NOVEMBER 2020 COMPLIMENTARY GUIDE Catskillregionguide.Com
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Catskill Mountain Region NOVEMBER 2020 COMPLIMENTARY GUIDE catskillregionguide.com WELCOME HOME TO THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS! With a Special Section: Visit Woodstock November 2020 • GUIDE 1 2 • www.catskillregionguide.com IN THIS ISSUE www.catskillregionguide.com VOLUME 35, NUMBER 11 November 2020 PUBLISHERS Peter Finn, Chairman, Catskill Mountain Foundation Sarah Finn, President, Catskill Mountain Foundation EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION Sarah Taft ADVERTISING SALES Barbara Cobb Steve Friedman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS & ARTISTS Benedetta Barbaro, Darla Bjork, Rita Gentile, Liz Innvar, Joan Oldknow, Jeff Senterman, Sarah Taft, Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson & Robert Tomlinson ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE Candy McKee On the cover: The Ashokan Reservoir. Photo by Fran Driscoll, francisxdriscoll.com Justin McGowan & Emily Morse PRINTING Catskill Mountain Printing Services 4 A CATSKILLS WELCOME TO THE GRAF PIANO DISTRIBUTION By Joan Oldknow & Sarah Taft Catskill Mountain Foundation 12 ART & POETRY BY RITA GENTILE EDITORIAL DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: November 10 The Catskill Mountain Region Guide is published 12 times a year 13 TODAY BUILDS TOMORROW: by the Catskill Mountain Foundation, Inc., Main Street, PO Box How to Build the Future We Want: The Fear Factor 924, Hunter, NY 12442. If you have events or programs that you would like to have covered, please send them by e-mail to tafts@ By Robert Tomlinson catskillmtn.org. Please be sure to furnish a contact name and in- clude your address, telephone, fax, and e-mail information on all correspondence. For editorial and photo submission guidelines 14 VISIT WOODSTOCK send a request via e-mail to [email protected]. The liability of the publisher for any error for which it may be held legally responsible will not exceed the cost of space ordered WELCOME HOME TO THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS! or occupied by the error. The publisher assumes no liability for 22 errors in key numbers. The publisher will not, in any event, be liable for loss of income or profits or any consequent damages. CHOIRS: Darla Bjork The Catskill Mountain Region Guide office is located in 36 Hunter Village Square in the Village of Hunter on Route 23A. The magazine can be found on-line at www.catskillmtn.org CATSKILL MOUNTAIN REGION GUIDE by clicking on the “Guide Magazine” button, or by going directly 40 to www.catskillregionguide.com PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO: 7,000 copies of the Catskill Mountain Region Guide are Photographs by Robert Hsu distributed each month. It is distributed free of charge at the Views Around Woodstock Plattekill, Sloatsburg and New Baltimore rest stops on the New York State Thruway, and at the tourist information offices, restaurants, lodgings, retailers and other businesses throughout 46 A CHAT WITH BENEDETTA BARBARO: Greene, Delaware and Ulster counties. Chef/Owner, The Green Palate Home delivery of the Guide magazine is available, at an additional fee, to annual members of the Catskill Mountain Foundation at the $100 membership level or higher. A GREENE COUNTY GARDEN IN NOVEMBER ©2000 Catskill Mountain Foundation, Inc. 47 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without By Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson written permission is prohibited. The Catskill Mountain Region Guide is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All photo- graphic rights reside with the photographer. 48 THE GREAT OUTDOORS IN THE CATSKILLS By Jeff Senterman 52 PAPER COLLAGE: Liz Innvar THE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION 7971 MAIN STREET, P.O. BOX 924 54 DONATE TO THE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION HUNTER, NY 12442 PHONE: 518 263 2000 • FAX: 518 263 2025 WWW.CATSKILLMTN.ORG 56 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS November 2020 • GUIDE 3 Catskill Mountain Foundation’s Piano Performance Museum is the new home of an original 1826 Graf Fortepiano, restored by Edward Swenson The Graf Fortepiano in its new home, the Piano Performance Museum in Hunter, NY A Catskills Welcome By Joan Oldknow and Sarah Taft he Catskill Mountain Foundation’sto the Piano Performance Graf To celebrate thePiano Graf’s arrival, Academy of Fortepiano Museum in Hunter, NY is thrilled to announce the ar- Performance founders and faculty members Yi-heng Yang and Trival of an original 1826 Conrad Graf Fortepiano, acquired from Maria Rose will perform in a recital recorded at the Piano Perfor- Edward Swenson, noted piano restorer and musicologist from mance Museum. The video recording of the performance will be Ithaca, NY. The arrival of this instrument signals a significant intertwined with a prerecorded lecture by Edward Swenson, who step forward in the Museum’s collection, curated by Steven E. spent two years restoring the Graf to its current condition. The Greenstein. Conrad Graf’s importance as a pianomaker in the