2019 Festival Focus Week 1

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019

VOL 30, NO. 1

Music Festival examines ‘Being American’ theme CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

The Aspen Music Festival and School’s (AMFS) seventieth anniversary season begins this Thursday, kicking off a summer of music themed “Being American.”

This summer’s theme originated in the AMFS’s celebration of its anniversary season.

This milestone taking place at this music festival in the American West, “easily led to taking a look at the American music scene and its contribution to the world scene and to the whole idea of great music,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor.

This summer explores works by decidedly American giants Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, and Charles Ives, among others, as well as works by composers who came to America seeking new beginnings such as Rachmaninoff, Dvořák, Stravinsky, and Bartók.

Works by modern American composers Wynton Marsalis (August 7), Edgar Meyer (June 28), Stephen Hartke (July 17), Christopher Theofanidis (August 11), John Adams (August 7), Philip Glass (August 8), and Gabriela Lena Frank (July 3), among others, are presented this summer in orchestral, chamber, and recital programs.

Music programmed this summer is also influenced by essential American poets Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, and Poe; by Native American spirituals and traditions; by the rise of jazz and blues; and by the growth of minimalism. “We’re going to look at all of this throughout the summer,” says AMFS

AUBREE DALLAS/AMFS ELLE LOGAN

The Aspen Music Festival and School’s 70th anniversary season begins on Thursday, featuring a range of works that explore the 2019 season theme of “Being American.”

President and CEO Alan Fletcher, “there will be jazz, there will be Broadway, there will be Copland, there will be the Great American Songbook all over the place.”

The plurality of American music reflects the plurality of the American experience.

Copland’s depictions of America include

a cowboy love story set in the American Southwest in Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo (July 21) and the freedom and beauty of pioneers in an ideal American landscape in Appalachian Spring (August 15).

Hear the Native American sound world that inspired Dvořák in his American Quartet (July

24) and “New World” Symphony (July 10).

While Missy Mazzoli’s newly premiered oneact opera, Proving Up (July 30) depicts the hardships of life on the frontier, Bernstein’s West Side Story Symphonic Dances (July

See Season, Festival Focus page 3

Opening weekend concerts, Haefliger plays Mozart JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Opening weekend of the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is always joyous, as the inimitable sounds of a full symphony orchestra return to filter out of the Benedict Music Tent into the crisp mountain air.

This summer’s opening weekend, June 28-30, offers a gorgeous tasting menu of crystalline Mozart, expansive Rachmaninoff, jazzy Gershwin, bright, bracing Ives, and a catchy new work by Edgar Meyer, played by artists who have become dear to the hearts of the Aspen audience.

On Friday, June 28, conductor Ludovic Morlot will lead the Aspen Chamber Symphony and pianist Andreas Haefliger in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor. Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein called the concerto “an explosion of the dark, tragic, passionate emotions.” It has inspired awe even among the masters: After attending a performance of this turbulent,

Pianist Andreas Haefliger (left) plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 on June 28. Then pianist Joyce Yang (right) plays Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major on June 30.

dramatic work, Beethoven remarked to his friend, “We shall never be able to do anything like that!”

“Mozart goes into the deepest fantasy and emotion,

sometimes looking back, and sometimes looking forward,” says Haefliger. “These are very personal statements. Always with Mozart it is about staying within a certain structure but finding the immediacy of the expression.”

Haefliger, who tours the world playing with orchestras and in recital halls, has been hailed by BBC Magazine for his “strenuously intellectual approach with a gorgeously velvety touch.”

He has been coming to Aspen for years where the audience has developed a relationship with him. He says the feeling is mutual.

“I’m Swiss, so I love the mountains,” he says. “The mountains have for me a deep sense of inspiration, so I love Aspen.”

Friday’s program honors the 2019 AMFS season theme of “Being American,” including an engaging mix of American compositional voices with a new work for orchestra by

See Concerts, Festival Focus page 3

BUY TICKETS NOW! 970 925 9042 or WWW.ASPENMUSICFESTIVAL.COM

2

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times

Gregory Porter’s Tribute to the iconic Nat “King” Cole Album.

“In the last five years, Gregory Porter has become considElla. Billie. Frank. Nat. What do these jazz greats have in ered the number one male jazz vocalist in the world—that’s common? According to Jim Horowitz, president and CEO kind of everyone’s consensus,” Horowitz said. “He’s perof Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS), they all belong to artists who formed this particular show to wide acclaim internationally— reached such a level of superstardom that they are instantly London, Chicago, L.A., Philadelphia, everywhere. His voice recognized by just one name. is a little different than Nat “King” Cole’s, but it’s very well “Nat ‘King’ Cole had one of those iconic voices that’s in- suited to the music. He has a voice that’s almost like velvet.

