Aspen Music Festival and School Festival Focus - Week 8

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MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2022

VOL 32, NO. 8

Berlioz’s Requiem to Close AMFS Season August 21 LAURA E. SMITH

Harris Concert Hall Class with Robert McDuffie

Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Of his Grande messe des morts, or Requiem, Hector Berlioz once wrote, “if I were threatened with the destruction of the whole of my works save one, I should crave mercy for the [Grande] messe des morts.”

This gargantuan work will be mounted at the Benedict Music Tent on Sunday, August 21, as the final concert of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s 2022 season.

Marshalling a 112-member orchestra and a 150-voice chorus, the work deploys huge forces, including a sea of strings, 12 French horns, 16 timpani, 10 pairs of cymbals, and four brass choirs placed around the hall. It is one of the largest works ever written for orchestra.

“The message is ‘see it, see it now’ ” says Patrick Chamberlain, AMFS vice president for artistic administration. “A work like this is performed very rarely, even by major orchestras, maybe every 30 years, because of the expense and logistics of the forces required.”

“I have never been a part of a performance of it, and many musicians playing, even longtime, seasoned orchestra players, have never performed it. It is truly a rare and special experience to play, or hear, this live.”

The work follows the standard Latin mass text. Many composers have set it, and, as said in the program note by Harlow Robinson, “… surely the most grand in scale, ambition, intensity, and sonic forces is the Grande messe des morts.”

The 150 voices assembled for the work come from three sources: the professional

Festival favorite Robert McDuffie teaches exceptional violin students the nuances of great music making. See it all up close at this intensive workshop.

Tuesday, August 16 1 PM Tickets: $25

Robert Spano, music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School, conducts the season’s final performance, Berlioz’s Requiem. The rarely-performed work is of massive scale, featuring a widely expanded symphony orchestra and chorus, plus four separate brass ensembles.

Denver-based chorus Kantorei; Seraphic Fire, the vocal ensemble in residence with their professional choral students; and an “AMFS Chorus,” made up of AMFS students prepared by co-artistic director of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS (AOTVA) program, Patrick Summers.

“The blending of voices that are professional, student, and amateur, into one full ‘Berlioz Chorus’ superchoir is beautifully emblematic of what we do here in Aspen as a whole,” says

Chamberlain. And, he points out, AMFS Music Director Robert Spano who will lead the performance, is the perfect conductor of it all, as he knows choral music better than any major conductor performing today. It is an inevitable extension of his long association with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the great history of choral singing in that city.

Another aspect Chamberlain highlights about the Berlioz work is its unexpected tenderness. “There is so much talk about the epic

Masks required. scale of the Berlioz,” he says, “and rightfully so.

But the things that may surprise you are the inward and intimate passages. You may hear the most beautiful quiet moments you’ll ever experience in the Tent, as well as the loudest.”

This work culminates a season that signified both a return to all that is so beloved about the AMFS, as well as the beginning of new traditions. Notable to many was the return See AMFS 2022, Festival Focus page 3

Mozart’s Don Giovanni Takes Center Stage on August 18 SARAH CHASE SHAW

Festival Focus Writer

The Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS (AOTVA) program presents its second full opera of the 2022 season on August 18 with a special staging of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the Benedict Music Tent. Based on the legend of Don Juan, a womanizer with a long list of amorous conquests, it has been heralded as both an outrageous comedy and consequential morality tale about an irresistible yet irredeemable playboy whose escapades lead him along a path to his own destruction—all in a single day. The cast, hand-picked for the program by AOTVA’s co-artistic directors Patrick Summers and Renée Fleming, features students who are already performing on stages around the world.

What’s different about this presentation of Mozart’s wellknown opera is the venue itself, which offers a set of opportunities and challenges that both Summers and Fleming—and

acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover—are embracing with purpose and gusto. Unlike most opera houses where the musicians make their magic from a pit below the stage, here a full orchestra shares the Benedict Music Tent’s stage with the singers and the set. The orchestra and Glover, recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gamechanger Award for her work in breaking new ground for other female conductors and a Dame of the British Empire, are moved to one side of the stage, a challenge Glover says benefits both the musicians and the audience. “I love going to performances where you see the orchestra as well. I think you hear music differently when you can see how it’s made.”

Production director Chía Patiño agrees. “The piece itself is so dramatic and clear. Working on one platform allows us to concentrate more on the performance and less on the extraneous elements like costumes, lights, and special effects.”

Summers explains that he and Fleming chose to stage the

Jane Glover, an expert Mozartian, returns to the AMFS to conduct students of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program in Mozart’s genre-defying opera on Thursday, August 18.

