*_THE 17TH ANNUAL BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL_*
*/FRANZ LISZT AND HIS WORLD/*

*THREE FASCINATING WEEKENDS OF DISCOVERY: AUGUST 11 -- 13, AUGUST 18 --
20, AND OCTOBER 27 -- 28*

*MUSIC **FESTIVAL AT HEART OF BARD SUMMERSCAPE 2006 EXPLORES LIFE, CAREER,
ACHIEVEMENT AND INFLUENCE OF COMPOSER, PIANO VIRTUOSO, MYSTIC, VISIONARY
AND INTERNATIONAL CELEBRITY WHO EMBODIED SPIRIT OF 19^TH -CENTURY
ROMANTICISM*

*HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE PERFORMANCES OF MANY RARELY HEARD WORKS BY LISZT AND
HIS CONTEMPORARIES-- INCLUDING LISZT'S INNOVATIVE TONE POEMS AND HIS
MONUMENTAL /MISSA SOLEMNIS/; ACCOMPANYING LECTURES, SYMPOSIA AND OTHER
SPECIAL EVENTS BRING A THRILLING AND EXUBERANTLY COLORFUL EPOCH FULLY
TO LIFE*

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.* --- "Franz Liszt and His World"* is the subject
of the *17^th annual Bard Music Festival* and a centerpiece of the 2006
Bard SummerScape Festival.  As in previous years, the Bard Music Festival
will present two summer weekends of orchestral and chamber music, as
well as recitals, symposia, panels, and more, on the Bard College campus
(*August 11-13*, *August 18-20*) -- with a third weekend in the fall
bringing this year's festival to a close (*October 27-28)*.  The opening
program on August 11, */Liszt: Mirror of the 19th Century/*, includes a
pre-concert lecture by festival co-director Leon Botstein, and a concert
of Liszt compositions ranging from the firestorm of /Reminiscences de
Don Juan/, for solo piano, to songs and choral works, and including both
the famous solo-piano transcription of Franz Schubert's dramatic song
/Erlkonig/ (/The Erl-king/) and a moving tribute to Wagner, Liszt's
son-in-law, /At the Grave of Richard Wagner /(/Am Grabe Richard Wagners/).

*Franz Liszt (1811-1886)* was one of the first international musical
superstars: a true revolutionary who invented the piano recital --
touring, performing and composing during his long lifetime a vast number
of works that continue to be influential.  /His/ world was indeed /the
world /of creativity.  Thus the scope of this year's Bard Music Festival
is perhaps the broadest to date.  As an advocate for the "Music of the
Future", Liszt extended his legendary generosity to a broad range of
composers and performers, from Mendelssohn and the Schumanns (whose
genius he recognized but who were themselves resistant to Liszt's aesthetic
agenda) to Berlioz, Chopin, and Wagner.  Many of these contemporaries,
as well as Liszt's successors (virtually none of whom could escape his
or Wagner's influences) are also to be heard.

Each weekend spotlights facets of Liszt's artistic identity: the performer,
phenomenon and critic; the nationalist, teacher and mystic; the visionary
and experimentalist.  The Bard Music Festival will present performances
of representative compositions from all stages of his career.  Liszt's
world comprised salon music, grand opera, virtuoso showpieces, nationalist
statements and mystical meditations.

*_Other composers featured in "Franz Liszt and His World"_*
Past and present, the composers and artists who inspired Liszt or
were influenced by him came from many of the far-flung parts of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, from Russia, Poland, France, the German states,
Scandinavia, Italy, the USA, England and Ireland.  Included on the
programs are Haydn, Weber and Paganini; such opera composers as Meyerbeer,
Rossini, Donizetti, Halevy, Bellini and, of course, the great Wagner;
and pianist/composers Brahms, Busoni, Chopin, Debussy, Grieg, Anton
Rubinstein and Schumann.  Additionally, patrons attending the first
weekend of "Franz Liszt and His World" may also take in a refreshing
triple-bill of *comic operettas* by *Jacques Offenbach*.