When you hear it, you fall in love with it.” ternationally recognized,” Horowitz says.

Opening the program are Wade, a for“If you say “Nat,” that could only mean There’s a reason mer student at JAS, and Gambarini, who Nat “King” Cole.” Cole’s jazz and popular has performed for JAS’s Cafe Series. songs captured the hearts of the nation this show is playing “Charenee Wade is great, she’s warm, for more than twenty years, making him she’s very sophisticated—she’s got a all over the world. the country’s most popular singer of his great presence,” Horowitz says. “And Roera after Frank Sinatra.

People love it. ” berta Gambarini is one of the finest jazz Relive the beauty and emotion of Nat’s singers in the world. She’s fluent and sings genius at Gregory Porter’s Tribute to Nat Jim Horowitz in four languages; she’s global. And she “King” Cole on June 29 at 8 pm at the JAS President and CEO has a wonderful sound, so the people fall Benedict Music Tent at JAS’s annual colin love with her. She’s another one with a laboration with the Aspen Music Festival voice to die for.” and School (AMFS). The evening features, The evening offers a perfect blend of celebrating a legend in addition to Porter, celebrated jazz singers Charenee Wade and Roberta Gambarini, as well as Porter’s band and a and enjoying today’s masters. The song list includes some of Nat’s best-known songs such as “Nature Boy,” “But Beauti50-piece orchestra composed of AMFS students. ful,” and “Mona Lisa.”

Porter is a two-time Best Jazz Vocal Grammy Award win“It’s an evening to celebrate an iconic voice and a set of ner who has presented this loving tribute around the world songs that became associated with that voice,” Horowitz over the past year, and whose album, “Nat King Cole & Me,” says.

“There’s a reason this show is playing all over the world. was a 2019 Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Pop Vocal JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Jazz singer Gregory Porter performs a loving tribute to Nat “King” Cole on June 29, offering deeply felt renditions of songs made legendary by Cole.

People love it.”

He goes on to note the Benedict Music Tent is an especially great place to hear the subtleties and nuances of this performance.

“The Tent is a magnificent temple for music,” he said. “The richness of the sound there, the warmth of it, the reflection of the sound—if you love music, you can’t pick a better setting for it.”

BUY TICKETS NOW! 970 925 9042 or WWW.ASPENMUSICFESTIVAL.COM

Supplement to The Aspen Times

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019 3

SEASON: Operas, Special Events, South Pacific Continued from Festival Focus page 1

26) portrays the grittiness of urban life in the 1950s with jazz and dance tunes, bridging the gap between classical music and the American tradition of Broadway. John Adams’s Road Movies takes modern classical music and adds elements of swing and bluegrass (August 7) and Gershwin’s Concerto in F (June 30) incorporates the jazz sounds emerging from African-American communities in the 1920s.

The Aspen Opera Center presents two staged operas this summer. The first, by Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, is A Little Night Music (July 11, 13, and 15). Then later in the summer is Mozart’s beloved comic opera The Marriage of Figaro (August 13, 15, and 17). Members of the Aspen Opera Center will also contribute their talents to Proving Up (July 30) and an evening of American song by Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more entitled Red, Hot, and Blue (July 18).

In a special event co-presentation with Theatre Aspen, Broadway star Christy Altomare, and others, perform South Pacific in a concert adaptation with a full symphony orchestra (July 22). In addition, the AMFS and Jazz Aspen Snowmass pay tribute to a popular song stylist par excellence in Gregory Porter’s Tribute to Nat “King” Cole (June 29).

ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE HOURS

Violinst and AMFS alumna Sarah Chang presents a Special Event Recital on July 23 at Harris Concert Hall, featuring works

by Dvořák, Bartók, and Ravel.

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

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily beginning June 25.

Festival celebrates 70th anniversary season LAURA E. SMITH

Festival Focus Writer

This summer, the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) celebrates a milestone: its 70th anniversary season.

“We are celebrating the tremendous history we have—the really mature traditions of both our teaching mission and our performing mission,” says Alan Fletcher, president and CEO of the AMFS. The AMFS began in 1949 in the intellectual and artistic explosion that was the Aspen Goethe Bicentennial Convocation and Music Festival. The brainchild of corporate titan Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth Paepcke, and organized by them and their friends at the University of Chicago, the event featured some of the premier thinkers, writers, philosophers, and musicians of that time. They even brought the entire Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra to perform in the big, white tent they had erected in what was then just a remote, boarded-up ex-mining town.

