Festival Focus July 8, 2019

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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VOL 30, NO. 3

Bach’s Complete Brandenburg Concertos

Also this week: Dvořák’s “From the New World” Symphony

LAURA E. SMITH

Festival Focus Writer

Wednesday, July 10 at 6 pm in the Benedict Music Tent Don’t miss this Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra concert featuring Copland’s El salón México, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, and Dvořák’s “From the New World” Symphony.

Jackiw plays Barber, Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony Friday, July 12, at 6 pm in the Benedict Music Tent Stefan Jackiw plays Barber’s Violin Concerto, Plus, AMFS Music Director Robert Spano conducts Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony.

MONDAY, JULY 8, 2019

Hearing all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos over two nights may be fascinating, and edifying, but it will also just be “pure fun” says Alan Fletcher, Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) president and CEO, of the Festival’s upcoming program of these works on July 10 and 11.

Considered some of the finest masterworks ever composed in the classical genre, these six works have endured almost three hundred years since court composer Johannes Sebastian Bach wrote them for the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721.

“They were, in effect, a job application for a job that he didn’t get,” points out Fletcher. “They offer very different musical forces to demonstrate his ability to write for unusual combinations of instruments.”

“They’re immensely fun, both to play and to hear,” he continues. “partly because they were meant to be a display of virtuosity, both for the performers and for himself, to show what he could do.”

AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor Asadour Santourian has brought together an exciting ensemble of young artists for these performances. He notes the Brandenburgs offer “an opportunity to hear virtuoso playing at the highest levels,” and he staffed up accordingly.

The chamber ensemble represents a

All six of Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concertos are performed over two special event recitals on July 10 and 11, led by conductor and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour (pictured).

formidable collection of virtuosic talent. In addition, “we invited seven of the brightest, fastemerging soloists to take the solo parts, five violinists and two violists,” he says. “They come from various places, including alumni of our own violin program here in Aspen.”

Also travelling to Aspen for the performances is the Hungarian trumpeter Tamás Pálfalvi.

“The trumpet part in the Brandenburgs is

one of the most fearful and fearsome and fearmaking parts,” says Santourian, however Pálfalvi is one “for whom not much holds fear,” he laughs.

Aspen audiences will recognize performers Nadine Asin (flute), Elaine Douvas (oboe), and John Zirbel (horn), who are longtime AMFS See Bach, Festival Focus page 3

Aspen Opera Center presents Sondheim’s A Little Night Music JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Mezzo-soprano Kelly Birch performs the role of Desiree in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. on July 11, 13, and 15.

This season, the Aspen Music Festival and School’s (AMFS) Aspen Opera Center (AOC) will open with something a little unusual: a work better known as musical theater than opera. But not just any—one of the greatest.

Bright young singers will take the Wheeler Opera House stage on July 11, 13, and 15 for performances of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. The four-time Tony Award winner has been a beloved crossover hit since its debut in the 1970s, pleasing both Broadway fans and opera aficionados alike.

“I think it’s Sondheim’s most audiencefriendly piece,” says AOC Director Edward Berkeley. “I love its elegance, and I love that there’s a bittersweetness to it. It’s funny and witty, and then it just socks you when you least expect it.”

Set during the turn of the nineteenth century in Sweden, A Little Night Music tells the story of actress Desiree Armfeldt and the love triangles that surround her during a weekend in the countryside. It is a piece about finding true love, and all of the trials and tribulations that often come along with that endeavor.

“It’s a human condition piece about triangles—people who are with some-

one but want to be with someone else,” Berkeley says. “There’s a yearning in the piece to find the right person. Almost all the characters in the piece are in triangles.”

This triangular theme takes shape in the music, as well, almost all of which is written as a waltz.

