Aspen Music Festival and School 2017 Festival Focus Week 2

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES

MONDAY, JULY 3, 2017

VOL 28, NO. 2

New! Podcast of High Notes panel Each week, AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher sits down with some of the classical world’s most brilliant talents for a conversation on music, performance, and more. All are welcome to attend this popular High Notes series, held every Wednesday at noon throughout the season—but if you can’t make it in person, then subscribe to the AMFS’s new High Notes podcast!

Don’t miss disucssions with such illustrious guest artists as Nicholas McGegan, Sarah Chang, Inon Barnatan, Alisa Weilerstein, and many others.

Learn more at www.aspenmusicfestival.com/podcast.

ALEX IRVIN/AMFS

World-renowned pianist Yefim Bronfman will perform Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on July 9, and he will also perform with his former teacher and AMFS artist-faculty member Arie Vardi on the July 10 Chamber Music concert.

Bronfman performs Brahms Second Concerto CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

Thought by many to be one of the greatest living pianists, Yefim Bronfman is a cultural treasure who has spent a lifetime cultivating tremendous virtuosity and stunning his international audiences with both musical power and great sensitivity. He returns to Aspen this week for two highly anticipated perfor-

mances.

First, Bronfman will appear with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on July 9, when he will perform Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto.

Asadour Santourian, the Aspen Music Festival and School’s (AMFS) vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor, notes that “there are very few people on the planet who can play this work.”

The piece, completed in 1881 and performed across Europe to great acclaim in the years following, was designed by Brahms to be a work of symphonic unity between piano and orchestra.

“In the Second Concerto, I don’t think Brahms was so concerned about the pianist being heard,” Santourian says. “He was thinkSee Bronfman, Festival Focus page 3

Conrad Tao plays Mozart, Liszt, and more in recital CAITLIN CAUSEY Festival Focus Writer

Good things can happen when talent is found early. For pianist, composer, and AMFS alumnus Conrad Tao, that meant discovering a love of plunking out tunes on the piano by ear at only eighteen months old.

Now at the ripe old age of twenty-three, Tao has appeared around the United States and the world, performing for riveted audiences and critics alike. His resume bursts with coveted honors such as being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a Gilmore Foundation Young Artist, and a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and he has received praise from The New York Times and other respected publications. Tao

has traveled the globe, performed with myriad international symphonies and orchestras, been doused with accolades, and studied under masters; it seems there is no stopping the budding musical gift he discovered as a toddler and has nurtured through the years to become a mature artistic passion.

Aspen audiences will have the pleasure of seeing Tao perform a recital on July 8. This summer marks his sixth year as a guest artist with the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), though he attended as a student for many childhood summers prior to his first professional performance here in 2010.

The AMFS has quite literally watched Tao grow into the celebrated musician he is today. And in

addition to the pleasure audiences feel at seeing him now as an adult, Tao says returning to Aspen always puts a smile on his face.

“I have sentimental memories of Aspen because I spent the bulk of my summers here during my formative years,” says Tao. “Back then, it felt as if the town was overflowing with music and musicians, and that left an impression on me.

I associate Aspen with a pivotal part of my early musical development. It’s exciting to come back and play where I was once a student, and to have the opportunity to present my changing interests, tastes, and curiosity in this capacity.”

Tao’s ever-evolving artistic vision and technique

See Tao, Festival Focus page 3

COURTESY PHOTO

Conrad Tao will perform in varied recital on July 8.

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FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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Ebullient conductor McGegan leads orchestra, Baroque evening CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

Joyful, revelatory, irresistible, fresh: these are just some of the descriptors that admirers of conductor Nicholas McGegan have used in attempts to define his unique approach to his work. Considered one of the finest Baroque conductors alive today, McGegan is known for a distinct mastery and impressive breadth of knowledge of the period—but he also just wants to make the music fun.

“I like the musicians to have a sense of the musical style of the composer, but I hope not in an overly academic way,” he says. “We are still performing the music for a modern audience, not giving a lecture.”

Asadour Santourian, Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor, is one of the many admirers of McGegan’s signature conducting style.

“Some time ago I asked Nicholas McGegan—who either looks like he’s a sous chef busy on stage preparing for the evening, or he’s having too good of a time doing the modern version of the Twist—I asked him to describe some of his gestures to the orchestra, and he said, ‘Oh, don’t bother with that, I’m just encouraging them along. They know what they’re doing,’” says Santourian. “Nic has the uncanny ability of making us all, performers and listeners, feel that what we’re witnessing is a premiere of some sort. That’s the only way I can describe him; it’s really quite magical, what he does.”

