Bard Music Festival: Program Two - Anxieties of Influence: Models, Teachers and Classmates

Program Two helps contextualize Berlioz among his predecessors, mentors, and peers. One of his little-known chamber works will be heard alongside examples by Luigi Cherubini, under whose headship he chafed at the Paris Conservatoire, and Elias Parish Alvars, whom he considered “the Liszt of the harp.”

Also featured are Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance–the piano piece Berlioz orchestrated for his French adaptation of Der Freischütz–and operatic excerpts by his early composition teacher Jean-François Le Sueur, fellow Prix de Rome winner Ambroise Thomas, and Italian opera composer Gaspare Spontini, whom he dubbed “the genius of the century.”

The program’s centerpiece is the substantial yet underrated C-minor String Quartet of Berlioz’s Czech-born teacher, Anton Reicha.

Program:

1 pm - Preconcert Talk with Jonathan Kregor

1:30 pm - Performance: Jana McIntyre, soprano; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Duncan, baritone; Noël Wan, harp; Michael Stephen Brown and Erika Switzer, piano; Balourdet Quartet; and others

Hector Berlioz (1803–69)

Le montagnard exilé (1822–23)

Songs

Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842)

Etude No. 2 (1804)

Anton Reicha (1770–1836)

String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (1803)

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826)

Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 (1819)

Elias Parish Alvars (1808–49)

Introduction and Variations on Themes from Bellini’s Norma, Op. 36 (n.d.)

Arias by Jean-François Le Sueur (1760–1837); Gaspare Spontini (1774–1851); Ambroise Thomas (1811–96)

Location: Olin Hall

Ticketing:
Tickets start at $25
$5 tickets for Bard students are made possible by the Passloff Pass.

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