Bard College: Worth the Drive for Music & More

Distances seem to become daunting, even insurmountable, here in the Tristate region. Perhaps it’s because we’re all so comfy in our country homes — although I think actually what happens is that, emotionally, we all begin to set up Boundaries that Must Not Be Crossed.

People who live in Salisbury, Conn., rarely venture down to Kent, Conn., and vice versa, for example. And yet, the 40-minute travel time is really not that significant; doesn’t it take that long to travel by surface roads from the Upper West Side to SoHo?  Even the subway isn’t much faster.

The same prejudice applies to travel between Litchfield County and the Hudson River Valley. Come on folks, it is not really that hard to get to Red Hook, N.Y. (the one up here, not the one in Brooklyn) — especially when you think about all the benefits that a scant 40-minute car ride will bring.

First, there’s the beauty. In autumn and winter, it’s nice to travel to Red Hook at sunset; the views are crushing they’re so gorgeous. But this is summer, and the sun won’t set until after dinner.

So you’ll just have to be content with endless views of farm fields and forest, with birds wheeling around the sky. Sorry that there won’t be a lot of honking cars and traffic; you’ll just have to be alone with all that beauty and bird song for three-quarters of an hour, or maybe a little less, depending on where you live and how you drive.

And what is so special, you ask, about Red Hook, other than that it shares its name with a hip section of Brooklyn? Red Hook is the home of Bard College (although the official literature refers to it as Annandale-on-Hudson). Bard offers super interesting cultural events throughout the academic year, with talks and concerts in an intimate setting by artists and writers (I personally have seen Fran Lebowitz, Neil Gaiman and Alan Cumming there).

The campus doesn’t go to sleep in summer, which is when the multifaceted Bard Summerscape explodes, with classical concerts, chamber music, drag performances, the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle concerts, the more offbeat programs in the Spiegeltent and opera, ballet and more  — most of it in the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which is worth a trip to Red Hook (I mean Annandale-on-Hudson) in its own right. The Bard campus has beautiful gardens, plantings and buildings, most of them in a classical vein; and then there is the wobbly metal design of the Fisher Center. It’s amazing and definitely worth the drive.

Summer music

This summer’s chamber music series started on June 4 with the Emerson String Quartet, going on their farewell tour in anticipation of retiring with a concert at Alice Tully Hall in New York City  in October 2023.

But the beat goes on, quite literally, with a concert by Sō Percussion on Saturday, June 18, at 7 p.m. in Olin Hall (which is a Bard College auditorium; it’s not the Fisher Center but it’s two minutes away by car, you can visit it before your concert begins).

I am not personally familiar with Sō Percussion, described by The New Yorker as offering an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.”

A restful interlude follows on Saturday, June 25,  also at 7 p.m. in Olin Hall with a concert titled “Beloved Piano Quartets.” Although the focus is on the piano, the star of this show might well be violinist Jaime Laredo, who is described as “one of the top violinists of the late 20th century.”

A more contemporary menu comes up at the Bard Spiegelent at the Fisher Center, which offers events from June 24 to Aug. 13, beginning with the Black Roots Summer weekend. There will be a concert by Mwenso and the Shakes on Saturday, June 25, at 8 p.m. and continuing into the next day, from 4 to 7 p.m. with a an all-ages, all colors, all body types party hosted by the Black Roots Summer cohort. There will be live music, DJs, dancing and more “for a late afternoon of joy, hope, healing and BBQ.”

Swinging back again toward the classical, there will be a new translation of Moliere’s “Dom Juan” performed from June 23 to July 17 at the Fisher Center.

Bard College President and orchestra conductor Leon Bottstein presents a deep dive into the world  and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff for the 32nd Bard Music Festival (Aug. 5 to 7 and 12 to 14).

And there will be a performance of a Richard Strauss opera, “The Silent Woman,” from July 22 to 31.

That’s not even all that’s offered. Certainly it’s worth a 40-minute car ride through some of the most beautiful parts of Dutchess County to get there.

But what
about dinner?

There was a famous restaurant near Bard’s campus called Mercato that closed down early in the COVID-19 pandemic. It has reopened, with a new name, in nearby Tivoli, N.Y.

Now called GioBatta Alimentari, the cozy farmhouse-style restaurant serves Italian classics, exquisitely prepared with Hudson Valley ingredients.

I personally love arancini, the Italian fried rice balls that are so hard to find, but are on the menu here, along with all the beloved favorites: meatballs, lasagna, panini, antipasti, pasta and the kale salad that was made famous at Mercato (lacinato kale, lovingly massaged with lemon juice until it becomes tender, served with currants, pine nuts, pecorino cheese slivers and a simple dressing of olive oil and more lemon juice).

Get the address and see the full menu at www.giobatta.com.

I also really like a large, bustling, somewhat rowdy Italian restaurant in nearby Kingston, N.Y., called Savona’s. The food is also very good, but the atmosphere is at the other end of the spectrum from GioBatta Alimentari.

After two years of COVID, I’m particularly nostalgic for good sushi. There are a few small but high-quality Japanese restaurants in the area. In Red Hook there is Hana Sushi (www.hana-sushi.com). In nearby Rhinebeck, N.Y., there are two more upscale sushi eateries called Momiji (www.momijiny.com) and Osaka (www.osakasushi.net).

To find out more about Bard College’s many summer culture offerings at the Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., campus go to www.fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/summerscape.