Many performing musicians at the Goethe Bicentennial loved the laid-back Western atmosphere and they came back the following year—and brought some of their music students.

Through learning and playing together, the musicians’ passion for returning to Aspen to make music each summer inspired the music festival that continues to this day.

The partnership of professionals and students was a cornerstone of the artistic philosophy from the beginning and continues to be an unusual and defining aspect of the AMFS. Most music festival are either presenting or educational, but not equal parts of both. In that aspect, Aspen is unique.

Over the decades, the Festival, as well as the town of Aspen, has grown and changed. A new “tent” concert venue was built in 1965, and then rebuilt in 2000. A 500-seat concert hall, Harris Concert Hall, was added in 1993, allowing for performance in a more acoustically perfect environment and offering protection from the weather. Along the way orchestras were added, bringing the total to five, and boutique programs were launched—opera, string quartet training, composition.

Important composers came through to lead their own works and teach. Composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Darius Milhaud, and Elliott Carter were just some, leading to

Special Events showcase violin star Sarah Chang (July 23), the incomparable Renée Fleming and Emerson String Quartet, with Simone Dinnerstein (August 1), violinist Augustin Hadelich with pianist Orion Weiss (August 7), and Robert McDuffie with Gershwin and Copland (August 15). Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos will be presented over two nights (July 10 and 11) led by harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.

Last, America’s foremost storyteller, Ken Burns, previews his latest project “Country Music,” in Harris Concert Hall with clips and a panel discussion (August 20).

Final Sunday (August 18) brings together the professional choral ensemble Seraphic Fire with the Colorado Symphony Chorus and singers Mané Galoyan and Kelley O’Connor for Mahler’s powerful Second Symphony, nicknamed “Resurrection.” Fittingly, as it is the Benedict Music Tent’s 20th season, this reprises the work that opened the structure, with much celebration, in June of 2000.

The AMFS’s 2019 season has something for everyone as it explores the shaping and reshaping of American music.

Mark your calendars!

CONCERTS: Yang

plays Gershwin Continued from Festival Focus page 1

CHARLES ABBOTT

A harp student practices outside on the AMFS Campus in 1980.

the important ones in residence today (including current president and CEO Fletcher).

Many of the classical music field’s current stars were students in Aspen, some of whom are in Aspen this summer performing and teaching. Once the students, they are now the masters. Just a few include violinists Sarah Chang, Midori, and Robert McDuffie, soprano Renée Fleming, conductor Leonard Slatkin, and this week’s performers the Pacifica Quartet (June 27) and pianist Joyce Yang (June 29).

Today, the Festival is one of the premier institutions of its kind in the world. More than 600 students come from more than 30 countries to study with a renowned faculty from the country’s top conservatories, orchestras, and opera companies. Four hundred events draw thousands of audience members. And while now mature and sophisticated, it is still a place fueled by the passion of its musicians and a genuine love of music, which was where it all began seventy years ago.

classical-bluegrass impresario Edgar Meyer, Washington’s Birthday from Ives’s A Symphony: New England Holidays, and Gershwin’s Catfish Row: Suite from Porgy and Bess, a quintessential mix of jazz, blues, spirituals, swing, honky-tonk, and Broadway.

On Sunday, June 30, AMFS Music Director Robert Spano leads the Aspen Festival Orchestra in a sweeping program of Gershwin and Rachmaninoff. The afternoon begins with pianist and AMFS alumna Joyce Yang performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major—characterized by the composer’s signature blend of American popular music genres with classical structure.

“It’s the lesser known of the two piano concertos he wrote; people are more familiar with the Rhapsody in Blue,” Yang says. “This piece is really the kind of piece where you hear it and you’re immediately transported to the world of Gershwin. This is a sound world only Gershwin can produce.” Full of bright, American sounds and jazzy rhythms, “it’s the kind of piece you can just viscerally enjoy,” she notes.

When Yang performed this piece with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra last year, the audience went wild.

Yang has been coming to Aspen for the past 15 years, and she says it has become for her that she doesn’t feel whole and complete without an annual visit to the Festival.

“It’s no longer a place where I just try to play the best concerts I can possibly play—I have made really wonderful friends for life at Aspen,” she says. “After a year of traveling, it feels like a sense of return, and it’s good for my health. When I leave, I’m in a better place. It’s like a sense of renewal.”

The second half of Sunday’s program features Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony—his final symphony. The inventive piece is full of gorgeous melodies and juxtaposes delicate beauty with towering grandeur, making it a great launch for another summer of music in all its forms and styles.