his- performance will be available online on the Catskill Mountain tory of the instrument cannot be overstated, and neither can the Foundation’s YouTube and Facebook pages starting on November stellar reputation of his fortepianos amongst many of the most 28 at 7:30 pm. A live Q&A session will follow the performance celebrated composers and musicians not just of the 19th century, on November 28. This event is free, but registration is required: but of the 20th and 21st centuries as well. It is also an instrument visit catskillmtn.org to register. uniquely suited to playing 19th century music the way it was originally intended to be heard. The Fortepiano … Is An Underdog? For professional pianists, playing the fortepiano is a personal, Most audiences throughout the world are accustomed to hear- intimate, experience that can be enjoyed to its fullest extent at the ing piano concerts played on modern pianos … they are indeed Piano Performance Museum. The Graf’s presence in its new home more prevalent, but the past several years has seen a steady growth will help introduce enthusiasts all over the world to the remarkable in interest in the fortepiano in both the United States and in sound of an instrument that was celebrated by the Schumanns, the Europe. U.S. audiences are getting used to professional pianists Mendelssohns, Beethoven, Chopin, and many others. playing on fortepianos in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall; 4 • www.catskillregionguide.com while European audiences are somewhat more familiar with the then developed a long-lasting interest in the fortepiano, an inter- instrument, it’s still not a regular occurrence to hear it played on est that eventually connected her with Yi-heng. the concert stage. When asked about dynamic markings for fortepiano music, For students in New York City and around modern piano in- both Yi-heng and Maria explained that the dynamics are freer stitutions, the fortepiano is often an underdog, overshadowed by than those on a modern piano. It is a language that one learns— the modern piano. It is more common for conservatory students the language of musicians at that time. The markings indicate to study fortepiano as a supplement to their main studies, and a the shared language that musicians used in the Romantic era. few of them get hooked. Schubert indicated many dynamic levels in his piano music, including triple ppp. On the Graf, there are different ways to play a triple ppp: not only by touch but also with either one of two pedals (the Graf has four pedals) that add hushed colors. About Conrad Graf Early in his career, Graf was frequently mentioned as the finest fortepiano builder in Vienna. His expensive instruments were purchased by wealthy European nobles, concert halls, monastery schools and churches. At an exhibition in Vienna in 1835, Graf was awarded a gold medal for the excellence of his instruments. They were praised for their solid construction, clarity, stable tuning, light touch and strength of tone. Graf never entrusted the shaping and leathering of the piano hammers to any of his workers. He was, after all, the son of a leather tanner. With Left: Yi-heng Yang; Right: Maria Rose that knowledge he manufactured hammers that produce a wide range of nuances, colors and shadings of tone. His innovations About the Pianists … And How were copied by rival piano builders but only rarely matched. His They Came to Love the Fortepiano instruments are ideal for the performance of music from the late Yi-heng Yang remembers how she started her journey in play- Classic and early Romantic periods. ing the fortepiano. Growing up in New Jersey, she started piano In fact, most key figures from the Romantic Era admired the lessons at the age of 6, quickly moving on to recitals and competi- Graf piano, and recognized the exceptional quality of the Conrad tions. After college, she became interested in playing fortepianos Graf’s artisanship. Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn and Ignaz when she heard her roommate play the baroque violin and was Moscheles also played or owned Grafs. It has a Viennese action, drawn to the authentic sound produced by the fortepiano. She with leather, not felt, on the hammers. The Graf is stronger and further explored the instrument’s possibilities as a doctoral stu- more powerful than earlier pianos, and has a rich sound. dent, when she took a course on fortepianos with Audrey Axinn at The Juilliard School of Music. She pursued further study on the fortepiano at the Amsterdam Conservatory, under the renowned Eventually I found a Graf piano that in sound and Dutch fortepianist Stanley Hoogland. playability (Spielart) immensely appeals to me; Yi-heng discovered that, for her, playing music on a Mozart piano was revelatory. She compares the sounds of the Graf to that responds to the softest pianissimo as well as paint colors: “At the Graf, a thousand colors are available to the when I attack with full strength. It is also extremely pianist, versus just three colors in the standardized modern piano. attractive, so I wrote my name in it that it is for you. The Graf has a range of imaginative possibilities and is responsive You will be pleased.