Supplement to The Aspen Times
FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019 3
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.”