McGegan adds of his work, “I always try to encourage the

musicians to really go for it. A bit of risk-taking often adds a great deal to the performance. I like to show the gestures of the music both to the performers and the audience rather than just be a timekeeper.”

Baroque enthusiasts will have multiple opportunities to witness the magic of McGegan this month. First, he will appear with the Aspen Chamber Symphony on July 7, which opens with the overture to Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This piece shines as part of AMFS’s season theme, Enchantment, explored musically through the lenses of myth, transformation, and the transcendent delights of nature. The conductor will also present “A Baroque Evening with Nicholas McGegan” on July 13, featuring J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and Handel’s Suite from Water Music, and he will participate in a High Notes panel discussion on July 5.

Pianist and composer Robert Levin will perform with McGegan on the July 7 ACS program, presenting Mozart’s Concerto for Violin and Piano, an unfinished piece that Levin completed. Levin has reconstructed many fragments of the composer’s creations during his career.

“A successful completion seeks to slip into the skin of the composer,” he notes. “It requires thorough knowledge of Mozart’s melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic style; the number of musical ideas he uses in a particular type of composition and when they recur; his architecture and sense of proportion; and the way he writes for the vocal or instrumental forces at hand. To fall short in any of these areas undermines the integrity of the completion.”

Levin will also lead a Piano Master Class at 10 am on July

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MONDAY, JULY 3, 2017 3

BRONFMAN: Performance with mentor Arie Vardi Continued from Festival Focus page 1

COURTESY PHOTO

Conductor Nicholas McGegan will conduct the July 7 Aspen Chamber Symphony concert as well as the July 13 Baroque Evening concert. He will also participate in the July 5 High Notes panel discussion.

5 at Harris Concert Hall, which he’ll follow immediately by joining the High Notes panel discussion with McGegan and AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher at noon. McGegan and Levin, longtime friends and respected colleagues, are sure to delight audiences during their appearances together.

“We have collaborated throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand,” Levin says. “Making music with him is an untrammeled joy.”

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ing more about texture and fabric of the musical matter that he was working with. So, you really need someone like Bronfman, who possesses Herculean abilities, to be heard. He’s not going to be looking to stand apart but to be heard in this tsunami of sound that the orchestra is asked to produce by Brahms. And there really are not that many pianists who can pull this off with incredible savvy and ability without just pounding—because it’s not about pounding to be heard.”

When asked of his own thoughts on the work, Bronfman says that “it’s one of the great, more important pieces in the literature of piano. The challenges are many, but I try to go beyond that; I have worked through these challenges before. In my opinion it’s one of the more beautiful pieces by a very great composer. It’s perfect for piano, and it works well within the repertoire for the Festival.”

The piece will be led by celebrated conductor Michael Stern, whose onstage repartee with soloist and orchestra is sure to be an extraordinary sight. Before Bronfman’s Brahms selection, Stern will conduct works from the first portion of the afternoon: Britten’s powerful anti-war Sin-

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fonia da Requiem and Ravel’s luscious ballet suite from piano piece for four hands, during the July 10 concert.

Daphnis et Chloé.

“We both, Yefim and myself, share the passion for Following the July 9 program, Bronfman will appear Schubert,” Vardi adds. “For me, I feel comfort in his muagain on July 10 in a special Chamber Music perfor- sic, and this Rondo, the most beautiful piece on earth, mance with his mentor, 2017 Israel Prize laureate and is not only about love like all music by Schubert is, but AMFS artist-faculty member Arie also about courage, about friendVardi. The two pianists met and beship, about loyalty. To play this with “I strongly believe gan their student-teacher partnership Yefim in Aspen—the most gorgeous in Israel when a young Bronfman and location in the mountains—to play that this everlasting his family emigrated to the country the Schubert, my favorite composer, friendship must be from Russia. Since then, they have enthe Rondo in A Major, composed in joyed a lasting and mutual respect for Schubert’s last year, expressing so reflected on stage.” each other’s artistry. much comradeship, loyalty, and good “After the teaching period, we refaith in life and in humanism, this is Arie Vardi mained excellent friends, and we very rewarding.”

