Festival Focus August 5, 2019

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also this week: A Recital by Augustin Hadelich and Orion Weiss Wednesday, August 7, at 8:30 pm in Harris Concert Hall Augustin Hadelich violin and Orion Weiss piano bring their musical brilliance to a recital that includes works by Beethoven, Debussy, Brahms, and John Adams.

Season Benefit: An American Feast of Music Tonight at 6 pm on the Bucksbaum Campus Exceptional performances spotlight AMFS alumni and guest artists during an evening that includes a multi-course dinner and wine pairings. All proceeds benefit the AMFS.

The Percussion Collective (left) performs Christopher Theofanidis’s (right) Drum Circles with the Aspen Festival Orchestra on August 11 at 4 pm in the Benedict Music Tent.

Percussion Collective, Theofanidis’s Drum Circles JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Classical music audiences have grown accustomed to the image of a concerto being an orchestra led by conductor and soloist on a melodic instrument, like a violin or piano. But Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) audiences on Sunday will experience a rare treat: a concerto featuring a group of percussionists front and center.

The Aspen Festival Orchestra (AFO) and Percussion Collective

will perform Christopher Theofanidis’s Drum Circles at 4 pm on Sunday, August 11, in the Benedict Music Tent. The Percussion Collective is a project of Robert van Sice, who has assembled a collection of young artists reinventing the concert experience with their engaging performances.

Also on the program is Gershwin’s Cuban Overture; Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto, performed by “pristine, lyrical, and intelligent” (The New York Times) pianist Jan

Lisiecki; and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite. The program is conducted by Michael Stern.

“Chris Theofanidis is a member of our faculty and a leader in our composition program,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

“A hallmark of his music is that it’s hugely fun to play. Chris is always thinking about the performers and about giving them something really wonderful to do. This piece is going to be a great illustration of that; it’s just really fun.”

Drum Circles consists of five movements, performed by a percussion quartet and orchestra.

While the work obviously relies heavily upon percussion instruments, that does not mean melody and lyricism are sacrificed. The first movement, Rivers and Anthems, is mostly pitch instrumentoriented, featuring chimes, crotales—small antique cymbals—and vibraphones. But all of the exciteSee AFO Festival Focus page 3

Dinnerstein recital examines ‘repetition and obsession’ JESSICA CABE

Festival Focus Writer

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs a recital in Harris Concert Hall at 8 pm on August 8.

In an era of instant replays, looping social media tools, retweeting, and other machineassisted repetition, pianist Simone Dinnerstein is using her recital program at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) to examine what repetition and obsession sounds like coming from a live musician.

Dinnerstein will perform a program of Couperin, Schumann, Philip Glass, and Satie at 8 pm on Thursday, August 8, in Harris Concert Hall.

“The central idea of the program is the concept of obsessive thinking, circular thinking,” Dinnerstein says. “I found pieces of music that

explored always returning to the same idea.”

The program begins with Couperin’s Les Barricades Mystérieuses from Second livre de pièces de clavecin, a piece that is written in rondo form. The music is constructed in different sections that alternate with each other and keep returning. The circular music also features rhythms that feel somehow not quite right, as if the pianist is dropping a beat, creating urgency in the sound.

Dinnerstein says she crafted this program because of her own personal experience with repetition and obsession as a musician and mother. Being a musician means playing the same passage, the same piece, over and over again. And she has watched her children

read the same book or watch the same movie for nights on end.

“Repetition and circular thinking is a way we have of processing things,” she says. “You think of one thing, then that leads you to thinking of another thing, and suddenly you’re back to where you started. What I like about exploring this in a live concert is there’s nothing automated about it. Each time I play this program, it feels different. It feels like something that’s very relevant to most people.”

Dinnerstein is known for crafting thoughtful, thematic programs, which may come from growing up in a family of artists.

See Dinnerstein, Festival Focus page 3

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Midori plays Schumann’s Violin Concerto; reunion with mentors AMY OLDENBURG

Festival Focus Writer

Acclaimed violinist Midori will return to Aspen Friday, August 9 to play Schumann’s Violin Concerto with the Aspen Chamber Symphony at 6 pm in the Benedict Music Tent.

The concert also features conductor Erik Nielsen as well as two of his past teachers, Elaine Douvas and Nancy Allen.

Midori isn’t new to Aspen; she first came as a student when she was eight years old. After her first summer in Aspen, she went on to study at The Juilliard Pre-College program and soon began performing in concert halls all over the world. For most of her life, Midori has been a remarkable international performer, a devoted teacher, and an innovative activist for music education across the globe. With a busy schedule, Midori has nonetheless prioritized a summer stop at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) for several years now.

