Like all the great institutions which are celebrating anniversaries this year, Aston Magna’s 40th anniversary season is much like any other. What better way to celebrate an important anniversary than to maintain the quality one has been known for and to reaffirm the founding principles? This year’s season, launched by gala events at Brandeis and at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, will be rich in familiar repertory — Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Telemann, the Bach family, and Mozart — and familiar faces: the violinist Daniel Stepner, the gambist Laura Jeppesen, harpsichordist John Gibbons, singers Dominique Labelle, Deborah Rentz-Moore, and William Hite. Of course Stanley Ritchie will be on hand. Some very distinguished artists will be joining them: keyboard players Peter Sykes and Malcom Bilson, and Eric Hoeprich, whose Glossa recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto I just now warmly praised in a review article—and this is only a few.
Much of the programs, especially the opening gala, will consist of works, or excerpts of works, which have proven milestones in the history of Aston Magna: Monteverdi madrigals, Act III from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which the festival reprised only a few years ago, a Bach Brandenburg, and excerpts from Handel’s The Triumph of Time and Truth, presumably the 1737 version, which they recorded. There will be an evening of music by J.S. Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, rounded off by Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 5, a favorite Bach companion at Aston Magna. A Mozart program will included the Kegelstatt Trio and the Gran Partita, not in its original setting for thirteen wind instruments, but in Schwenke’s arrangement for fortepiano, oboe, and string trio. A concert called “Baroque à l’italienne” will not only included music by Italian composers, Antonio Bertali and Domenico Scarlatti, but also music by Italianate composers from northern Europe, Purcell and Telemann. The season will conclude with a violin extravaganza, concerti for one to four violins by Vivaldi and Bach, including another Brandenburg.
This promises to be a worthy celebration of forty years of one of the oldest, most influential, and most beloved Baroque music festivals in North America. Don’t miss any of them.
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2012 Season Schedule
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June 8 Friday, 8 pm* Waltham, MA |
40th Anniversary Gala Artists: Kristen Watson and Roberta Anderson,sopranos; Deborah Rentz-Moore, mezzo soprano; Lynn Torgove, alto; Frank Kelley and William Hite, tenors; David Ripley, baritone; Stephen Hammer, baroque oboe, recorder; Marc Schachman, baroque oboe; Priscilla Smith, baroque oboe, recorder; Andrew Schwartz, baroque bassoon; Richard Menaul, natural horn; Frederick Aldrich, natural horn; Daniel Stepner, baroque violin; Nancy Wilson, baroque violin; Jane Starkman, baroque violin; Clayton Hoener, baroque violin; Linda Quan, baroque violin; Laura Jeppesen, baroque viola; Loretta O’Sullivan,baroque cello; Anne Trout, violone; Peter Sykes, harpsichord/organ; Catherine Liddell, theorbo Program: Claudio Monteverdi Madrigals: Chiome d’oro, Hor che’l ciel, Lamento della ninfa, Laetuatus Sum; Henry Purcell Act III of Dido and Aeneas; G.F. Handel Highlights from The Triumph of Time and Truth; J.S. Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 *There will be a reception at Slosberg Auditorium, Brandeis University immediately following the concert on Friday evening. There will be a gala reception at Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA immediately following the concert at Ozawa Hall on Saturday evening. To purchase tickets to the 40th Anniversary concert at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood with the Gala at Cranwell Resort please call 413-528-3595 or out of area 800-875-7156. Concert tickets only can be purchased online. |
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June 9 Saturday, 6 pm* Lenox, MA |
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June 14 Thursday, 8 pm* Waltham, MA |
Music of three Bachs and Villa Lobos Artists: Dominique Labelle, soprano; Stephen Hammer, baroque oboe; Daniel Stepner and Nancy Wilson, violins; David Miller, viola; Loretta O’Sullivan, cello; Anne Trout, bass; Catherine Liddell, theorbo Program: Johann Sebastian Bach Concerto for Oboe and strings; Johann Christoph Bach Lamento: Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte; J.S. Bach Wedding Cantata; Wilhem Friedemann Bach Duo for two violins; J.S. Bach Goldberg Canons; Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileras No. 5 *Pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all venues. |
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June 15 Friday, 8 pm* Annandale-on-Hudson, NY |
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June 16 Saturday, 6 pm* at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA |
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June 21 Thursday, 8 pm* Waltham, MA |
Gran Partita Mozart’s Winds III Artists: Eric Hoeprich, classical clarinet; Stephen Hammer, classical oboe;Daniel Stepner, classical violin; David Miller,baroque viola; Loretta O’Sullivan, classical cello; Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano Program: Mozart Kegelstatt Trio, for clarinet, viola and fortepiano Franz Krommer Quartet for Clarinet, violin, viola, cello Mozart Gran Partita (arr . Schwenke, for fortepiano, oboe and string trio) *Pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all venues. |
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June 22 Friday, 8 pm* Annandale-on-Hudson, NY |
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June 23 Saturday, 6 pm* at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA |
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June 29 Friday, 8 pm* Annandale-on-Hudson, NY |
Baroque à l’Italienne Artists: Nancy Armstrong, soprano; David Ripley, baritone; Daniel Stepner, baroque violin; Julie Leven, baroque violin; Laura Jeppesen, baroque viola; Loretta O’Sullivan, classical cello; Anne Trout,violone; John Gibbons, harpsichord Program: Antonio Bertali Sonata “1000 Gulden”; Domenico Scarlatti Three solo sonatas for harpsichord; Henry Purcell Trio sonata and three songs; Georg Philipp Telemann Pimpinone (a comic intermezzo) *Pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all venues. |
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June 30 Saturday, 6 pm* at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA |
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July 6 Friday, 8 pm* Annandale-on-Hudson, NY |
Violin Extravaganza Artists: Stanley Ritchie, founding violinist of Aston Magna; Daniel Stepner, violinist and Artistic Director; Julie Leven, baroque violin; Nancy Wilson, baroque violin;Kelsey Hudson, baroque violin; Valerie Weber, baroque violin; Valerie Gordon,baroque violin; Stephanie Raby, baroque violin; David Miller, baroque viola;Laura Jeppesen, baroque viola; Loretta O’Sullivan,classical cello; Guy Fishman, baroque cello; Sarah Freiberg, baroque cello; Anne Trout, violone Program: Antonio Vivaldi Concerto in D Minor, for two violins, cello, strings and continuo from “L’estro armonico”; Concerto for violin, two cellos, strings and continuo in C Major; Concerto for four violins in B Minor 580 from “L’estro armonico”; Johann Sebastian Bach Concerto A Minor, for violin, string and continuo; Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major; Concerto in D Major for three violins, strings and continuo *Pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all venues. |
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July 7 Saturday, 6 pm* at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA |
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