The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: The 24th annual Bard Music Festival finishes its look at the modernist titan composer Igor Stravinsky with an exploration of his late work. Here is a report by The New York Times critic Steve Smith.

By Jacob Stockinger

As I promised last weekend, here is the update on the conclusion of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival held at Bard College in the Hudson River Valley.

Much or even most of the festival is directed by Bard College president Leon Bostein. Concerts are held in the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (below) that was designed by the noted architect Frank Gerhy.

This year’s theme was Igor Stravinsky, and the first weekend of the festival examined his Russian roots and his earlier work. Last weekend I offered the insightful account and assessment by The New York Times critic Zachary Woolfe, who has been named by some sources — including famed critic Norman Lebrecht — as the designated successor to senior music critic Anthony Tommasini.

Here is a link to that posting:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/classical-music-this-weekend-will-bring-the-conclusion-of-the-exciting-and-intriguing-bard-music-festival-that-this-year-is-exploring-the-music-and-world-of-igor-stravinsky/

Lass weekend saw the conclusion of “Stravinsky and His World.”  It examined later works, with an emphasis on his neo-Classical works (listen to the tuneful clarity of the YouTube video of Stravinsky’s “Pulchinella” Suite at the bottom performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic); the composer’s and culture’s reaction against Richard Wagner and the lushness of late Romanticism as well; and the general career and music of Stravinsky (below, in a  photo by Richard Avedon) while he was in exile in France and the U.S.

The activities included a performance of “Perspehone” with Jean Stillwell as the narrator (below in a photo by Cory Weaver of the New York Times).

Also performing was the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein (below).

Here is a link to another perceptive assessment by another critic for The New York Times, Steve Smith (below):

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/arts/music/bard-music-festival-focuses-on-works-in-france-and-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I’m sure the festival was filled with great music, great performances and rare insights.

For that reason as I wrote last time, the Bard Music Festival is one that really tempts me. What other festival would treat music more as philosophy and history and less as entertainment? What other festival would devote itself, for example, to Camille Saint-Saens or Jean Sibelius?