See Dame Jane Glover, Festival Focus page 3

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FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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Final Week of Recitals Showcases New and Familiar Music JESSICA MOORE

Director of Marketing

In this final week of the 2022 Festival season, Harris Concert Hall plays host to three recitals representing a microcosm of the mission driving the Aspen Music Festival and School, blending the old with the new, pushing the art form forward while upholding musical traditions: baritone Will Liverman and pianist Jonathan King on Tuesday, August 16; violinist Robert McDuffie with pianist Derek Wang on Wednesday, August 17; and finally, pianist Vladimir Feltsman on Saturday, August 20.

“This week is really great,” says AMFS’s Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain, “because it ends the season on a really familiar and familial note with artists like Bobby and Vladimir who regularly come to Aspen and have dedicated followings here—and an artist like Will, who is relatively new to our audiences, singing music that will be completely new to them.”

While Liverman was first introduced to AMFS audiences last season as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, he makes his Aspen recital debut this week with pianist Jonathan King. “Will is certainly one of the most exciting and dynamic baritones working today. He’s a true star and absolutely at the height of his powers,” says Chamberlain.

Liverman chose to focus his program on works by African American and women composers including works like Night

by Florence Price and The Summer Wind by Amy Beach. Of note is what is not on the program: a single work by a white male. Chamberlain says he finds this choice of repertoire

“an extraordinary thing and a wonderful tribute to our own commitment to representing diverse voices and to Will’s championing of great repertoire by composers who have been overlooked historically.”

This compelling program also features two world premieres

by Libby Larsen and Jasmine Barnes, both AMFS co-commissions. “Will brings such a consummate artistry to everything Will Liverman, Robert McDuffie, and Vladimir Feltsman will perform recitals over the Festival’s final week. he does. Every project, every program, he brings an intensity Hungarian folk melodies, and Chausson’s Concert in D major. of focus and commitment to it. If he does it, you better believe “The Chausson is a gooey, whipped-cream favorite and the it’s important to him,” says Chamberlain. two Bartók works really suit Bobby’s extroverted musical perWhere Liverman’s program represents the new, sonality,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

Grammy-nominated violinist and AMFS alumnus The recital season comes to a close with another longRobert McDuffie shines a light on the core of the Festival the time Aspen regular, pianist Vladimir Feltsman, performing following evening, sharing the stage with this year’s Aspen Schumann’s Arabeske in C major, Beethoven’s Seven BagaContemporary Ensemble pianist, artist-fellow Derek Wang, telles, and Schubert’s Four Impromptus. Fletcher notes, “a key and a hand-picked ensemble of students. “This recital really aspect of the Romantic era is character pieces and so this encapsulates what’s so great about Aspen: it has masters of recital is showing us that entry into this great period of piano their craft working alongside the next generation,” explains playing.”

Chamberlain. “This is the type of program you wouldn’t or Chamberlain agrees, saying, “I think hearing an artist like Vladcouldn’t hear anywhere else.” imir play these smaller works that have tremendous profundity The evening opens with Philip Glass’s Sonata for Violin and and depth will be really special. It’s a meaningful and moving Piano, followed by two virtuosic Bartók rhapsodies based on way to conclude our recital presentations this summer.”

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AMFS 2022 BROUGHT NEW AND FAMILIAR ARTISTS Continued from Festival Focus page 1

to a full-size Romantic orchestra on Sunday afternoons. Says Chamberlain, “Seeing 18 first violinists on stage for Mahler 1, that sight is still precious to me after these years without it. To hear the sound of the full Festival Orchestra, it was so overwhelming, the sheer mass of sound that that body can produce.”

In addition, the AOTVA program, with new co-artistic directors Summers and Renée Fleming, became fully realized with operas staged in the Tent and a first side-by-side student-and-professional performance with the legendary Sir Bryn Terfel. Mariachi was presented for the first time—but not the last—on the Tent stage, with literal dancing in the aisles.

Many old friends came back to perform, and many new friends were introduced to Festival audiences. Says Chamberlain, “We saw a lot of new faces this summer and welcomed a

IF YOU GO: BERLIOZ: REQUIEM

(Grande messe des morts, op. 5) Sunday, August 21 | 4 PM Benedict Music Tent lot of new artists to the AMFS. Many people approached me to tell me how much they enjoyed them—Wilson, Banks, White, Malofeev. It’s so important to expand and revitalize the ranks.

So much this summer was back, and so much built on, and now we have even more than ever to look forward to next summer.”

The Festival season’s final performance, Berlioz’s Requiem, will be on August 21 at 4 pm at the Benedict Music Tent. The stage will be packed with one of the largest orchestras ever assembled at the AMFS.

