Festival Focus July 15, 2019

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019

VOL 30, NO. 4

One Enchanted Evening: South Pacific in Concert July 22 RUTH LEON

Festival Focus Writer What makes South Pacific work today, just as it did in 1949, is its optimism. Set in wartime, South Pacific is all about love and hope. In a world torn apart by prejudice and cruelty, the show emanates hope, the belief that a better world is coming, a world in which the disasters of the past will give way to the triumphs of the future, a world in which love will inevitably conquer hate and darkness.

The show opened in 1949, ran for 1929 performances, and won ten Tony Awards including Best Score.

Now it comes to Aspen in a sparkling concert version, backed by a 55-person orchestra. How Richard Rodgers would have loved to hear his score played by a full orchestra, far too many to fit into a theater pit!

It will play for one night only, in a first-ever collaboration between the Aspen Music Festival and School and Theatre Aspen on July 22 at the Benedict Music Tent. Starring will be Nathan Gunn, the baritone famous for his roles in Billy Budd and The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, as Opera and Broadway stars Nathan Gunn (left) and Christy Altomare (right) perform the lead roles of Emile de Becque and Nellie Forbush in the Emile, and Broadway’s Christy Altomare as Nellie AMFS and Theatre Aspen's co-presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic American musical, South Pacific, on July 22 in the Benedict Forbush along with Ann Harada, Leanne Cabrera, Music Tent.

Ryan McCartan, Brian Ray Norris, and singers from But South Pacific is much more than a cheery muOptimist.” the AMFS’s Aspen Opera Center.

Says Altomare, who made her Broadway debut in sical comedy set on an idyllic island. It is an ambiSouth Pacific has some of the most beautiful songs Mamma Mia and most recently held the titular role tious work about racism, politics, and fear of the in the musicals canon. In addition to “Some Enchanted in Anastasia, "I feel so honored to be a part of this “other” disguised as a cheery musical comedy. Only Evening,” it has “Younger Than Springtime,” “This Near- beautiful production. The show is just as relevant now Oscar Hammerstein II had the courage in 1947 to write ly Was Mine,” and some laugh-out loud comedy songs as it was when it premiered—and the songs are just as such as “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” and “Cockeyed hummable on the ride home.”

See South Pacific, Festival Focus page 3

Slatkin leads Seong-Jin Cho in Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho performs Rachmaninoff's lyrical Second Concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on July 21

Aspen audiences will be treated to a new face this weekend—a rising talent who won the last International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015 at just 21 years old.

Seong-Jin Cho will join the Aspen Festival Orchestra and conductor Leonard Slatkin at 4 pm on Sunday, July 21, in the Benedict Music Tent for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.

The pianist said his focus for this legendary piece is on finding a way to make the well-loved work his own.

“It is such a popular concerto, and there are so many great recordings, so the audi-

ence has very high standards,” Cho says.

“But somehow we have to play it in a personal way. So I was really thinking about it—how to make this concerto sound more personal or special.

“I still don’t know how to do it,” Cho continued with a laugh, “but I try not to play too over-romantic because I listened to Rachmaninoff’s own recording, playing by himself, and of course his playing is wonderful, but not too romantic. He was quite delicate, sensitive, and he has some flow.”

Cho describes the work as having a beautiful melodic line with much drama and emotion. Asadour Santourian, vice president for artistic administration and

artistic advisor for the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), counts it as his favorite Rachmaninoff concerto.

“Why is it my favorite? It has everything,” Santourian says. “It has lyricism. It has great tunes. It has unbelievable orchestral writing supporting the musical material. It has melodies that people will sing long after the concert's over.”

AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher says the work does fit in with the Festival’s season theme, “Being American,” though perhaps not in as obvious a way as some of the other pieces programmed this See Cho, Festival Focus page 3

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MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times

Renowned pianist, mentor Vardi leads four-piano recital SHANNON ASHER Festival Focus Writer Known as one of the world’s greatest teachers and a renowned pianist, Arie Vardi returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) this year, teaching a full studio of talented young students. He will also present an unusual multi-piano recital in on July 20 in Harris Concert Hall.

Vardi will take the stage with three esteemed piano students playing Bach’s concertos for one, two, three, and four keyboards—featuring a trio of extraordinary Aspen students, along with himself.

