One way I judge my summers is by how often I get to the Aston Magna series at Bard. The more the better. I probably won’t catch all of this summer’s series, but I did hear the first two, much to my benefit, at Olin Hall. The first program, June 20, was devoted to C.P.E. Bach, for his 300th birthday, and an appropriate work by his old man, the “Musical Offering,” dedicated to C.P.E.’s employer, Frederick the Great, who was an accomplished flutist and composer and probably appreciated the music. The concert got off to a somewhat shaky start, as the Quartet in D for keyboard, flute, and violin (yes, a quartet for three instruments, with two independent parts in the fortepiano) was marred by moments of discoordination and a lack of dynamics which undervalued the very romantic second movement. Pianist Peter Sykes, who always amuses me by playing early music from scores on a computer, performed the Phantasia-Sonate in F Sharp Minor with a lot more animation, inspiring violinist Daniel Stepner to join him in somewhat wild and crazy expression. The best performance of the group was the Sonata in F for bass recorder (Christopher Krueger, most impressive), viola da gamba (Laura Jeppesen), and fortepiano, which really rocked. After intermission, the magnificent intellectuality of J.S. Bach came through most impressively in as fine a performance of the “Musical Offering” as I’ve heard.
The next concert, June 27, was called “Winds of Romanticism,” a title which apparently didn’t appeal to the early music crowd (such as it is) and attracted a very small audience. Well, their loss. Bernard Crusell’s Divertimento, Op. 9, brought in oboist Stephen Hammer, a splendid player, for this lightweight but pleasing music featuring the oboe as soloist. There were no winds in Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13. But violinists Daniel Stepner and Julie Leven, violist David Miller, and cellist Guy Fishman, playing instruments with less power than the modern configuration, gave a passionate performance with extremely good ensemble and balance. It sounded like the work of a full-time string quartet, not a group that gets together for a few weeks each summer. Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, with another splendid wind player, Eric Hoeprich, was very mellow yet animated, again with very good balance of the parts.
Barbara Pickhardt, music director of Ars Choralis, has put together some excellent programs, including the memorable “Music in Difficult Times,” a tribute to the musicians and singers of the Terezin concentration camp. “Catskill Echoes,” performed at the Maverick Hall on June 21 and 22, was, I thought, not as successful. The concert was overlong (almost 2 ½ hours) and rather chaotic, mixing together music and narration with an intended common theme which didn’t cohere well. It was still a pleasure to hear the chorus singing works of area composers Alexander Semmler, Franklin Grapel (previously unknown to me), Lee Hoiby (a summer resident of Phoenicia, unmentioned in the program notes), Peter Schickele and Robert Starer. The singing of the Schickele works was particularly beautiful. I also hadn’t known that one of the composers of early 19th century shape-note hymns, Lewis Edson Sr., spent much of his life in Woodstock, and the suite of his work arranged by Henry Cowell was enjoyable although the performance was ragged. However, there was a lot of irrelevant material of far lesser interest on this program, and as usual Pickhardt’s leading of folk rhythms was square. A beautiful song by Pete Seeger which I hadn’t heard before, “To My Own Brown Earth,” in Pickhardt’s arrangement, ended the program beautifully. But the encore, another Seeger arrangement (by Greg Dinger), was grotesquely overdone and ended the evening with a thud.
Some coming events for the next two weeks: July 4, at Olin Auditorium, Bard College, Aston Magna continues with “Music from a Turbulent 17th Century England,” heavy on the great John Dowland and Henry Purcell. July 11, “Vice Squad: Baroque skirmishes with alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and love,” highlighted by Bach’s “Coffee Cantata.” More information at www.astonmagna.org.
Saturday, July 5, at Maverick, the excellent guitarist Benjamin Verdery plays “Music of the Americas” at 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 6, the Calder Quartet plays works of Adès, Janácek, and Beethoven at 4 p.m.; Saturday, July 12, at 11 a.m., a Young People’s Concert at Maverick by Kim & Reggie Harris, folksingers and storytellers; at 6:30 p.m. that evening, pianist Lara Downes plays a tribute to Billie Holiday, “Lady Day Remembered.” Sunday at 4 p.m., the Enso Quartet and pianist Frederic Chiu perform “The World of Richard Strauss: The Radical Conservative,” works of Strauss, Erwin Schulhoff, Mozart, and Franz Schmidt. There’s lots more detail at www.maverickconcerts.org, and before concert time you can read the program notes. PianoSummer at SUNY New Paltz gets underway at McKenna Theater on July 12 at 8 p.m. with the traditional Faculty Gala, seven pianists who are teachers at the festival. For the first time in several years, the festival’s organizer, Vladimir Feltsman, is playing a full recital of his own, an all-Schumann program on July 19. If you want to go I’d order tickets now. You can get more information, including the festival brochure, at www.newpaltz.edu/piano.
And for those who make their plans in advance, you can catch two of my favorite non-classical performers near the end of July at Harmony in Woodstock: singer-songwriter Elly Wininger on Friday, July 25, at 7 p.m.; jazz vibraphonist Rick Altman and his ensemble on Sunday, July 27. I gather that jazz night at Catskill Mt. Pizza is still going strong on Wednesdays, and Altman will be playing there on alternate Sundays for a while. Go out and hear some good music!