*_Critical acclaim for the Bard Music Festival_*
Jeremy Eichler, newly-named chief music critic of the /Boston Globe/,
wrote of last year's Bard Music Festival in the /New York Times/: "As
in the past years, the ...  festival mixed orchestral and chamber
concerts with supplementary events like panels, pre-concert talks and
even documentary films, placing the composer's achievement in a rich web
of context.  Bard's formula seemed tailor-made for a figure like [*Aaron*]
*Copland*, whose output remains little known by most listeners beyond
the few works that made him famous.  The festival dug deeper, not only
by presenting the jazz-infused Copland, the early modernist Copland and
the very unsimple 12-tone Copland but also by trying to integrate these
disparate faces in a single whole with that elusive ring of unity."

The late Shirley Fleming wrote in one of her last reports for /Musical
America/ in 2004 about "*Shostakovich and His World*":

"In the typically thorough style of Bard president and conductor Leon
Botstein [the Bard Music Festival] appears to leave no ... stone unturned.
Opera, films, plays, discussions ... explore almost every imaginable
facet of the subject at hand; foremost scholars in the field take part.
... Publications produced in conjunction with the festival are in-depth,
and constitute permanent additions to one's library -- this year's ...
promises many evenings of concentrated reading."

*_Music and More_*
This year's *Liszt* celebration will offer lectures and discussions
during *Weekend One* by *Christopher H.  Gibbs*, *Kenneth Hamilton*,
*Rena Mueller* (panel discussion: "Liszt the Phenomenon", 10 AM Aug 12),
*Anna H.  Celenza*, ("The Young Liszt", 1 PM, Aug 12); *Dana Gooley*
("Virtuosity", 10 AM Aug 13); *Jim Samson* ("Virtuosity Transfigured",
1 PM Aug.  13) and *Heather Hadlock* ("Grand Opera before Wagner", 4.30
PM Aug 13).

During Weekend Two, *Michael P. Steinberg* will moderate a symposium
("Music in 19th Century Culture", 10 AM Aug 18); *Rainer Kleinertz* will
give a pre-concert talk ("Liszt and National Aspirations", 7.30 PM Aug
18), as will *James Deaville* ("Liszt and the Chamber Music Tradition",
1 PM Aug 19); *Jonathan Bellman* will comment on "The "Gypsies", the
Hungarians, and the Exotic in Music" during a chamber music performance
(10 AM, Aug 19), and *Leon Botstein* will moderate a panel discussion
on the last day, at 10 AM, August 20, on the compelling topic of "Gender
and Musical Culture".  Its subjects, all fascinating people, include
Daniel Stern (Marie d'Agoult), George Sand, Carolyne, Princess of
Sayn-Wittgenstein, Clara Schumann and George Eliot.  _ _ Finally, at the
end of the festival -- corresponding with the anniversary of the end of
Liszt's 75-year life -- the issue of spirituality will be addressed in
a pre-concert talk by *Richard Wilson* ("Late Liszt: Spirituality and
Experimentation", 1 PM, Aug 20).  From this period come such works as
/Angelu/s and abstract solo piano pieces, some inspired by Richard
Wagner's death.  The chamber concert after Wilson's talk precedes the
final orchestral concert (4.30 PM, Aug.  13), which will present not
only a variety of unusual symphonic poems, but also Liszt's /Missa
solemnis/, and the "Prelude" and "Good Friday Music" from Wagner's
/Parsifal/.  Leon Botstein will conduct the American Symphony Orchestra,
in residence at Bard throughout the festival.

*/_Franz Liszt and His World_/**_ -- the book_*

Princeton University Press will again publish a volume of new scholarship
and interpretation as well as documents -- many previously unavailable
in English -- on *Franz Liszt and His World*.  The 17th in the Bard Music
Festival series, the volume is edited by Christopher H.  Gibbs and Dana
Gooley, and will be on sale at the Festival as well as through off-campus
booksellers.

All events take place in Bard's Richard B.  Fisher Center for the
Performing Arts unless otherwise indicated.  The box office telephone
number is 845-758-7900, and further information about Bard and environs
-- as well as ticket-ordering -- is at the festival web site:
http://www.bard.edu/bmf/2006/

"Emily M. Darrow" <[log in to unmask]>