Marlboro Music Festival

The event we have been longing for has arrived! The Marlboro Music Festival began on Monday. We were there for the first note of the first rehearsal, which just happened to be one of the most beautiful pieces of chamber music ever - the Brahms Piano Quartet, Op. 60. We got to hear the whole piece, from beginning to end, which is not always the case with rehearsals. It is being performed tonight (Wed.) at the week-night concert in the Dining Hall - a concert we have had a pass for in the past, but have not received one for it since the pandemic began. We thought it had been suspended, but maybe now it is strictly for the musicians and the "public" is not admitted. In any case, we got to hear both the Brahms and the Barber, Dover Beach, in their entirety. The latter is for baritone and string quartet. It has long been a favorite of mine, something I wish I had been able to perform myself. The baritone, Jarret Porter, is primarily an opera singer. He has a lovely voice, but the vocal coach, Benita Valente, pointed out that his diction could be better, and I agree. If I hadn't had the lyrics in front of me, I would not have understood everything (although many phrases are very familiar). It will be performed today again, and we'll see if he has improved. We did not come up to Marlboro yesterday - the hearings of the Jan. 6th Committee. took up the afternoon, and we are following them faithfully.

The Dover Beach Ensemble

The Brahms Quartet Ensemble

Jerret Porter******************************** In the 2022-2023 season, Porter joins the Internationale Opernstudio at Oper Frankfurt, where he will make his debut as Hausofmeister in Brigitte Fassbaender’s production of Strauss’s CAPRICCIO, under the baton of Sebastien Weigle. Throughout the season with the company, he will sing Leone in R.B. Schlather’s critically acclaimed TAMERLANO, create the role of Edgar in Vito Zuraj’s World Premiere BLÜHEN, sing the Elder Son and The Herold in Britten’s THE PRODIGAL SON / THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE, and sing Herzog Hoël in a rare staging of Frank Martin’s LE VIN HERBÉ. Porter returns to Opera Theater of Saint Louis to create the role of Oliver Sacks in the World Premiere of Tobias Picker’s AWAKENINGS, and will join the roster of Artists in Residence of Marlboro Music, collaborating with Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, and Lydia Brown.**********************************************

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) One of Barber's earliest musical memories was a visit to the Metropolitan Opera where, at age six, he attended a performance of Aida with legendary tenor Enrico Caruso as Radames and Louise Homer, Barber's aunt, as Amneris. A host of childhood experiences like these seemed almost to predispose Barber to compose for the voice. By the time he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Barber had developed into a fine baritone and was in some demand as a recitalist. It was Barber himself who made the first recording of his own Dover Beach. These settings of English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold begin with a reverie on the English coast, describing its stoic beauty, yet revealing an "eternal note of sadness." The opening texture is comprised of two solo violins, one of which presents a steady, undulating rhythm while the other invokes the pensive main theme. The music becomes immediately restrained, characterizing a more reasoned state of mind, with the stanza describing the sound of the sea, which "Sophocles long ago heard…on the Aegean." The activated violin texture returns, with the incessant overlapping of short motives. The cello intones the main theme for the last three lines of text bringing us back to the melancholy opening.************************* DOVER BEACH The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.