The Orchestra Now performs Three Concert programs at Bard College

Annandale-on-Hudson — The Orchestra Now’s popular concert series at Bard College’s Fisher Center continues its fall season with five performances of three different programs from October 19 through November 13, 2019. Highlights include the U.S. premiere of Egon Wellesz’s Prospero’s Incantations—inspired by the character in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest—under the baton of Grammy Award-winning guest conductor Hans Graf (November 2–3); and the first NY performances in over 50 years of Honegger’s Rugby and Mitropoulos’ Concerto Grosso (November 14).

U.S. Premiere of Egon Wellesz’s Prospero’s Incantations with Guest Conductor Hans Graf

Fall Guest Artists are Baritone Michael Nagy and Violinist Xinran Li

Guest soloists include Bard Conservatory’s concerto competition winner Xinran Li in a performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto (October 19–20); and German baritone Michael Nagy, who will sing composer Othmar Schoeck’s song cycle Buried Alive about a man who wakes up to find he has mistakenly been buried. The composer adapted the work from Gottfried Keller’s poem Lebendig begraben.

TŌN’s winter/spring series will return in 2020 with Beethoven’s Eroica in celebration of the great composer’s 250th birthday (February 8–9); a program titled Into the Wilderness presenting the U.S. premiere of Franck’s What You Hear on the Mountain (April 25–26); and Mahler’s massive Resurrection Symphony (May 9–10).

THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD, Sosnoff Theater

Sibelius & Shostakovich

Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 8 p.m.

Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 2 p.m.

Xinran Li performs Sibelius’ moving violin concerto. Shostakovich’s tenth symphony is his first written after the death of Stalin.

Leon Botstein, conductor

Xinran Li, violin

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

Hans Graf Conducts Schubert

Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 8 p.m.

Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 2 p.m.

Austrian conductor Hans Graf leads TŌN in two pieces from his homeland: Schubert’s beloved Great Symphony, and a set of tone poems based on characters from The Tempest.

Hans Graf, conductor

Egon Wellesz: Prospero’s Incantations (U.S. Premiere)

Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 9, The Great

Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss

Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 7 p.m.

These four works from the late 1920s, including the suite from Stravinsky’s ballet score The Fairy’s Kiss, give insight into the evolving world of orchestral music 90 years ago. This concert will be repeated at Carnegie Hall on November 14.

Leon Botstein, conductor

Michael Nagy, baritone

Honegger: Rugby*

Schoeck: Buried Alive

Mitropoulos: Concerto Grosso*

Stravinsky: Divertimento, The Fairy’s Kiss Suite

*First NY performances in over 50 years

Tickets priced at $25–$35; Five-Concert Series: all locations $120; Create Your Own Series: 25% off the full price. Tickets may be purchased online at fishercenter.bard.edu, by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900, or at the Fisher Center box office in the lobby of Sosnoff Theater.