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MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
Supplement to The Aspen Times
Four world-class soloists join forces for adventurous recital JESSICA CABE Festival Focus Writer
join Currie. “This is Shostakovich’s most enigmatic and
On Thursday, July 25, four Aspen favorites will come
haunting work, in which he looks back on his
together on one intimate stage for an unusual program
own life, but also many other composers’
exploring transformations and transfiguration. Violinist
works,” Barnatan says. In the piece, Shosta-
Philippe Quint, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianist Inon Barna-
kovich quotes his own music, as well as that
tan, and percussionist Colin Currie will perform works by
of Rossini, Wagner, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and
Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Rolf Wallin at 8 pm in Harris
more. “A good transcription doesn’t just
Concert Hall.
place the music on a different instrument, but
“It’s really an unusual program, and they’re all four among the greatest virtuosos on their individual instruments,”
it finds the essence of the music, and that’s what this transcription does.”
says Alan Fletcher, president and CEO of the Aspen Music
Barnatan said the four musicians came to-
Festival and School (AMFS). “I think it’s going to be a really
gether over a mutual respect and admiration
wonderful combination.”
for one another.
The program begins with Beethoven’s “Ghost” Piano
“Alisa and I have been playing together for
Trio, a piece completed while the composer was working
many years,” he says. “This project started
on an opera based on Macbeth, followed by Rolf Wallin’s
with us wanting to do a trio program. Then
Realismos Mágicos. This work for solo marimba is inspired
the idea of doing this Shostakovich arrange-
by the poetic titles of eleven short stories by Gabriel Gar-
ment came up—Alisa was the one who knew about it, and
cia Marquez.
she suggested it. I then suggested doing a program around
the best qualities that one could want from a festival—the
transformations and transfigurations.”
incredible music making, the energy that comes from the
The second half of the program is a transcription of
Percussionist Colin Currie joins Philippe Quint violin, Inon Barnatan piano, and Alisa Weilerstein cello for a recital in Harris Concert Hall on July 25.
“Aspen is magical,” Barnatan says. “It’s a combination of
Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony, written for violin, cello, pi-
They have toured Europe and the United States with this
young musicians, and, of course, this magical and bewitch-
ano, and three percussionists. On this piece, AMFS artist-
concept, and Barnatan says they are all excited to return to
ing place that it’s all in. It’s this combination that is very dif-
faculty members Jonathan Haas and Douglas Howard will
take the Aspen audience on this journey.
ficult to beat.”
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