When asked how he picked the students for this performance, he recalls a quote by Oscar Wilde, “I’ve the simplest test. I am always satisfied with the best.” The best students that he is referring to here are Ray Ushikubo, Harmony Zhu, and alumnus Maxim Lando. “I'm very simpleminded. If we have great talents like these three kids, I'm very much satisfied,” Vardi says.

“They were in my studio and luckily, they have all won the Aspen competitions. They deserve these concerts and we deserve to show them off to the public. We are all privileged to have these three brilliant musicians for this concert,” Vardi says. “The repertoire almost chooses itself. No concert could be more exciting than Bach concertos for one, two, three, four pianos. We say pianos, but it is actually a keyboard. It was played on cembalo, on harpsichord, and in the Bach Collegium Musicum.”

Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor, Asadour Santourian, says of Vardi, “He is multifaceted. He's been cultivating these gardens for a long time and I think that he has many, many colleagues who will float wonderful students to him because they know that Vardi has this insightful x-ray precision ability to zero in on what these talented students need,” says Santourian.

“He has many, many famous students who are working at a very high level. There are some other younger ones that are emerging as well.”

Vardi explains that the music is written for the pleasure of the performers and for the pleasure of the public. He talks about the fact that there is a lot of excitement and joy in the music. “Bach is Bach, so we also have slow movements with a lot of depth, praying, song, and spirituality.

With the shining talent of the young pianist, I believe we can combine the spirituality of slow movements with the joy of the last movement and with the beautiful sophistication of the first movement and the entire concerto,” Vardi says.

This evening will be an in-depth Bach celebration. There was a question, of course, about who will play the concerto for one piano because each one of the three soloists can do it fantastically well. In the end, it was decided that the students would share the solo piece, switching between movements. “In the concerto for two pianos, it will be Harmony and Maxim, three pianos with Ray and four pianos with all of us,” Vardi says. “They always change

Pianist and AMFS artist-faculty member Arie Vardi leads a July 20 recital featuring three of his hand-picked students.

the bench so that each time another student will be number one. Primo, secundo, tertio, and I shall be playing piano number four and conducting from the bench. In the other concerto, I will be the real conductor and they will play.

We should have a lot of happenings and a lot of surprises in this performance.”

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MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019 3

SOUTH PACIFIC: daring, witty, and charming Continued from Festival Focus page 1

Know before you go...

"You’ve got to be Carefully Taught", an excoriating examination of racial prejudice at a time when prejudice was considered normal. Only Rodgers and Hammerstein would have written a show about a man with mixed race children and made him the hero. Only Rodgers and Hammerstein at that time would have had the stature to make their secondary plot about a young American war hero in love with a woman of color. South Pacific was revolutionary.

Says Alan Fletcher, AMFS president and CEO, “It being our American season, it just made total sense to do one of the great American musicals, also because South Pacific, inspired by the work of James Michener, addresses so many issues about race in America. It seemed like a really strong choice; it also just has one great song after another, and is wonderful for the orchestra to play.”

For its artistry, for its daring, for its blazing wit and unmistakably American charm, South Pacific is one not to miss this summer.

ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE HOURS

In 1949 Mary Martin was the undisputed queen of Broadway. She had starred in every important stage musical since the war and there was no question who would lead the cast in South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s latest.

Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin in the final scene of the original 1949 Broadway production of South Pacific which ran for five years with 1929 performances. Based on two short stories in James A. Michener's 1947 book, Tales of the South Pacific, the musical won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1950.

She was horrified when told that the famous operatic baritone, Ezio Pinza, was to play opposite her. Pinza barely spoke any English and had never sung anything but opera.

Mary Martin was a show singer, a musical comedy performer who couldn’t read music. She was terrified that Pinza’s singing would show her shortcomings and, while she couldn’t actually refuse to perform with him, she refused to sing with him. Rodgers and Hammerstein had to write romantic songs for the lovers without any duets.

This is why even "Some Enchanted Evening," one of the most romantic love songs ever written for the theater, has only one line, at the very end, which the lovers sing together.

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.