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Seraphic Fire Presents Free Choral Recital DAME JANE GLOVER NICK EDWARDS-LEVIN

Festival Focus Writer

The Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute (PCI) will perform a free Spotlight Recital in Harris Concert Hall on Wednesday, August 17 at 2:30 pm, offering Aspen audiences a rare opportunity to witness choral works in an intimate setting.

Seraphic Fire, a Florida-based professional choral ensemble, is a leader in the choral music world. Nominated for two Grammy Awards, the group has grown into its position as an internationally recognized ensemble over the past 20 years.

Beyond organizing performances, Seraphic Fire has developed various education initiatives, both in their local community of South Florida and beyond. These programs range from the Seraphic Fire Youth Initiative, which brings choral The Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute will perform a recital music to thousands of public school students in the Miami of wide-ranging choral works on Wednesday, August 17 at 2:30 pm. area, to the Ensemble Artist Program, which offers training for undergraduate and graduate-level singers, to the Profes- artists who are making a living doing this,” Del Campo says. “I sional Choral Institute, an intensive program that prepares its learned more playing in the Festival orchestra for a week than I did in an entire year at school. That’s the way we are operating.” students to enter the professional world of choral music.

The recital, at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, August 17, will include The PCI, which has been in residency at the AMFS since 2018, is similar to the AMFS in its dedication to its students. a wide variety of choral repertoire, ranging from Tomás Luis “We want to treat our students like professionals,” says Rhett de Victoria’s Regina Coeli, which was first published in 1574, to compositions by Mendelssohn Del Campo, executive director and Brahms, to a piece comof Seraphic Fire. “It aligns really posed by an AMFS student. Del well with the Aspen Music FesCampo, himself a percussionist, tival—they’re going to be singing said that choral music is compeland working alongside the proling in a totally different way than fessional artists of Seraphic Fire.” orchestral music. “I never thought Like the AMFS, Seraphic Fire’s I’d be into this kind of music,” Del students have seen resounding Campo says. “But it’s intimate, success when entering the proit’s very human—it’s just people’s fessional industry. Multiple stuvoices and our ears listening to dents from the PCI have joined — Rhett Del Campo that. I’ve seen it move audiences the Seraphic Fire professional in a way I’ve not seen in a more ensemble. “The program is abtraditional concert hall.” solutely doing what it is intended to do,” Del Campo says.

Del Campo says that the venue of the performance only Del Campo, himself a three-summer alumnus of the AMFS, said that working alongside professionals was the most im- enhances that intimacy. “There’s nothing like pure solo voices pactful part of his experience. “That’s what kept me coming in a beautiful space like Harris Hall—it’s the perfect showcase back. It wasn’t just an opportunity to take lessons and play in for our art form,” he says. “It sounds otherworldly. It takes you an orchestra, it was an opportunity to play next to professional somewhere else.”

“[Choral music] is intimate, it’s very human—it’s just people’s voices and our ears listening to that.”

CONDUCTS FINAL OPERA OF SEASON

Continued from Festival Focus page 1 performance in the Tent versus the more traditional setting of the Wheeler Opera House because “we very much want opera programs and opera as an art to be integrated into the Aspen Music Festival. We love the Wheeler, but knew we couldn’t do the level of theatrical production that would equal what these young artists are getting in their colleges.”

In its second year, AOTVA’s program is truly unique, says Summers, because it includes a level of musical and role preparation that students may not have had before. “This year, we chose two extraordinary ensemble operas that are also orchestral masterpieces so that the orchestra is part of the scenic action in a way that is not typical of an operatic production. It’s an extraordinary part of their training.”

One of the goals of AOTVA is to prepare musicians for careers in the 21st century where versatility, musicianship, and collaboration are key elements of success. As such, says Summers, students learn influential operatic works—like Don Giovanni and Falstaff—that they will encounter their entire working lives, and experience the process of learning them in a profound way. “This group of students represents the post-pandemic generation,” he adds. “They are the ones who are going to change the industry for the better to promote issues of social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity that have been a long time coming in the classical arts.”

A groundbreaking work of operatic collaboration between composer and librettist, Don Giovanni is one of the greatest operas of all time, explains Glover. “All of Mozart’s operas are revolutionary, both in libretto and in music, but this one deals with violent social issues, including murder and abuse.” A noted Mozartian, Glover suggests that no matter how contemporary the composer’s operas seemed in the 1780s, they are relevant to any time period. “Don Giovanni is very much a ‘me too’ opera,” she says. “It addresses many important social issues, and indeed this production is going to be very contemporary.”