain
Olin Hall
10 am Performance with commentary by Derek Scott, with William Ferguson, tenor; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Gloria Parker, mezzo-soprano; Tonna Miller, soprano; and Spencer Myer, piano
Program Eight
The Great War and Modern Music
Olin Hall
1 pm Preconcert Talk: Byron Adams, replacing Alain Frogley
1:30 pm Performance: Bard Festival String Quartet; Claremont Trio; Laura Flax, clarinet; Weston Hurt, baritone; Ieva Jokubviciute, piano; Jennifer Koh, violin; Scott Williamson, tenor
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Violin Sonata in E Minor, Op. 82
Carillon, Op. 75
Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Berceuse heroique, for piano; Noel des enfants qui n'ont plus de maison, for voice and piano
John Ireland (1879–1962), Piano Trio No. 2
Arthur Bliss (1891–1975), Clarinet Quintet
Songs by George Butterworth (1885–1916) and Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
Program Nine
Elgar: The Imperial Self-Portrait
Sosnoff Theater
7 pm Preconcert Talk: Christopher H. Gibbs
8 pm Performance: American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Crown of India Suite, Op. 66
Falstaff, a symphonic study, Op. 68
Sospiri, Op. 70
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 63
Sunday, August 19
Panel Three
Constructions of Masculinity from Dorian Gray to Father Brown
Olin Hall
10 am–noon
Byron Adams, moderator; Leon Botstein; Richard Dellamora; Sophie Fuller
Free and open to the public
Program Ten
Elgar and Modernism
Olin Hall
1 pm Preconcert Talk: Diana McVeagh
1:30 pm Performance: Carolyn Betty, soprano; Bard Festival String Quartet; Piers Lane, piano; Sophie Shao, cello; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; Jeremy Denk, piano
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 83
Frederick Delius (1862–1934), Sonata for cello and piano
Gustav Holst (1874–1934), Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Third Group
Cyril Scott (1879–1970), Two Pieces, Op. 47, for piano
Herbert Howells (1892–1983), Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 21
William Walton (1902–1983), Three Façade Songs
Program Eleven
The Culture of Religion: The Dream of Gerontius
Sosnoff Theater
4:30 pm Preconcert Talk: Charles McGuire
5:30 pm Performance: Carolyn Betty, soprano; Vinson Cole, tenor; John Hancock, baritone; Jane Irwin, mezzo-soprano; Bard Festival Chorale, James Bagwell, choral director; American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Selections from The Kingdom, Op. 51
The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38
The more I reflect on music the more I am struck by the manifold ways in which a musical works are linked with groups or communities. Once the listener puts together a few instruments, rhythms, and melodic threads, an idea of some human context begins to appear. While the musicologically inclined might be tempted to consider this from a historical point of view, it is not at all necessary. If the original context is unfamiliar to us, we automatically create one for ourselves, most likely some idealized reflection of our immediate surroundings, and we become absorbed in the music, "tuning out" as much of our immediate physical surroundings as possible. On the other hand, it might be pure fantasy, a daydream derived from some scrap of knowledge of the composer, or one's own unfulfilled desires. It might well be musically beneficial, functioning as a bridge in one's listening, a bridge to full absorption in the music. |
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| Bard Music Festival, Edward Elgar and his World, Weekend Three, October 26–27, 2007: Nostalgia, Patriotism, and Aesthetic Ideals |
| Michael Miller |
October 30, 2007 |
| The third weekend of the 2007 Bard Music Festival offered a wealth of very strong, even great performances of important music, some of it rarely heard in this country if at all, as well as a free-wheeling panel discussion on Anglophilia and imperialism. Although Saturday began with the panel, I’ll begin with the music and conclude with a discussion of the panel, since there are some issues I wish to address.
Introduced by Bard music historian Peter Laki, the afternoon chamber music program began with Frank Bridge’s First String Quartet in E minor, played with eloquence and vigor by Chinese students at the Bard Conservatory...
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| Boston Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Friday, January 25, 2008
Sir Edward Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius
Sir Colin Davis, conductor
Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano
Ben Heppner, tenor
Gerald Finley, bass-baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor
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| Michael Miller |
February 3, 2008 |
| Once again, less than two months after James Levine’s great reading of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Symphony Hall audiences heard a truly unforgettable performance—on the very highest level in nearly every respect and even miraculous in some—of a very great work, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Even the widespread neglect of this great work in America offered an advantage of sorts. Hearing it out of its secure context in the repertoire of the English choral societies, one could more readily appreciate its universality, its power to move audiences in purely human terms, beyond its ostensible religious, particularly Roman Catholic, origins. However, as rich as its musical and spiritual rewards were, the event posed just as many questions, above all, why is the music of Elgar so dismally neglected in this country, when critics have singled Elgar out as the most international of British composers?* In his own time, he was regarded as the true successor to the great German symphonists, and Gerontius itself enjoyed its first successes in Germany. Its freedom from religious specificity, the universality of its effect on audiences, poses another question. If it isn’t a church work, just what sort of music is it? |
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