Art, Extending Through Schubert and Mahler, and on to Berg’S Own Teacher, Schoenberg
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2010 twenty-first season 10 the bard music festival presents - september - september 10 and His World | august Berg 37 august 13–15 and 20–22 vol. The 21st annual Bard Music Festival explores the work and world of the early 20th-century Austrian composer Alban Berg, whose deeply expressive music builds on the Viennese tradition beginning with Mozart, extending through Schubert and Mahler, and on to Berg’s own teacher, Schoenberg. Two weekends of orchestral, choral, and chamber concerts explore the cultural world, works, and life of Berg and his contemporaries. weekend one Berg and Vienna Friday, August 13 program one Alban Berg: The Path of Expressive Intensity Chamber works by Berg and Strauss Saturday, August 14 program two The Vienna of Berg’s Youth Chamber works by Zemlinsky, Webern, and others program three Mahler and Beyond American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg, Mahler, Korngold, and others Sunday, August 15 program four Eros and Thanatos Chamber works by Berg, Schreker, Mahler, and others VALLEY program five Teachers and Apostles Chamber works by Berg, Schonberg, Ullman, and others program six The Orchestra Reimagined HUDSON Members of the American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg, Busoni, Hindemith, and others THE weekend two Berg the European FOR Friday, August 20 program seven “No Critics Allowed”: The Society for Private Performances Chamber works by Berg, Debussy, Ravel, and others Saturday, August 21 program eight You Can’t Be Serious! Viennese Operetta and Popular Music LISTINGS Chamber works by Berg, Sullivan, Lehár, Kálmán, and others program nine Composers Select: New Music in the 1920s Chamber works by Berg, Casella, Gershwin, and others CINEMA program ten Modernism and Its Discontent & American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg and Schmidt Sunday, August 22 program eleven Between Accommodation and Inner Emigration: THEATRE The Composer’s Predicament | Chamber works by Berg, Dallapiccola, Hartmann, and others ART program twelve Crimes and Passions American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor | Orchestral works by Berg, Hindemith, and Weill MUSIC music | art | theatre & cinema listings for the hudson valley bard college, annandale-on-hudson, n.y. Tickets: $20 to $55 | 845-758-7900 | fishercenter.bard.edu alban berg in the atelier madame d’ora, wien, 1909. © önb/wien, 203481-d Spectacular! With color everywhere and 350 miles of hiking and biking trails within its quarter million acres of forever-wild lands, Ulster County is alive with vibrant communities, marinas, art, antiques, music, beautifully prepared fresh food, luxury spas, and cozy lodgings. So, bring the family for the day or a weekend, and enjoy just how alive our part of the world can be. Visit our web site, sign up for our online newsletter and join the fun. ulstercountyalive.com Call us at 800-342-5826 ® I LOVE NEW YORK logo is a registered trademark/service mark of the NYS Dept. of Economic Development, used with permission. dear readers, ll in all, it’s been a pretty great summer over here at Roll as we embark on our fourth year of bringing you the good stuff in the Hudson Valley: art, sustainability and creative lifestyle. Been hot enough for you lately? a Once again the Rosendale Street Festival was hosted on what seemed to be the hottest day of the year. It felt almost like New Orleans in August, and that’s some kind of hot y’all. Apparently, so far this is the hottest year recorded….for the whole world. Hoo boy. THE ROMANTIC GENERATIONS: BARBER/SCHUMANN/CHOPIN Yeah, we were feeling pretty darn good about ourselves a month or so AUGUST SCHEDULE back when we had the good fortune to talk with Pete Seeger. We had a really nice reaction to that piece, as well as to the rest of the issue. We SAT. | 14 | 6 PM • MARIA JETTE, SOPRANO; were firing on all cylinders, everybody really working hard, doing good ALAN MURCHIE, PIANO work. Yep, I’m gonna say it: we were on a roll. A SALUTE TO SAMUEL BARBER AT 100 Cue the shark music…. GAY LIFE: BARBER, SCHUMANN, AND THE NEW YORK ART-SONG TRADITION Last month I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Dr. Alan Chartock, president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, the SUN. | 15 | 4 PM • AMERNET STRING QUARTET, premiere public radio station/system in the region. I’m a big fan of Alan, WITH ANDREW GARLAND, BARITONE and I listen frequently to shows like The Media Project and Congressional Corner, two very informative programs covering media and New York BARBER [STRING QUARTET IN B MINOR &DOVER BEACH] AND DVORAK politics. Alan really knows his stuff on both counts, and to me he is a more reliable source than most regional newspapers and