Rogovoy Report 4/20/18

The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include performance art, chamber music, Russian film music, folk-rock, gospel, and a whole lot more.

Paris-based Ensemble Court-circuit presents “En Miroir (Mirrored),” a concert featuring the works of Beethoven and Helmut Lachenmann, at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., on Sunday at 3pm. Included in the program are Lachenmann’s Allegro sostenuto for clarinet, cello, and piano, and Beethoven’s Trio No. 4 op. 11 for clarinet, cello, and piano. 

Sheffield native Tom Ingersoll celebrates the release of his new album “Friday” with a concert at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 7pm. The third album of original music from the Berkshires-based singer-songwriter features 11 new songs in the Americana/alt-country/folk-rock vein, and features an all-star cast of Berkshire musicians, including guitarist Steve Ide, bassist Jim Reynolds, drummer Dave Lincoln, keyboardist Joe Rose, fiddler Lukas Schwartz, and banjoist Matt Fleury, most or all of whom will be joining Tom on the Mahaiwe stage.

In “Russian and Soviet Film Music: A Tuneful Survey,” Timothy Sergay will present a lecture with film clips at The Mount in Lenox, Mass., on Sunday at 3pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music series. Sergay’s focus will not only be the famous contributions of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, but also lesser known master Georgi Sviridov, the Soviet adoption of the Hollywood musical genre in the 1930s, the cultural role songs created for Soviet films, and the influence of Russian music on Hollywood film scores. Just more proof of Russian collusion, I suppose.

Tenor Jon Morrell and pianist David Smith will perform Franz Schubert’s haunting Winterreise (“Winter Journey”) song cycle at Van Buren Hall in Kinderhook, N.Y., on Sunday at 3pm, as part of the Concerts in the Village series. Winterreise is regarded by many as the most important and challenging song cycle ever written.

Sanctified Soul: 1960s to Today is the third and final concert in the Classical, Jazz, and Soul: A Musical Offering series curated by Damien Sneed at the Fisher Center at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7:30pm. A spirited take on traditional sacred music, gospel and the Motown Sound, Sanctified Soul traces the lineage of those who changed the sound of gospel, including the Clark Sisters, the Hawkins Family, and Richard Smallwood, through contemporaries such as Donald Lawrence and Kirk Franklin. As part of this lineage, Sneed also explores the music of soulful virtuosos Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder.