South Mountain Concert Hall | |
Location | New South Mountain Rd. (472 South St.), Pittsfield, Massachusetts |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°25′14″N73°15′52″W / 42.42056°N 73.26444°W |
Area | 10 acres (4.0 ha) |
Built | 1918 |
NRHP reference No. | 73001943 [1] |
Added to NRHP | August 14, 1973 |
South Mountain Concert Hall is a historic performance hall on New South Mountain Road in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1918 by Chicago native Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, it has been home to a classical music summer performance series since then, featuring name performers including Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Serkin, and major chamber music ensembles. The hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and the extensive estate grounds are open to the public as a nature preserve. [2]
South Mountain was founded in 1918 by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who had moved to the Berkshires in a bid to improve her husband's health. A longtime supporter of chamber music, Mrs. Coolidge in 1916 established the Berkshire String Quartet, which at first gave concerts in her home. [2] Two years later she had the performance hall built on her property that continues in use today. [3]
The hall has played host to a large number of well-known classical music performers, including Peter Serkin, Leontyne Price, the Guarneri String Quartet, the Juilliard Quartet, and others. It has been the setting for world premiere performances of works by Bartók, Stravinsky, Ravel, and Schoenberg. The first complete cycle of the 24 chamber works of Johannes Brahms was given here in 1924. [4]
South Mountain is set on 200 acres (81 ha) of primarily woodland, formerly part of the Coolidge estate. The grounds are operated by the non-profit that manages the facility as a nature preserve open to the public on a year-round basis. The hall is a single-story timber-frame structure, built to resemble a church. It has a hip roof with a cupola, at the center, and a porte cochere at the main entrance on one of the long sides. The long side opposite the entrance has five bays, each of which is fitted with a French door, and there are casement-style windows above them for ventilation. The main timbers for the building were taken from an old textile mill, and the seats were pews taken from a church. The interior is finished with old wooden paneling. The hall is sited adjacent to an open lawn, from which the music can also be heard. [4] In addition to the hall Mrs. Coolidge had cabins built to provide housing for performers.
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music.
Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch was a German-Swiss violinist, conductor, and composer.
Tanglewood is a music venue and festival in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the Tanglewood Music Center, Tanglewood Learning Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Besides classical music, Tanglewood hosts the Festival of Contemporary Music, jazz and popular artists, concerts, and frequent appearances by James Taylor, John Williams, and the Boston Pops.
Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont, in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in session, with the programs chosen only a week or so in advance from the sixty to eighty works being currently rehearsed. Marlboro Music was conceived as a retreat where young musicians could collaborate and learn alongside master artists in an environment removed from the pressures of performance deadlines or recording. It combines several functions; Alex Ross describes it as functioning "variously as a chamber-music festival, a sort of finishing school for gifted young performers, and a summit for the musical intelligentsia".
Jordan Hall is a 1,051-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall. It is the only conservatory building in the United States to be designated a National Historic Landmark. This building is currently under study by the Boston Landmarks Commission for landmark status.
The Corigliano Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1996 with the blessing of the Pulitzer-, Grammy-, and Oscar-winning John Corigliano. "They are truly one of the great quartets of the new generation," said the composer. "Their fiery intensity, musical sensitivity, and bold programming make for an absolutely stunning concert experience." The group's dedication and passion for new works has made them one of the most sought after interpreters of contemporary music today. For their efforts in bringing new music to a wider audience, the quartet was recently presented with the ASCAP/CMA Award For Adventurous Programming.
The London String Quartet was a string quartet founded in London in 1908 which remained one of the leading English chamber groups into the 1930s, and made several well-known recordings.
Music Mountain Summer Chamber Music Festival, located on Music Mountain Road in Falls Village, Connecticut, is America's oldest continuing summer chamber music festival. Founded in 1930, it is currently in its 94th season.
Music and Beyond is a Canadian summer music festival, featuring classical music in its varying formations as well as a spectrum of art forms and cultural disciplines. Music and Beyond is also a not-for-profit organization with charitable status. First held in 2010, it has since become an annual event, taking place at local venues in Ottawa, Ontario. The 2018 festival took take place from July 4–17.
String Quartet No. 4 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1951.
The Berkshire String Quartet was an American classical chamber group founded and funded in 1916 at the height of World War I by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The quartet, originally, was the Kortschak String Quartet, named for Hugo Kortschak (1884–1957), a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1907 until 1914. Kortschak was a key figure in organizing the Berkshire Chamber Music Festival founded by Coolidge. The original Berkshire String Quartet disbanded sometime after 1941.
Hugo Kortschak was an Austrian-born American violinist and a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1907 until 1914, founding member of the Berkshire String Quartet and Dean of Music at Yale University. His son was the plant physiologist Hugo P. Kortschak.
Judith Burganger is an American pianist and pedagogue.
The Busch Quartet was a string quartet founded by Adolf Busch in 1919 that was particularly noted for its interpretations of the Classical and Romantic quartet repertoire. The group's recordings of Beethoven's Late String Quartets are especially revered.
Australian classical music has developed from early years in the Australian colonies, until today. Today, each state has an orchestra and there are many major venues where classical music is performed.
Garth Newel Music Center is a 501c3 not-for-profit educational institute located on a 114-acre mountainside property near Hot Springs in Bath County, Virginia. Recipient of the 2012 CMAcclaim Award from Chamber Music America for their contributions to the field of chamber music, Garth Newel Music Center celebrated its 40th anniversary in the summer of 2013.
The String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 22, No. 2, is a chamber music work by the Romanian composer George Enescu, composed mainly between 1950 and 1951, though it has a lengthy pre-history and received a number of revisions in 1952 and possibly early 1953. The score is dedicated to the American pianist, composer, and arts patron, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. A performance of it lasts about 25 minutes.
Harry Waldo Warner was an English viola player and composer, one of the founding members of the London String Quartet and a several times Cobbett Competition winner for his chamber music.
The Ulysses Quartet is a professional string quartet based in New York City. The group's name pays homage to Homer's hero Odysseus and his 10-year voyage home, as well as to former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, near whose resting place in Upper Manhattan several of the group's members reside. On April 2, 2024, it was announced that founding violist Colin Brookes left the quartet, and that Peter Dudek joined to replace him.