Midori will be dazzling the crowd with Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor. This was one of Schumann’s last significant works that follows a traditional three movement quickslow-quick theme. Written for prominent violinist Joseph Joachim in 1853, the piece was hidden for nearly one hundred years as Joachim and Schumann’s wife Clara believed the composer was descending into madness. The melancholic melodies and brooding rhythms culminate in a hypnotizing polonaise while the transcendent second movement is as charming as it is heartbreaking. The work is an achingly beautiful testament to the human spirit and Schumann’s struggle with his declining mental state. The Violin Concerto

didn’t appear again until 1937 when Georg Kulenkampff premiered it with the Berlin Philharmonic.

With the Violin Concerto’s mysterious history, Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor, notes “since Midori is championing it, I think she has found the secret to the work, to convey and communicate its message.”

Midori will be conducted by Erik Nielsen, a fellow AMFS alumni, though far more recent. Standing out as an alumnus, “Erik has the extremely rare distinction of having studied in Aspen in three disciplines: as an oboist, harpist, and conductor,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. Nielsen became chief conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in 2015 and has also served as music director of Theatre Basel.

Nielsen will be returning to Aspen to conduct his two former Festival and Juilliard teachers, oboist Elaine Douvas and harpist Nancy Allen in Martin’s Three Dances for Oboe, Harp, and Strings. Both Douvas and Allen feel great pride in this opportunity. “By playing with our former students, it shows the lineage that we share being a part of this Festival. We get to develop relationships with students at a young age, follow their careers, and then, in this case, perform with them. Our actual job in Aspen is to watch students’ careers grow,” says Allen.

When first meeting Nielsen shortly after he graduated high school, Douvas and Allen both saw his enormous potential.

At the beginning of his musical career, Nielsen focused all his time on the oboe, but he knew that one day he would

become a conductor. “Once I got to know Erik, he became my own inspiration,” says Douvas. “I feel lucky that I got to pick him up as a coach because many teachers at other conservatories didn’t want to teach somebody whose final plan wasn’t to be an oboe performer. But since I saw his potential, I called Juilliard’s admissions director and told him ‘I know this guy and we have to take him in,’” she says.

The three will celebrate their “reunion” with Martin’s piece.

Martin based this work on flamenco dancing, so the audience will be delighted with exotic, catchy, and dance-like rhythms. “Even though this has been the hardest piece I’ve ever worked on, I never get tired of it,” says Douvas.

Nielsen will also be conducting the Aspen Chamber Symphony in the concert’s final piece, Mozart’s sparkling Symphony No. 39.

Violinist Midori performs Schumann’s mysterious Violin Concerto on August 9 at 4 pm in the Benedict Music Tent.

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AFO: concerto for multiple instruments, idea of dialogue Continued from Festival Focus page 1

ment of instruments that you strike is also on an enormous amount of gear didn’t make ful and expressive. In reality, there is a nice display in this piece. The fourth movement, sense either artistically or economically and mix of fun instruments, including things like Spirits and Drums, heavily involves the or- would have probably limited the opportuni- an amplified typewriter, wooden slats, and chestra percussionists in “a kind of terrifying ties for the work to get done,” Theofanidis spring coils, among the more traditional arsonic landscape reminiscent ray of instruments. Plenty of of taiko drumming,” Theofanibells and whistles, so to speak.”

“Watching great percussionists play is kind dis says.

Theofanidis says the chalDrum Circles was commisof writing a concerto of like watching great dancers—everything is lenges sioned by a consortium includfor percussion quartet versus ing the AMFS, Baltimore Symin the body, and it all has to be so beautifully a more traditional solo instruphony, Colorado Symphony, ment are also what ends up choreographed to make it work.” and Oregon Symphony. Theomaking the work so fun for aufanidis worked closely with the diences to witness.

Christopher Theofanidis Percussion Collective in craft“One of the things that a Composer ing the piece. In addition to his composer worries about in dousual attention to musicality, ing any concerto for multiple he also focused on making the work as por- says. “I tend to think that whatever the in- instruments is the problem of how to mainstruments, the challenge is still the same: tain focus on several soloists and to keep table as possible.

“To have four players on the road with create something interesting and wonder- the interest over a larger time frame in doing

ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL BOX OFFICE HOURS

so,” he says. “Having many players potentially seriously decentralizes that focus. I kept coming back to the idea of dialogue and delight in terms of the approach. There are wonderful spatial possibilities with the four percussionists and three orchestral percussionists, and that figured prominently into the concept of the work, and hence the title.

“Watching great percussionists play is kind of like watching great dancers—everything is in the body, and it all has to be so beautifully choreographed to make it work,” he continues. “The players each have ‘stations’ and are moving around from time to time to their various set-ups. There are also just so many different kinds of instruments and ways of playing to observe. I think it is ultimately a visceral experience to watch them, but with surprising moments of balletic grace.”

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.

