Festival Focus July 9, 2018

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES

MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018

VOL 29, NO. 3

Acclaimed Pianist Daniil Trifonov returns!

Also this week:

CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

Emerson String Quartet Wednesday, July 11 at 8:30 pm in Harris Concert Hall Don’t miss the revered Emerson String Quartet in a special event recital featuring the late Beethoven quartets opuses 130, 132, and 133 “Grosse Fuge.”

15th Annual Opera Gala: The Barber of Seville in Aspen Monday, July 16 Aspen’s only black-tie gala features an exclusive dinner at the Caribou Club and a full performance of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. For more information, contact Darian Oliva at 970 205 5063.

If you have already picked up tickets to one (or both) of pianist Daniil Trifonov’s upcoming concerts at the Aspen Music Festival and School, rest easy. Years from now you’ll look back on the summer of 2018 simply with relief: No, you didn’t miss that opportunity to see a man many are calling one of the greatest living musical geniuses perform in Aspen back when he was just twenty-seven years old.

Trifonov will present a recital in Harris Concert Hall on July 10 and five days later appear with the Aspen Festival Orchestra (AFO) for a performance of his own concerto in the Benedict Music Tent on July 15. As one of the most highly regarded young luminaries in classical music today, all eyes seem to be on Trifonov; now is a breathtaking time to watch him work. The revered pianist Martha Argerich has been quoted as saying, “his touch—he has tenderness and also the demonic element.

I never heard anything like that.”

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Trifonov was raised in a musical family that encouraged him to take up piano by the age of five.

He went on to study at Moscow’s elite Gnessin School of Music and later the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2011, he won First Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Just a few weeks later, he won both the Grand Prix and First Prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and soon found himself on the path

COURTESY PHOTO

Pianist Daniil Trifonov returns to Aspen this summer to present a recital of Chopin-centered works on July 10 as well as a performance of his own concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on July 15.

to international superstardom. By 2015, The Times of London called him “without question the most astounding young pianist of our age.”

Trifonov comes to Aspen this summer fresh from his seven-concert, prestigious “Perspectives” series at Carnegie Hall. Three of these performances focused on his beloved Chopin, and challenged audiences to experi-

ence the works through Trifonov’s thoughtful lens.

Fortunately for Aspen, Trifonov will be bringing his celebrated interpretations of Chopin to the mountains. His recital program opens with works by Mompou, Schumann, Grieg, Barber, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff, See Trifonov, Festival Focus page 3

Aspen Opera Center presents Rossini’s comic The Barber of Seville CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

Tenor Josh Lovell performs as the lovesick Count Almaviva in the AOC’s production of The Barber of Seville.

“Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!”

Sung by many of history’s great baritones, it’s one of the moments in opera—nearly synonymous with the art form itself: Figaro’s Aria from Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) has been so woven into the fabric of our collective pop culture that a partygoer playing a guessing game might croon the famous lyrics to prod his teammates to shout the word “opera.”

For those who want to experience this iconic piece in all its glorious original context, the first fully staged summer production from the Aspen Opera Center (AOC) deliv-

ers. On July 12, 14, and 16, Rossini’s towering comic masterpiece brings a slice of Spain (by way of France and Italy) to the Wheeler Opera House with a cast of young new voices in tow.

“This is truly a wonderful comedy,” says AOC Director Edward Berkeley. “The way I’m approaching it is as a clown show, in the commedia dell’arte tradition. It’s very colorful.”

Of Figaro’s aria, or “Largo al factotum,” Berkeley says with a laugh, “The moment you hear it, you go ‘ah ha!’”

Il barbiere di Siviglia premiered in February 1816 at Rome’s Teatro Argentina to a murky reception from its first audience. Af-

ter all, the popular (and much older) composer Giovanni Paisiello had already produced an opera based on the same story; his fans made a display of devotion on Rossini’s opening night by organizing a disturbance.

Despite their best efforts, it didn’t work. Rossini’s version soon achieved wild success at home in Italy and abroad and is now considered by most to be the definitive opera buffa, or comic opera.

How many of us have a barber or hairdresser who knows a lot—too much, even—about our personal lives? In this ageless societal role, Figaro (the barber of Seville himself) atSee Barber, Festival Focus page 3

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MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times

McGegan leads Baroque night, alumna Simone Porter plays Vivaldi CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

To witness a true master working in his element is an experience to be cherished. It’s no wonder, then, that Aspen audiences flock to conductor Nicholas McGegan’s Baroque performances year after year: We’re hooked on the magic.

McGegan brings his unmistakable verve to all of his Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) performances and this year his Baroque program has a little extra twist: It ties in to the AMFS’s season theme of Paris, City of Light.