blogs. It was nice of SAT. | 21 | 6 PM • FRED HERSCH, JAZZ PIANO him to take some time with Roll, and I think we had a great interview. He gave me lots of good answers that made my questions look better than they really were. SUN. | 22 | 4 PM • EBÈNE QUARTET OF PARIS [DEBUT] We put the issue together, found the cool beach painting for the cover, BEETHOVEN, MOZART, DEBUSSY proofed, and wrapped it up with a bow. My, how we felt proud of ourselves, another good one! But when we got the magazines from the SAT. | 28 | 6 PM • JOEL FAN, PIANO; printer, it took literally minutes before we realized the awful truth. THE MAVERICK CHAMBER PLAYERS, We had misspelled “Chartock.” All. Through. The. Piece. ALEXANDER PLATT, CONDUCTOR; DARON HAGEN, COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE For the next 24 hours, you would have thought there had been a death in the family. We just could not believe the magnitude of the error. Alan PIANO SONATAS OF CHOPIN & BARBER was an extremely good sport about it, sharing a similar anecdote about DARON HAGEN; SEVEN LAST WORDS, CONCERTO FOR PIANO LEFT HAND AND how this stuff happens in the print biz. But we were seriously bummed, ORCHESTRA. WORLD PREMIERE OF CHAMBER ORCHESTRA VERSION and there was yet distribution to be done; I was out on the street handing out my mistake for all to see. Now that’s penance. SUN. | 29 | 4 PM • BORROMEO STRING QUARTET, So the question you want to ask has to be: how the hell do you make a WITH JUDITH GORDON, PIANO mistake like that? I mean come on….it’s the guy’s name! Well, I have been thinking about that a lot, Dear Reader. And here’s what I’ve got. BARBER, GUNTHER SCHULLER, JAMES MATHESON’S PIANO QUINTET [WORLD PREMIERE] Mistakes like these get in at the ground floor, gotta watch out. In my case, having done some online research on Alan, I cut and pasted into a SPECIAL EVENT: OPEN REHEARSAL 3:00-3:30 PM file, the title of which had his name misspelled (by me), leaving off the COMPOSER JAMES MATHESON AND THE MUSICIANS WILL SHARE A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT “c.” That file sat on my desktop staring me in the face for several weeks, THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND INTERACTION BETWEEN COMPOSER AND MUSICIANS AS THEY PREPARE with the misspelling, and quite frankly I became immune to seeing it as FOR THIS WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE. incorrect. That’s how easy it is on my end to screw up. It’s really important to not allow a bad habit to form, to be vigilant SUN. | 5 | SPECIAL TIME: 3 PM • Friends of Maverick about accuracy in information from the start. It’s too easy to get used to Concert for Donors, MEI-TING SUN, PIANO, the error, and in doing so get everybody else used to it. (Hey, this could just as accurately describe the recent Shirley Sherrod debacle, but I HE HOPIN OVE T C I L digress.) For our part, this was a wake-up call to tighten up and do this job better. And we will. We would like to be held to a higher standard, $25 general admission • $5 student with valid ID and meet it. Limited Reserved Seats $40 So, may I present the August issue! Be sure to check out our highlight ONLINE TICKETING AND PHONE SALES (800.595.4TIX) sections this month: lots of great music and theatre: Bard SummerScape, Belleayre Music Festival, the new Hudson Valley Green Festival, 120 MAVERICK RD, WOODSTOCK NY 12498 Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, and the Saugerties Artists Studio Tour. 845-679-8217 | www.MaverickConcerts.org If it’s too hot to go outside, stay in with iced tea and Roll. And if you are outside, a Roll magazine makes a real handy fan. Just the right size! FESTIVAL 2010 Cheers, Ross Rice, editor 2 | rollmagazine.com 3 | rollmagazine.com table of contents 2 editor’s note— 8 roll art & image— paint the people: portrait artist Nadine Robbins, by Ross Rice 14 roll the music— serial drama: Bard Music Festival celebrates composer Alban Berg, by Peter Aaron 33 Common Prayer: Kingston meets England, by way of Brooklyn, by Crispin Kott 18 roll listings— art | music | theatre & cinema 30 roll CD reviews— roll back- classic jazz DVD’s: Buck Clayton, Count Basie Orchestra, Sonny Stitt, J. J. Johnson, Philly Joe Jones, and Kenny Dorham new releases from Lara Hope and the Champtones, Cleoma’s Ghost, and Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti 32 roll dollars & sense— Social Security: when to start taking payments, by Beth Jones 36 roll on stage & screen— even weekenders get the blues: musical Closer Than Ever at Shandaken Theatrical Society, by Jay Blotcher 40 roll eco— who killed the diesel tractor? it could be Huguenot Street Farm’s Ron Khosla, by Luciano Valdivia 42 roll gardening and green— how dry I am: the xeriscape garden, by Luanne Panarotti 46 Rob Brezsny’s freewill astrology— 48 roll portrait Corrections: In last month’s piece on Dr.