Aspen Music Festival and School 2017 Festival Focus Week 3

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES

Don’t miss great recitals this week!

July 11, 7:30 pm: Pianists Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss See this fresh, energetic, and engaging pair make beautiful music together in a Romantic program for four-hands piano, featuring works by Brahms, Barber, Saint-Saëns, and more.

July 12, 8:30 pm: Violinist Stefan Jackiw Hailed by The Boston Globe for playing that is “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity,” Stefan Jackiw is one of his generation’s most captivating artists. Enjoy an evening of his fascinating and poetic exploration of Brahms’s exquisite Violin Sonatas.

Visit www.aspenmusicfestival.com or call the Box Office at 970-9259042 for tickets and more information.

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

VOL 28, NO. 3

Aspen Opera Center stages Verdi’s La traviata the world all the time, it’s especially wonderful for us because, of course, A tragic and beguiling heroine, her the lead tenor and soprano characlovestruck suitor, an untimely death, ters are very young people, and it and a swirl of passionate melodies: makes a difference when the peoLa traviata is the stuff of operatic ple portraying them onstage are also legend. young people.

But how does I think it gives it “The lead tenor and the Aspen Opa vivacity that is era Center special.” soprano characters (AOC) keep AOC Director one of the most COURTESY PHOTO Edward Berkeare very young well-known opley agrees. The Aspen Opera Center singer Anna Dugan will sing Violetta in the AOC’s eras in the world people, and it makes Juilliard faculty production of La traviata on July 15 and 18. feeling urgent member has a difference when the been coming to and meaningful?

For this month’s work with oppeople portraying Aspen Music era students in Festival and them onstage are also Aspen for more School (AMFS) than thirty years, young people. I think production, the guiding each secret lies in the season’s fresh it gives it a vivacity youth of its pertalents as they formers. hone their craft that is special.”

“Right now, it’s in a supportive the most oftenyet very rigorous Alan Fletcher performed openvironment.

AMFS President and CEO era in the world,” “To hear singsays Aspen Muers close to the sic Festival and School President and ages of the characters—that’s someCEO Alan Fletcher. “Every couple of thing you just don’t get in big profesyears someone checks in and does sional houses,” he notes. “It’s terrific COURTESY PHOTO a rating, and this time it is La traviata.

Aspen Opera Center singer Alexander McKissick will sing Alfredo in the Although it’s in every opera house in See Traviata, Festival Focus page 3 AOC’s production of La traviata on July 17.

CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

Sarah Chang returns to Aspen, playing Ravel, Vivaldi CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

COURTESY PHOTO

Superstar violinist and AMFS alumna Sarah Chang will perform with the Aspen Chamber Symphony at 6 pm on July 14. She will also play a sold-out Special Event recital on July 19.

Sarah Chang has visited Aspen during every summer of her life, and she’s got the stories to prove it—especially from her teenage years.

“I was just having fun being a little rebellious,” Chang says. “I have so many memories of Aspen, wonderful memories, that I consider it a part of home for me now.”

Chang remembers attending her Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) lessons as a young girl, ordering ice cream at Paradise Bakery, learning to drive in the parking lot of the old Music Tent, and later denting a couple of the rental cars she drove

around town.

In addition to studying here as an exceptionally talented child and later performing as an accomplished superstar, it seems as though Chang filled her Aspen summers with the coming-of-age experiences that almost anyone could relate to. Perhaps it is this irresistible combination of extraordinary talent and approachable charm that has endeared local audiences to Chang over the course of her life as they’ve watched her rise to worldwide fame and have felt a sense of “hometown” pride, affection, and awe.

See Chang, Festival Focus page 3

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MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

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Renowned pianist Lugansky plays Beethoven; Chopin, Rachmaninoff CAITLIN CAUSEY

Festival Focus Writer

A treat is in store for the Aspen Festival Orchestra (AFO) audience on July 16, when acclaimed Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky returns to town to perform a particularly energetic, emotionally expressive work that showcases a different facet of his sensitive yet thrilling virtuosity.

Silver medal winner of the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition and recipient of the People’s Artist of Russia award, Lugansky is most often known for performing Chopin and Rachmaninoff; this Sunday, however, Lugansky takes on Beethoven’s super-virtuosic “Emperor” Concerto.

“The exciting news about Lugansky in Aspen [this year] is that we’re actually going to hear another aspect of his artistry, which is a Beethoven concerto—and not any Beethoven concerto, but the ‘Emperor,’” says Asadour Santourian, the Aspen Music Festival and School’s (AMFS) vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor. “That’s an especially full-of-character and demanding work; it’s a pinnacle of Beethoven’s output.”

