SA
Bard Music Festival | Program Eight | Tradition and Innovation
This program celebrates Martinů’s gift for synthesizing the old and the new. Named for Renaissance part-songs and inspired by Mozart, the First Duo from his “Three Madrigals” is nonetheless contemporary in its idioms; his lyrical Third Cello Sonata features both traditional and progressive harmonies; and his Second Nonet, composed in his final months, finds fresh colors and textures within its neoclassical form. These will be heard alongside mid-century chamber works by two of Martinů’s younger contemporaries. David Diamond, a friend and colleague whom he had known in Paris, is represented by the energetic and tonally centered Quintet for flute, piano, and strings. By contrast, the Évocations de Slovaquie by Pulitzer Prize laureate Karel Husa—another Czech who settled in France before emigrating to the States—is already atonal and forward-looking, despite dating from the composer’s Paris years between the wars.
Program
1 pm • Preconcert talk: TBA
1:30 pm • Performance: Alex Sopp, flute; Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Shannon Lee & Austin Wulliman, violin; Luosha Fang, viola; Nicholas Canellakis & Thomas Mesa, cello; and others
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Duo No. 1, “Three Madrigals,” H313 (1947)
Cello Sonata No. 3, H340 (1952)
Nonet No. 2, H374 (1959)
David Diamond (1915–2005)
Quintet (1937)
Karel Husa (1921–2016)
Evocations de Slovaquie (1951)