Sharon Isbin recital for guitar and voice DINNERSTEIN: journey though time, ideas JACOB WARREN

Festival Focus Writer

Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin has been hailed for her versatility, technique, and lyricism. Having performed in Aspen every summer since 1993, Isbin is back to perform a program of nearly all Spanish works for voice and guitar.

Founder of The Juilliard School’s innovative guitar program—now in its thirtieth year, with an advanced doctoral program beginning in the fall—Sharon Isbin and creatively inspired soprano Jessica Rivera perform in the intimate acoustics of Harris Concert Hall.

Isbin’s recital on August 10 includes Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland and Richard Danielpour’s Of Love and Longing, with the second half featuring works by mostly Spanish composers, including Montsalvatge and Falla, as well as Rodrigo’s beloved Aranjuez, ma pensée.

Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland is widely Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin presents a recital with soprano regarded as one of the most influential works in the Jessica Rivera on August 10 at 8 pm in Harris Concert Hall. classical guitar repertoire. “It was written for Julian Bream, and it is the only solo work that Britten may have influenced his orchestration.” Rodrigo’s wife ever wrote for guitar,” says Isbin. The work consists of eventually recovered, and she even wrote the lyrics for nine movements, each one progressively transform- this piece. In the end, the melody reflecting Rodrigo’s ing closer to the work’s thematic inspiration, Renais- suffering ultimately led to a piece of celebration. Rosance composer John Dowland’s song, “Come, Heavy drigo’s daughter personally gave Isbin the score and Sleep.” Isbin describes the melodic progression as im- asked that she be the first to record it. “I had the honor agery of death and sleep, saying that “Britten takes us and pleasure of meeting them at their home in Madrid to a whole other plateau, where he explores in each of in 1979 and that was the beginning of a twenty-year the many variations different states of sleep.” friendship,” she says. The melody is low for a soprano, Performing with Isbin for the first time, Jessica Rivera and Isbin will be joined by Brinton Smith on cello. has been praised for her “effortless precision and tonal The recital also features Richard Danielpour’s Of luster,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. “The fact that Love and Longing, originally written for Isbin and Isabel she is a native Spanish speaker is perfect for the mu- Leonard for their sold-out recital at Carnegie Hall. The sic,” says Isbin. “She sounds absolutely glorious.” cycle of three songs, set to text by prolific thirteenthRodrigo’s Aranjuez, ma pensée is a condensed ver- century poet Rumi, revolves around three main ideas sion of the slow movement from his concerto for gui- of love, birth, and death. Isbin says, “This is Richard’s tar and orchestra. When Rodrigo was in the process of first work for the guitar, and he likens our collaboration writing his concerto in 1939, his wife became very ill. Is- as me teaching him how to write for the guitar.” Isbin’s bin explains, “To console himself, every night after vis- upcoming CD, due out in a couple of weeks, is proiting her in the hospital, Rodrigo would sit at the piano duced with frequent collaborator and Aspen favorite, and play that beautiful aria from the concerto, and it Pacifica Quartet.

Continued from Festival Focus page 1 “Her father is a famous painter,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor. “So nothing she does is done frivolously. Her curation of her program is just not wasted on anything. It’s brilliant. But this is not an intellectual exercise; it’s a journey she takes her audience on, and her choices of pieces always render an ‘aha’ moment for any listener at the end.”

Dinnerstein will then play directly into Schumann’s Arabesque in C major, another piece that features a roughly rondo form, before segueing into Philip Glass’s Mad Rush.

“Glass really takes repetition of sections to almost an extreme place,” Dinnerstein says. “What I like about it is it’s the idea of returning to something you’ve said before, but each time you return to it, as a human being, it is never exactly the same. There are so many opportunities to come back and try to see it in a different light.”

Rounding out the first half of the program is Couperin’s Le tic-tocchoc, ou Les maillotins from Troisiéme livre de piéces de clavecin 18 ordre. The work sounds similar to Glass rhythmically, Dinnerstein says.

“It almost sounds like a machine or mechanical instrument that, in my opinion, is almost philosophical,” she says.

“It feels like the turning of the earth.”

Something exciting about her program is that the works are not in chronological order, and they are played without pause. This creates a sense that the journey she’s taking audiences on is not based in time.

It starts to feel like Glass influenced Couperin rather than the other way around.

The second half of Dinnerstein’s program begins with Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, a shorter piece that consists of one phrase that keeps returning. The work has no meter, and “it’s almost like a run-on sentence,” Dinnerstein says.

The evening will conclude with Schumann’s Kreisleriana, op. 16, a work that is quintessentially Schumann in its obsessiveness, and that plays off the repetition of the Satie.

“There’s something about that obsessive working through an idea that both pieces have in common,” Dinnerstein says. “It plays with the idea of playing something, leaving it, and returning to it again.”