Lugansky himself adds of the piece, “‘Emperor’ is one of the greatest concertos for piano. There is a beautiful slow movement with a kind of drama, but not the usual conflict. It’s about triumph: the different sides, the drama and losses before triumph. It’s quite wonderful.”

Lutosławski’s Polish-folk-melody-infused Concerto for Orchestra and Debussy’s sumptuous, intoxicating

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, part of the Festival’s season theme, Enchantment, round out the July 16 program.

Those looking this year for a glimpse of Lugansky’s exceptional talent for commanding the works of his Romantic favorites Chopin and Rachmaninoff are in luck: the musician’s recital at Harris Concert Hall on July 18 will feature, as Santourian describes, “a bouquet of Rachmaninoff preludes,” plus a collection of intimate works

by Chopin.

Lugansky says he is drawn to these two composers because of their deep connection to and understanding of the piano.

“Chopin and Rachmaninoff were both great pianists, completely equal to their genius as composers for the instrument,” he says. “It’s an unbelievable joy to play music from any composer who understands the instrument completely. With Chopin, the music is always very, very personal—you find personal joy and tragedy in his music.

Rachmaninoff, however, combines the personal and the objective.”

Lugansky adds of the two pianist-composers, “I completely love almost anything they wrote. If you’re in love with something, you listen to and play it; sometimes the feeling goes away, but usually you’re more and more in love. That is why I feel so strongly about their music.”

The July 18 recital also opens with a selection from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, which Lugansky notes is a unique pairing in the evening’s program because the leg-

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FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 3

TRAVIATA: Soaring arias, romantic music will enchant Continued from Festival Focus page 1

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Pianist Nikolai Lugansky will play Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra at 4 pm on July 16 in the Benedict Music Tent. He will also play Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff in recital at 7:30 pm on July 18 in Harris Concert Hall.

endary Russian composer was “a genius but not a pianist.”

With this piece listeners can expect melodic depictions of his home country’s climatic variations.

Whether your interest lies in experiencing a world-famous musician like Lugansky present the soaring gusto of a beloved Beethoven concerto or the intimate exploration of cherished pieces by his own favorite composers, the pianist’s performances this week will deliver.

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to hear our students’ voices, these young people who are on the cusp of developing into professional singers. We get the opportunity to see them growing and learning, and their curiosity is at a peak.”

Berkeley says La traviata is a musical feast for both performers and audiences.

“You’re watching a young woman, Violetta, who’s had a very fast life and who, through no fault of her own, is dying and facing what it means to die without love,” he explains.

“Just when she seems to find love in Alfredo, she loses it.

It’s a genuine tragedy, a very human story. And besides, the music is just fantastic.”

Last fall, Berkeley auditioned nearly 500 hopefuls to fill about seventy spots with the AOC this summer. New York-based soprano Anna Dugan was one of them, and she will appear as one of two student singers cast in the lead role of Violetta on July 15 and 18.

“This is one of my dream roles,” the twenty-four-yearold says. “I grew up listening to the best recordings, including [Maria] Callas and others. Many singers have put their stamp on this character, but there is no truly defini-

ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE HOURS

tive interpretation—and I hope I can make it my own by performed in Roméo et Juliette in 2015. Like Dugan, he is focusing on Violetta as this flawed, strong, spectacularly thrilled with the opportunity to portray such an iconic role in La traviata. real woman.”

“Alfredo is incredibly passionThis summer marks Dugan’s first “I think it’s really ate, and he’s easy to love because time studying with the AOC, and he loves so hard,” McKissick says. she feels strongly that the program wonderful that Aspen “He’s impulsive, but he’s someone will provide an invaluable stepping finds a way to cover all who is realizing the full spectrum stone to the next chapter in her caof emotions one can feel, and he reer. the bases for one’s artistic really digs into both sides of the “I think it’s really wonderful that spectrum.”

Aspen finds a way to cover all the development. It’s perfect The AOC’s La traviata opens bases for one’s artistic developfor young, up-and-coming this Saturday, July 15, at the ment,” she says. “It’s perfect for Wheeler Opera House, with adyoung, up-and-coming singers in singers in that way.” ditional performances on July 17 that way.” and 18. Also on July 17: The AMFS’s Twenty-five-year-old tenor AlAnna Dugan annual black-tie Opera Benefit, exander McKissick, who comes Aspen Opera Center singer, Violetta in La traviata featuring a pre-show dinner at the to the AOC this season having just Caribou Club. For additional inforearned his master’s degree from Juilliard, will play Violetta’s lover, Alfredo, on July 17. This mation on AMFS Benefits, contact Jenny McDonough at will be his second summer studying in Aspen, having last 970-205-5063.