“The music is catchy and beautiful and covers a wide range of emotions,” says Kelly Birch, a mezzo-soprano who will sing the part of Desiree during her first summer in Aspen. “And the words are incredibly clever and witty. The show’s hysterical, but it’s also tragic, and I think many people will See Sondheim, Festival Focus page 3

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Aspen newcomers Kristóf Baráti and George Li in recitals JESSICA CABE

violinist, but an established artist with quite a lot of fantastic

Festival Focus Writer

credentials. I thought that we shouldn’t wait too long to

This week, two rising stars and Aspen newcomers will

introduce him to American audiences.”

take the Harris Concert Hall stage to share programs

George Li made his mark on the music world when he

offering some of the best of the canon—both well-loved

won a silver medal at the revered Tchaikovsky Compe-

works as well as rarely performed treats.

tition at only fifteen. Now twenty-four, his “staggering

Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti performs at 7:30 pm on

technical prowess, a sense of command and depth of ex-

July 9, joined by Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS)

pression” (Washington Post) have put him in high demand.

artist-faculty member Anton Nel on piano. And Boston’s

“George Li simultaneously earned his undergraduate

George Li offers a piano program at 8 pm on July 13.

Baráti’s program begins with Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for

degree at Harvard and his master’s degree at New England Conservatory under a program that I helped get start-

Unaccompanied Violin, one of the composer’s most

ed,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. “He is

engaging and tuneful works. Next comes Brahms’s Second

absolutely a stunning virtuoso and yet, because of the

Violin Sonata, featuring lyrical melodies that will stay with

nature of his training and the intensity of his own study, he

audiences long after the recital concludes.

is a brilliant interpreter as well. I think the audience is going

The second half of the program offers showstop-

to go crazy for him.”

pers like Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir of a Beloved Place,

Li comes to Aspen with a classic program of Beethoven

Ysaÿe’s “Ballade” Sonata, and Ravel’s Tzigane, a dazzling

and Schumann. He begins with Beethoven’s 32 Variations

showpiece.

on an Original Theme in C minor, followed by his Andante

“He’s chosen a program that shows a wide range, from

in F major, and finally his ‘Waldstein’ Sonata.

Kristóf Baráti (left) performs a recital with artist-faculty member Anton Nel on July 9 and George Li (right) performs a recital of Beethoven and Schumann on July 13.

says. “George is doing a fun thing; he’s taking that movement and playing it by itself, right next to the ‘Waldstein’ so you can hear what it might have sounded like if Beethoven had not decided to separate it.”

Li’s program concludes with Schumann’s Carnaval, a

the thinking musician to the virtuoso musician,” says

“When Beethoven wrote the ‘Waldstein’ sonata, he

Asadour Santourian, vice president for artistic administra-

originally wrote a different middle movement for it, and

moody work of characters and multiple personalities that

tion and artistic advisor for the AMFS. “He takes us from

then realized that he was going to do a great innova-

remains an audience favorite.

Bach and Brahms and brings us to the Gypsy music of

tion in the structure of the sonata and took the middle

Ravel. Baráti is an established artist in Europe—a young

movement out, and in effect didn’t replace it,” Fletcher

“He’s a terrifically well-rounded pianist, and I can’t wait for our audiences to get to know him,” Santourian says.

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BACH: ‘baroque specialist’ Vinikour leads Continued from Festival Focus page 1

artist-faculty members, as well as recent alumni Fabiola Kim and Blake Pouliot on violin.

Baroque specialist Jory Vinikour will be “leading the proceedings from the harpsichord,” says Santourian, “both as a soloist and continuo player.”

In a season the Music Festival celebrates all aspects of being American, Santourian notes that Baroque music was a particular passion of founding father Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson played both violin and harpsichord, as did his wife and daughters. “He had a very comprehensive collection of Baroque manuscripts, which he brought back with him after each European sojourn,” says Santourian. “He also had a great collection of Baroque instruments which are still on display at Monticello.”

These works are programmed individually at times, but it’s been ten years since they have been presented together like this in Aspen. “I think it’s especially impressive

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“[The Brandenburg Concertos] are immensely fun, both to play and to hear, partly because they were meant to be a display of virtuosity, both for the performers and for himself.”

Alan Fletcher AMFS President and CEO

CHRISTINA THOMSEN

“In the whole history of classical music in the U.S., there’s been the question, what should American classical music sound like?” Alan Fletcher, Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) president and CEO poses this question at the beginning of the 2019 summer, a season themed, “Being American.” Through programs and lectures, the AMFS examines the origin and shaping of the distinctive American sound. With 692 students, from 42 states and 33 countries studying at the AMFS this summer, there are countless interpretations of just what makes music “American.”

