MARLBORO — Continuing a tradition started in 1957 by Rudolf Serkin - founding artistic director and guiding spirit of Vermont's Marlboro Music School and Festival for over 40 years - Mitsuko Uchida, artistic director since the mid-1990s, will be piano soloist in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, with Leon Fleisher conducting the Marlboro Festival Orchestra and Chorus in the closing concert of the festival on Sunday, Aug. 12, at 2:30 p.m.
With almost all of the noted retreat's 75 resident artists playing in the orchestra or singing in the chorus (together with their children, neighbors, and audience members), the Beethoven work brings to a climax seven weeks of in-depth musical exploration within a caring family environment.
Also on the program is the Nonet in E-flat, Op. 38, for winds and strings, of Louise Farrenc and the Debussy Quartet, which had the benefit of being explored in depth for the full season.
The concert on Friday, Aug. 10, at 8 p.m., in Marlboro College's Persons Auditorium offers two signature works of Ravel in the first half : Le Tombeau de Couperin, conducted by Leon Fleisher, and the two-piano version of La Valse with Ieva Jocubaviciute and János Palojtay.
The Beethoven Piano Trio in B-flat, Op. 97, “Archduke,” will be heard in the second half with pianist Juho Pojonen, violinist David McCarroll, and Mendelssohn Quartet founding cellist Marcy Rosen.
Fleisher, who originally came to Marlboro in 1959, celebrated his 90th birthday on July 23.
The program on Saturday, Aug. 11, is being dedicated to the memory of Michael Tree, violist of the Guarneri Quartet and a longtime Marlboro participant.
Tree's first year here was also in 1959, and he participated each summer thereafter through 1964 when the Guarneri Quartet was formed at Marlboro and stimulated the birth of many new ensembles made up of Marlboro participants. Tree returned in 1968 and was a treasured member of the community thereafter.
The program opens with songs by Strauss and Gounod for mezzo soprano, horn, and piano with Kara Dugan, Radovan Vlatkovic, and Lydia Brown and, appropriately, includes two string quartets: Britten's Quartet No. 3, Op. 94, with violinists Tessa Lark and Yoojin Jang, violist Jonathan Chu, and Cherubini Quartet cellist Christoph Richter, and Beethoven's Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130, with the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133.
The artists in the Beethoven will be violinists Lark and Eunice Kim, violist Wenting Kang, and Tree's Guarneri Quartet colleague, cellist Peter Wiley.
Remaining tickets and further information may be obtained online at marlboromusic.org or by calling 802-254-2394.