Pianist and AMFS artist-faculty member enjoy sharing life experiences, the This special four-hands perforbooks that we read, and jokes—we mance is particularly significant as share the same kind of sense of humor,” Vardi says of Vardi is celebrating his eightieth birthday this summer, Bronfman. “I strongly believe that this friendship, ever- and the evening’s very lucky audience members will lasting friendship, must be reflected in one way or an- have an opportunity to witness Bronfman and Vardi’s enother on stage.” during friendship as a testament to the powerful nature The pair will perform Schubert’s Rondo in A Major, a of the student-teacher bond.

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

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily.

Kawasaki starts fortieth summer in Aspen CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

Masao Kawasaki’s first year as an Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) artist-faculty member was 1978.

Since then, he’s returned to the AMFS each summer to teach young violinists and perform alongside colleagues and guest artists. Outside of the summer, Kawasaki is an adjunct professor and professor emeritus at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and on faculty at The Juilliard School. Additionally, he has enjoyed an international career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and pedagogue of both violin and viola.

Kawasaki says that one of the reasons he keeps coming back to the Festival each year is the AMFS’s balance between performance and education. Students have many opportunities to learn and grow as musicians, he says. “It’s not only performances or school, like camp; it’s all combined together. They get it all.”

As a teacher, Kawasaki says getting to know his students is a highlight.

“I have a chance to meet so many talented kids from all over the world,” he says. “Not just the U.S., but also from Europe, Asia, and so many different parts of the world.”

At the AMFS, Kawasaki teaches students from as young as fourteen all the way to graduate students diving into their careers.

“They have different things to learn here,” he says. But there is something he hopes all his students take away from the summer: “I want them to not just learn their instrument, but expand their experiences.” Playing in the orchestra side by side with professionals, going to master classes, learning from mentors and peers alike, he says, are just a few of the opportunities students can take part in to become more experienced artists.

Now in his fortieth summer at the Festival, Kawasaki says one of the things he loves seeing is the student who eventually comes back to the AMFS as a guest artist, like acclaimed violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

“I see a lot of my students return as guest artists,” he

TAO: Dynamic

recital program Continued from Festival Focus page 1

COURTESY PHOTO

AMFS artist-faculty member Masao Kawasaki will perform in Chamber Music concerts at 7 pm on July 3 and 4:30 pm on July 8.

says. “They start to make a career and come back as great musicians and artists, and I see all of those histories every time. It makes me so happy to be here.”

In addition to teaching, Kawasaki will perform in two Chamber Music concerts this summer with fellow AMFS artist-faculty. Kawasaki says that because they don’t see each other often during the school year, “it’s very fresh every summer.” He will perform with colleagues, former schoolmates, and some of his former and current students. The different ages and backgrounds create a mixture in the group that is exciting.

“Most of the time I’m the oldest one, but that makes me happy,” Kawasaki jokes.

Masao Kawasaki performs Chamber Music at 7 pm on July 3 and 4:30 pm on July 8.

will be on full display during his recital, which will feature an unusual combination of works he has chosen by Felipe Lara, Mozart, Pierre Boulez, Philip Glass, and Liszt. Asadour Santourian, the AMFS’s vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor, notes that Tao’s program choices—and the parallels he draws between them— are central to the dynamic experience the young pianist crafts for listeners.

“Many of our artists are here because of their unique vision and unique ability to curate a program that suits and defines for us their intellectual personality and their relationship to music,” Santourian says.

“So basically that’s what this program has created, is an insight into Conrad’s mind and how he receives and then communicates music.”

Tao points out that he puts his programs together “somewhat instinctively, in terms of musical logic.” For his upcoming recital, Tao wanted to pair Mozart with composers of the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries whose works share a similar economy of sound with those of the Classical genius.

“Mozart is kind of an essential figure in this program, and I’ve organized the first half around two of his works,” he says. “The driving factor was to create a program that seems to be almost delicate, where every sound is completely deliberate and judiciously chosen. With Mozart, it’s pairing an almost stingy sensibility with a kind of manic overflow as well; there is a mix of discipline and just seemingly endless amounts of energy and activity.”

Tao’s July 8 recital selections also reflect the impact that contemporary music has had on his interpretation of more established works.

“The process of being involved with new work has made the experience of returning to older work—centuries old—so much more enjoyable,” he says. “It has expanded my notions of what sounds could be, what types of interpretive choices I could make. I’m always trying to expand my vocabulary as a player and interpreter. And maybe it sounds a little rote to say aloud, but at the end of the day I’m just trying to do the things that excite me.”