Outdoor sound installation celebrates nature CHO: Leonard Slatkin, Elgar's Enigma" Variations CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) has always cherished and drawn inspiration from the surrounding nature. Students and guest artists praise the serene influence of the mountains, wildflowers, rivers, and valleys that encourage creativity to blossom.

This summer, the AMFS presents John Luther Adams’s Sila: The Breath of the World, an “environmental work” that offers audiences the chance to become a part of this free outdoor sound installation, on July 21 at 2 pm.

Sila is a piece intended to be played by separate ensembles who may perform the work in any combination, either simultaneously or successively, making each performance enALEX IRVIN tirely new.

The AMFS performed Adams's outdoor installation piece Inuksuit in Each landscape also introduces new ele- 2016. Adams's other outdoor work, Sila: Breath of the World will be ments, meaning the meadows surrounding performed July 21 on the Music Lawn outside the Benedict Music Tent. The performance is free and open to the public. the Benedict Music Tent, the grove of Aspen trees, the stream that weaves through the MuThis isn’t the first time the AMFS has explored sic Lawn, and the looming Elk Mountains all have a Adams’s unique approach to music and the envipart to play. As in several of Adams’s other works, the ronment. In 2016, sixty percussionists performed audience members participate in shaping their own Adams’s Inuksuit on the Music Lawn outside the experiences. The installation invites listeners to walk Benedict Music Tent, a piece that was originally preamong the performers and move across the land- miered on a mountainside in Banff, Canada in 2009. scape to experience it in different ways.

Many of Adams’s works strive to bring the same “[John’s works] are very emotionally moving to sense of wonder we experience in nature into the experience,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan concert hall.

Fletcher. “It’s hard to explain, but you just have to give In his outdoor works, Inuksuit and Sila included, yourself to it.”

Adams uses sound as a way to reclaim our connecAdams was called “one of the most original musi- tions with place. “It’s increasingly rare that we are cal thinkers of the new century,” by The New Yorker. fully present anywhere, and the knowledge that we Greatly inspired by his time living in Alaska, Adams truly belong to any place eludes many of us,” says has created works for orchestra, solo, small ensem- Adams. “I hope to explore the territory or sonic geble, and voice. His work Become Ocean received ography—that region between place and culture… the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music, calling it "a haunting between environment and imagination.” orchestral work that suggests a relentless tidal surge, Says The Washington Post, Sila is a sound installaevoking thoughts of melting polar ice and rising sea tion that melds music, nature, performer, audience, levels." Environmentalism and the human impact on and place into one, and in doing so, “gives voice to an the natural world are persistent ideas represented in environment, gently amplifying what the world might Adams’s work. be trying to say.”

Continued from Festival Focus page 1 summer.

“Rachmaninoff himself was an immigrant to the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen,” Fletcher says. “So he, in a way, fits into that whole part of our theme.”

This is Cho’s first time in Aspen, but he has a connection he only recently became aware of: his piano teacher studied at the AMFS as a student.

“I’ve heard so many great things about Aspen from my colleagues and actually from my teacher in Korea,” Cho says. “I’m so looking forward to playing in Aspen for the first time, and especially with Lenny Slatkin. We already played several times before, and this is the first time to play the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto with him.”

Cho describes Slatkin, an AMFS alumnus himself, as a very clear communicator with an unmatched musical sense.

“He knows what he wants, so I can see his ideas so clearly,” Cho says.

Just as exciting as getting to perform with Slatkin is the opportunity to play with AMFS students in the orchestra, Cho says. He has some experience performing with young musicians, and he says the energy on stage is always so different when playing with artists just beginning their careers.

“I really love playing with young musicians, as I am young, also,” the 25-year-old says with a laugh. “I already had a very good experience in Europe when I played with the European Union Youth Orchestra last year. They were about my age or younger, and they were really into the music, and very reactive and passionate. I really enjoyed their passion, and I could feel it. It was a very exciting moment.”

Sunday’s program begins with Boulder composer Conor Abbott Brown’s How to Relax with Origami, a work that consists of eight vignettes charmingly organized around the principles of Japanese paper art.

The concert concludes with Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations, a beloved piece whose theme does, indeed, remain an enigma. The composer shared the secret with only three people, all of whom carried it to their graves. Or it’s possible Elgar played a joke on the world, and a theme never existed at all.

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MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

Supplement to The Aspen Times