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

Wheeler Opera House: 9 am–5 pm daily.

Hung-Kuan Chen performs recital this week

recital program

CHRISTINA THOMSEN

Festival Focus Writer

The decision to pursue a career in music, with all its competitive challenges, is not always an easy one to make. But for Aspen Music Festival and School artistfaculty member and pianist Hung-Kuan Chen, that decision was cemented when he was sixteen years old.

“I had what one could call a sort of revelation one day,” he says. “I had a transcendental experience while practicing and making music that enticed me and made me realize this is really something that I want to explore further. So I kept going. It wasn’t necessarily something that I knew would happen, but I’m glad I chose the work. I’m glad I chose this profession.”

This summer marks Chen’s third season with the AMFS, but he began his career rise three decades ago, when he won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists’ Auditions, and continued to soar as he earned top prizes in international competitions and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Today, he teaches at The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music and has collaborated with many major orchestras and world-renowned soloists.

Chen cites the quality of students, wonderful location, number of concerts, and experience of the organization as the reasons why he enjoys his relatively recent appointment with the AMFS. “Overall, it’s a really inspiring setting—the nature, the art,” he says. “It’s a wonderful, beautiful place.”

On July 12 in Harris Concert Hall, Chen will teach a master class to piano students that is open to the public. This allows the public to witness the teacher-student relationship and the process of learning a piece of music.

“Hopefully, the audience will walk away with something, perhaps new ideas or new understandings,” Chen says. For the students, “they have an opportunity to perform in front of an audience, as well as to show their intelligence and artistry,” he says. “I will feel accomplished if I can bring about something that makes one think and makes one explore.”

CHANG: Dynamic

Continued from Festival Focus page 1

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AMFS artist-faculty member Hung-Kuan Chen will lead a master class at 10 am on July 12 and perform in recital at 8 pm on July 15. Both events are at Harris Concert Hall.

Chen will then perform a recital in Harris Concert Hall on July 15, featuring a thoughtfully curated program of piano sonatas by Schubert, Skryabin, and Rachmaninoff, plus a pair of Mozart works.

“It is a very intense program, a mix of well-known works and lesser-known works,” he says.

The lesser-known pieces include Mozart’s rarely performed Suite in C major and his Gigue in G major; Chen is eager to perform both because he suspects that even fellow musicians in the audience may not have previously heard these works.

“It’s an introduction both to the general audience as well as to my colleagues, so it’s going to be interesting,” he says.

Of the more well-known pieces on the program, such as Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata, Chen says, “It’s always a challenge to perform it and bring about a fresh air to it, to create a new understanding or a new way of looking at it.”

“In Aspen, some who attend the concerts will come up to me and say, ‘Wow, I saw your very first performance years ago,’ and they’ll even remember the outfit I was wearing,” Chang says. “They have been with me as I’ve grown up, from childhood through those sticky teenage years, and still now. Every time I step onstage, I see a whole wave of friendly faces, and I feel so much gratitude.”

Chang’s first performance of the summer is with the Aspen Chamber Symphony and conductor Patrick Summers on a dazzling program of works by Stephen Hartke, Vitali, Ravel, Wagner, and Prokofiev on July 14.

“The Ravel piece, Tzigane, is especially wonderful, performed with a very full orchestra,” she says. “And I just love this kind of experience, having the opportunity to work with not only faculty and staff but students, because I was a student there not so long ago. It creates a really special mix of experience and youth, all together on one stage.”

For her second appearance of the summer on July 19, a Special Event recital that has already sold out, Chang will play Vivaldi’s treasured masterwork, The Four Seasons. Although she considers Vivaldi’s masterpiece a favorite of hers today, Chang says she wasn’t always so keen on performing it.

“I think because of its vast popularity, I shied away from playing and recording it for a long time, even though everyone wanted me to,” Chang says. “In my twenties I finally agreed, and now—after performing it countless times since then—I have just fallen in love with the piece.”

As she city-hops across the country during summer concert season, Chang is especially looking forward to her time in Aspen.

“I am thrilled because coming to Aspen means embedding myself in a truly amazing musical community,” she says. “It’s an incredibly tight-knit group, a mesh of students, donors, professionals, and faculty. It’s something you just can’t duplicate anywhere else, and that’s what I love about it.”