On July 12, he presents “A Baroque Evening with Nicholas McGegan” at 8 pm in Harris Concert Hall, featuring a rich selection of works including those by French Baroque masters. “[McGegan’s] Baroque evenings are always sold out and people love his energy,” says AMFS President Alan Fletcher. “I think our audience will not have heard him doing French Baroque because it’s almost always German Baroque that he does for us.”

The program immediately transports listeners to Paris, opening with Rameau’s delightful overture to the operaballet Les Indes galantes. Three more pieces from the composer’s most popular work, which no doubt titillated the imaginations of eighteenth-century operagoers with its tales of love in faraway lands like Peru, appear in the program. Selections from Leclair’s only surviving fulllength opera Scylla et Glaucus, Telemann’s Overture in D

Major, and two bright Vivaldi violin concertos round out the evening.

Of the opera pieces, McGegan notes that “Paris...boasted one of the largest opera troupes in Europe and certainly did some of the most lavish productions, including a big orchestra and chorus. All the operas included a great deal of ballet, an art form that the French were crazy about. The music by Leclair and Rameau that we are performing in this concert mostly comes from the danced sections of the operas.”

McGegan, who over the years has performed much of this repertoire at Versailles and around the world, adds that this program offers something unique for Baroque enthusiasts who keep a careful eye on the conductor’s interpretations of each piece.

“French Baroque style is unlike that of any other of the time. The orchestration is quite varied and there is a great deal of ornamentation,” he says. “In addition, many of the rhythms are not played as they are notated, but instead are ‘swung’ as in jazz.”

Fletcher agrees that French Baroque is particularly special, with a grandiosity and flair that audiences will love.

“The French Baroque style is very much a court style,” he says. “German Baroque tends to be focused on smaller court and smaller establishments, if you will, often more modest orchestras, whereas the French court had a lavish musical establishment and so the music is correspondingly big.”

Joining McGegan for the Vivaldi concertos is twenty-

Supplement to The Aspen Times

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018 3

TRIFONOV: Chopin recital, Trifonov Concerto Sunday Continued from Festival Focus page 1

COURTESY PHOTO

Violinist and AMFS alumna Simone Porter will join conductor Nicholas McGegan for two sparking Vivaldi concertos.

one-year-old AMFS alumna and rising superstar Simone Porter, who has performed with the conductor many times. Last summer, the two presented the same concertos together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

For anyone who dreams of traveling back through history to the time of gilded Baroque extravagance, this evening of musical gems should do the trick quite perfectly.

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serving as an homage to the Romantic composer. The second half of the concert is pure Chopin, featuring Variations on “Là ci darem” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Piano Sonata in B-flat minor, op. 35, popularly known as the Funeral March.

Trifonov has presented this program elsewhere, and reviewers have gushed. Wrote George Loomis of his playing of the Mompou work, for example, “Although the variations are largely child’s play for one with Trifonov’s prodigious technique, he endowed them with an expressivity that made you think he believed in every note.

Consequently, he made a believer of you, too.”

Trifonov’s later performance with the Aspen Festival Orchestra presents an extraordinary opportunity to witness him play his own Piano Concerto in E-flat minor. After presenting it at Carnegie Hall last fall, The New York Times wrote that it is “full of Romantic fervor and pulsing lyricism,” honoring “the heritage of Russian composerpianists.”

Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) President

ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE HOURS

Alan Fletcher says that having Trifonov play his own work Russian heritage. Really, the work comes from the tradition of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Scriabin. These are is part of how Aspen works with its artists. composers that he loves to “Everybody else was sayperform and they absolutely ing, ‘Daniil, come play either “The work comes from the tradition inform his own compositional Tchaikovsky First Concerto voice.” or Rachmaninoff Second or of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Trifonov’s performance with Third Concertos,’ those are Scriabin.

These are the composers the AFO is flanked by Dethe warhorses,” he recalls. bussy’s La damoiselle élue “That’s what people wanted that he loves to perform and (The Blessed Damozel), part to hear him in after the big they absolutely inform his own of the AMFS season theme competition wins. We said, Paris, City of Light, and Mus‘What would you like to play?’ compositional form” orgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an He said, ‘You know what? I Exhibition. Ludovic Morlot would like to play my own Asadour Santourian conducts, while guest vocals piece.’ We’re presenting him AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor from soprano Sunmi Shin and as soloist in his own work.” mezzo-soprano Gloria PalAMFS Vice President of ermo round out the evening. If Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor Asadour Santourian adds of Trifonov’s for some reason you haven’t made plans to see Trifonov composition, “The piano concerto...is an homage to his yet, hurry: he’s known to sell out a performance.

Harris Concert Hall: 9 am through the intermission of the evening concert, daily.

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily.

Thibaudet plays ‘jazz-infused’ Bernstein uplifting mood.”

Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, and is famous for In celebration of what would have been Leonard Ber- his scores for the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story nstein’s 100th birthday this summer, on July 13 the Aspen and the 1954 film On the Waterfront (which earned him an Music Festival and School (AMFS) presents the American Oscar nomination), and for serving as music director of the composer’s moody, jazz-infused Symphony No. 2, The New York Philharmonic. His orchestral works aren’t as wellAge of Anxiety, performed by the Aspen Chamber Sym- known as his dramatic scores, but many of them occupy an phony and featuring one of the most acclaimed interpret- important place within the classical music repertoire. ers of the work, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The program “I think people don’t always know and appreciate Bernalso includes a masterwork of the nineteenth century, stein for everything he did,” says Thibaudet. “He was such Beethoven’s groundbreaking Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” a genius in so many ways that people sometimes forget “Mr. Thibaudet has a formidable technique, so musical some of the parts. His symphonies aren’t the most popular challenges and difficulties are easof his works, but I think they ily addressed by him,” says Asadour really should be.”

Santourian, AMFS’s vice president “Most people probably won’t Another highlight of the for artistic administration and artisJuly 13 program is that it rebe familiar with [the piece], but unites Thibaudet with one tic advisor. “But I think the fact that he brings a great deal of imagination of his longtime friends and I think they’ll be completely and creativity to his interpretations, collaborators, AMFS Music and that his performances have a Director Robert Spano, who moved by it.” certain fluency, depth, and searchconducts the Aspen Chaming quality, has allowed him to take ber Symphony.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet his place within the pantheon of “Aspen has become a rePianist great pianists and great artists.” ally special relationship for Thibaudet first performed Bernme,” Thibaudet says. “The stein’s Symphony No. 2 in 1990, and in 2017 he released a energy, enthusiasm, and passion you have with this kind of widely praised recording with Marin Alsop and the Balti- young orchestra is unique and gives you a different kind of more Symphony Orchestra. Written in 1947 and 1948 and inspiration. With Bob, whatever we play, we’re happy berevised in 1965, the work draws its name, structure, and cause, musically, we have a real chemistry. We understand inspiration from W. H. Auden’s book-length, Pulitzer Prize– each other, and we even anticipate each other sometimes. winning poem The Age of Anxiety, which Bernstein called We’re very close friends, so that makes the music even “fascinating and hair-raising” and believed was ultimately closer.” about “our difficult and problematical search for faith.” The Thibaudet performed Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 with solo piano, he said, “provides an almost autobiographical Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in September protagonist, set against an orchestral mirror.”

2017, during what he calls “a fantastic performance.” Spano, The Age of Anxiety is “quite mesmerizing in lots of ways,” he notes, “is absolutely perfect for this piece and we’re reThibaudet says, “and I find it to be a very spiritual work as ally looking forward to doing it again in Aspen.” The piece well. It’s interesting that it’s not called a concerto, but that’s “is very serious,” he adds. “It’s beautiful, and it’s incredibly only because the piano is sometimes part of the orchestra. written for the piano and it’s incredibly orchestrated. I think The piece has a lot of very dark moments since the poem most people probably won’t be familiar with it, but I think itself is quite dark, but it ends on a very positive and very they’ll be completely moved by it.”

AMY HEGARTY

Festival Focus Writer

BARBER: dynamic roles and vocal agility Continued from Festival Focus page 1 tempts to help the lovesick Count Almaviva win the hand of beautiful Rosina by using his insider’s knowledge to outwit the young woman’s guardian Bartolo, who wants her for himself.

When Almaviva assumes multiple disguises to gain access to Rosina’s quarters, they declare love for each other. Figaro schemes against Bartolo to assist the couple, and with the help of a bribe and a pistol, persuades a notary and witness to marry them just in the nick of time. Bartolo storms in to find the pair newly wedded; he is angry but resigns himself to what has been done.

The Il barbiere di Siviglia cast includes AOC newcomer Vivian Yau, a 2018 Juilliard graduate, who will perform the role of Rosina.

“Rosina is a sharp, vibrant, feisty young woman not to be messed with,” Yau says. “She fights for her freedom, and for the right to marry who she wants. Rossini often demands extreme vocal agility in his singers, and Rosina is no exception. There are some very fast passages, and even some tongue-twisterlike sections that are very fun to sing once you get the hang of it, but they’re a beast to learn.”

Tenor Josh Lovell, another fresh face in Aspen currently in his second year with the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, will play Almaviva.

“The role of Count Almaviva is unique because it is a very dynamic role that just so happens to be both a romantic and comedic character,” he notes. “The joy and challenge, with this role, is performing both sides of the Count convincingly.”

In two acts of mistaken identity, starry-eyed infatuation and merry mischief, Il barbiere di Siviglia offers singers a wealth of opportunities for both comedy and musical growth.

“This experience is something these talented student performers will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” Berkeley says. “It is very standard repertoire, and a virtue to have the chance to do it.” The AOC presents The Barber of Seville on July 12, 14, and 16 (the July 16 performance is part of the AMFS’s 15th Annual Opera Gala, see front page for details).