May 4th 2026 marks the 200th anniversary of Frederic Church, the greatest of the Hudson River School of landscape painters whose estate Olana, with its Persian-styled castle, is perched atop a hill south of Hudson with spectacular views of the river and the Catskills beyond. The art he created at Olana is famous – paintings that made his name and his fortune, shown and toured on railroads throughout the States. But what of the music of Olana? Among the treasures there are two Chickering pianos, and it turns out that both Frederic and Isabel Church owned a vast collection of sheet music and entertained Gottschalk among their friends – and Annik LaFarge, author of Composing Olana and Chasing Chopin, knows all the stories. Join us for a visit up to the bell tower on one beautiful spring day, for the music that once rang through these beautiful halls
MUSIC excerpted in this program:
George William Warren: Marche di Bravura: Homage to Church’s Picture ‘The Heart of the Andes Ivan Davis, piano
Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Bamboula John Arpin, piano
Donizetti: Fra poco a me ricovero from Lucia di LammermoorCarlo Bergonzi, tenor: London SO / Thomas Schippers, 1970
Cécile Chaminade: Scarf Dance Anna Shelest, piano
Francisco J. Navarro: Horas de Melancolia Max Kaplan, piano (world premiere recording)
Schubert: Ständchen Ian Bostridge, tenor; Leif Ove Ansdes, piano
All music from the Olana music collection
Further Frederic Church 200 celebrations on WMHT:
WMHT-TV: Language in Landscape: The Art of Frederic Church screens at Hudson Hall on June 4, 6:30pm
Premiere broadcast airs June 5 (10:30pm);
repeats June 7 (8pm), June 10 (7:30pm)
Available to stream on wmht.org, the PBS App and WMHT YouTube
Frederic Church 200 celebrations nationwide: https://olana.org/fc200/
Celebrations at Olana include the exhibition Frederic Church: Global Artist opening May 17 at Olana
More info at olana.org
