Bernard Hoffer: Lear in the Wilderness WORLD PREMIERE
David Kravitz, baritone

Arnold Schoenberg: Serenade
David Kravitz, baritone

Andy Vores: Fabrication 15: Amplification

April’s season finale concert features a web of connections. The “Mad Scenes” are Hoffer’s setting of the final act of King Lear, where Lear is raving in the wilderness, and the middle movement of Schoenberg’s SERENADE based on a Sonnet by Petrarca: “Oh if I could only relish revenge on she who spurned me” (a loose translation).  Andy Vores’ FABRICATION is based on a slow rag that goes from a fragmented state to a touching whole. This source of Andy’s work is connected to the SERENADE in that Schoenberg was writing a work influenced by the interest in jazz and popular music at the time. In his book The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross writes that Schoenberg, “originally had movements titled ‘Jo-Jo Foxtrot,’ ‘Film Diva,’ and ‘Tenn-Ski.’ ”

BMV is dedicated to presenting the ever-evolving music of our time, performed by musicians who play with virtuosic precision and passionate involvement.  Its mission is to broaden experience, knowledge, and enjoyment of every style of new music by embracing the full range of today’s compositional activity and giving voice to music that might otherwise not be heard. BMV’s commissioning program has brought into being essential new works for young audiences, and an intriguing spectrum of music for chamber ensemble, opera, music theater, and multimedia.