Bard Music Festival 2011, “Sibelius and His World” - Program Details

Sibelius
Jean Sibelius

Bard Music Festival, “Sibelius and His World”

The numerous offerings that make up the comprehensive 22nd annual Bard Music Festival, “Sibelius and His World,” take place during SummerScape’s two final weekends: August 12- 14 and August 19-21.  Through the prism of Sibelius’s life and career, this year’s festival will explore the music of Scandinavia and examine the challenges faced by those who continued working within a tonal framework after the revolutions of musical modernism.  Sibelius’s orchestral mastery was exceptional; his compositional output includes one of the most revered and beloved symphonic cycles since Beethoven’s and the most frequently recorded violin concerto of the 20th century, besides such favorites as Finlandia, Valse triste, and Tapiola.

 The twelve musical programs, built thematically and spaced over the two weekends, range from “Jean Sibelius: National Symbol, International Iconoclast” to “Silence and Influence.”  As well as music by his contemporaries, a broad sampling of Sibelius’s own compositions will be presented, from canonical works like the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies to such comparative rarities as his choral symphony, Kullervo. Two panel discussions and a symposium will be supplemented by informative pre-concert talks before each performance that illuminate the concert’s themes and are free to ticket holders.
Read the full preview on the Berkshire Review, an international journal for the Arts!

Michael Miller