The Virtuoso as Composer
- August 5, 8 PM
- Fisher Center at Bard, Sosnoff Theater
Artists
Leon Botstein conductor
Danny Driver piano
Anna Polonsky piano
Artem Yasynskyy piano
Mané Galoyan soprano
Patrick Guetti bass
Viano String Quartet
Presented by the Bard Music Festival
7:30 PM Pre-Concert Talk
8 PM Performance
Harnessing Bard’s unusual ability to integrate orchestral, vocal, piano and chamber works within a single event, Program One offers an overview of Rachmaninoff’s long career, from two masterful teenage works—his little-known Second String Quartet and perennially popular C-sharp minor Prelude—to his hugely successful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, written at the height of his powers.
Together with Isle of the Dead, a symphonic poem inspired by Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin, the program also features examples of the 100-plus songs Rachmaninoff wrote for his close friend Feodor Chaliapin, the legendary Russian bass, and of the composer’s numerous piano transcriptions, including, by way of a tribute to his adopted home, The Star-Spangled Banner.
Program
All-Rachmaninoff Program
Songs and piano works, including selections from the Op. 23 Preludes and Op. 11 Morceaux
String Quartet No. 2
Ilse of the Dead, Op. 29
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
The Bard Music Festival
The Bard Music Festival returns for its 32nd season with an exploration of the life and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), perhaps the last great exponent of Russian Romanticism, who nevertheless embodied many contradictions. Through a series of themed concert programs, lectures, and panel discussions, Rachmaninoff and His World explores such themes as composition during the Cold War, virtuoso pianists and their public, and America’s ongoing love affair with Rachmaninoff’s music.
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