Singaporean composer Yuting Tan

“Your American composers in the twentieth century, they were kind of creating a new American sound,” says 25-year-old Singaporean composition student Yuting Tan. “Even today, I think it’s still changing.” She notes the diversity of the American sound as a result of composers fusing traditional orchestra music with other genres such as rock, jazz, blues, experimental, and minimalism. Broadway and film music are also important American exports that have a global influence.

“It’s almost as if you can do whatever you want because America doesn’t have, in the classical music world, it doesn’t have cultural baggage in a sense.”

Tan says there is greater acceptance of composers with new ideas in classical music in America. This, she explains, is not unlike her own country’s music.

“Singapore is also a really young country,” she says, “We’re also like, ‘What is this Singaporean sound?’”

In trying to discover this new American sound, composers looked at what was uniquely American.

“I appreciate that American composers are able and willing to take what they’re training in the western European classical music and integrating local American

Bach wrote all six Brandenburg Concertos between 1708 and 1721 in an unsuccessful attempt at gaining a position in the court of the Margrave of Brandenburg.

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

Wheeler Opera House: 12 pm–5 pm M–F, 9 am–5 pm Saturdays, one hour prior to operas.

Discovering the “American” sound Festival Focus Writer

to hear these works of genius all together,” says Fletcher.

He points out that recent summers have seen other full cycles of Bach’s works, like last summer when cellist Alisa Weilerstein played all of Bach’s cello suites in one night.

“This continues our practice here in Aspen of looking at a composer’s achievement in a really concentrated way.”

The Complete Brandenburg Concertos will be performed July 10 and 11 in Harris Concert Hall.

music into their compositions like jazz, or even Copland and Ives with marching tunes and spirituals,” says Tan. “In Europe, you don’t see a lot of that.”

American violinist Adam Millstein

Born and raised in Los Angeles, 24-year-old violinist Adam Millstein is spending his sixth summer studying in Aspen.

“What makes America as a place so beautiful is the diversity that we have and the cultural fabric that is created by all the different types of people that have come here and are here,” says Millstein. “I think that’s actually reflected heavily in the music.”

“What has come out of America is a result of a lot of diverse backgrounds, and everyone bringing stuff to the table that reflects where they’re from originally,” he explains. Millstein mentions Dvořák, an early champion of American music who emigrated from the Czech Republic in 1892, and who saw the unique cultural elements in African American and Native American music. “He said, this is our folk music, and this is what needs to be represented in the medium of classical music.”

In terms of performing, “I feel like I have sort of an intrinsic relation to that music where I feel more naturally adept at interpreting it because I grew up on it,” Millstein says. “I love rock and roll, and jazz, and blues. I feel like I have to do a little less research to understand the sensibility of that music.”

There is no one answer to the question of what American music should sound like. “To one person it could be the music of Scott Joplin. To some people, it could be the sound world of Gershwin, or Philip Glass, or Samuel Barber,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor. “Each of these has a different origin but they are all absolutely American sounds.”

SONDHEIM: surprises, challenges Continued from Festival Focus page 1 be able to relate to the characters and what they’re going through in their lives.”

Michael Aiello, a baritone singing the part of Frederick, will return to Aspen for his fourth season this year. He said part of the fun of A Little Night Music is singing something that isn’t exactly opera, but therein also lies the challenge.

“Musical theater is different from standard opera for a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones for me is that there are some spoken lines in this piece,” Aiello says. “For a lot of us, myself included, I’ve never done this kind of straightahead acting. So that may be the biggest challenge. And I’ve never done any of Sondheim’s music, but I think this is a great piece to start with. Opera can be so dramatic and dark at times, but everything about this show just makes you want to smile.”

Berkeley says the production will be abstract, with an air of mysticism, haze, and a sun that never quite sets. The space itself will have a lot of surprises, including louvers that allow the audience to feel the movement of light.

“Instead of trees, they’ll see the shadows of trees,” Berkeley says as an example. “This mirrors the subtlety of the emotions in this piece, like reflections of a memory or idea. In this work, when someone is hurt, you can feel their hurt, but they don’t necessarily scream. The production will reflect that.”

The choice to program a work by Sondheim seemed clear based on the AMFS season theme, “Being American.” While A Little Night Music is set in Sweden, the music (and the composer) are very much American.

“He’s just one of the greatest figures in Broadway history,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

“This work is both funny, and it’s also an extremely sharp commentary on matters of behavior, fidelity, infidelity, and commitment. So it sort of has it all.”