Bach’s Mass in B Minor Promises ‘A Spiritual Experience’
By David Hoyt
In the seventy-five year history of the Aspen Music Festival and School, countless works of classical music have rung out into the clear summer air of the Roaring Fork Valley, including plenty of pieces by J. S. Bach. After all, the very first season of the fledgling Festival in 1949 was intended as a celebration of the German art and culture exemplified by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, reclaiming a legacy that had been hijacked by the Third Reich, and the great Bach enthusiast Albert Schweitzer was on hand as keynote speaker.
And yet, when Bach’s Mass in B minor is performed at 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 8, in Harris Concert Hall, it will be the first time this exquisite work joins the pantheon of music that has been carefully constructed in Aspen over the past three quarters of a century.
AMFS Music Director Robert Spano will lead an orchestra of Aspen artist-faculty
and students in collaboration with the professional choir Seraphic Fire, directed by Patrick Dupre Quigley.
A relatively small instrumental ensemble and a chorus of fewer than two dozen voices, performing in the acoustically excellent Harris Concert Hall, means audience members will feel fully immersed in an intimate musical experience.
Part of the reason for the Mass in B minor’s relative obscurity stems from its history; it was composed in stages throughout Bach’s life, only coming together as a cohesive whole shortly before his death in 1750. For more than a century after that, the score was unpublished, and the first documented complete performance was not until 1859. The Mass is also, well, massive in scale, clocking in around two hours—something Quigley encourages audiences to not be intimidated by.
right now.’ It is an energizing piece of music for every person who participates in it.”
Much of the brilliance of the Mass in B minor stems from Bach’s carefully constructed musical structure and symmetry— which has been compared to the architecture of a great cathedral or palace—and especially his mastery of counterpoint, in which multiple disparate musical lines occur simultaneously and yet do not clash.
“There are no moments in the B-minor Mass where one is ever bored . . . . It is an energizing piece of music for every person who participates in it.”
Patrick Dupre Quigley Artistic Director, Seraphic Fire
“Counterpoint is really where we see the greatest moments of Bach,” Quigley says. “The way that Bach uses counterpoint makes it feel more like the voices of angels rather than something that is in any way esoteric or studied. The final movement of the work, the Dona nobis pacem, is a piece that starts with a single unison line in the bass and then adds voice [to] voice until it’s sort of this primordial cry at the end.”
“It is a longer piece of music, but there are no moments in the B-minor Mass where one is ever bored,” Quigley said. “It is to the Baroque period what Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is to the Classical period. It is the piece where you finish performing it and you say, ‘let’s just do it again
Maestro Spano, reflecting on this AMFS season’s theme of Becoming Who You Are, noted that “since celebrating our 75th anniversary has to do with looking backward as well as looking forward, not only does it seem right to do a large work of
See Bach, Festival Focus page 3
AUGUST 12, 15, 17*
Laughter and love combine in Mozart’s brilliant and beloved comic opera. Directed by
* Join us at intermission on August 17 for a special dessert reception.
Giving Voice to Untold Legacies of Powerful Black Women
BY SAMANTHA JOHNSTON
Soprano Karen Slack’s brilliant curation of works by acclaimed Black American composers celebrating the legacy of seven African queens is the impetus behind her upcoming Aspen program on Wednesday, August 7 at 7:30 pm in Harris Concert Hall.
Inspiration for the African Queens recital with pianist Kevin Miller was born of Slack’s frustration and anger about so many of the stories being told about women through the lens of how their lives were shaped and impacted by the decisions of men.
“I don’t necessarily like all the stories that get green lit in this industry, and I was in a place to present seven wonderful, complex, interesting women who did transfor-
mative things,” Slack says. “We don’t have to do another opera about Cleopatra or Black trauma or narrative where women are victimized. If we are in the business of storytelling, we should tell all the stories.”
In a desire to give adequate voice and clarity to the traditionally ignored stories of powerful Black women, Slack incorporates original lyrics and po -
etry throughout the performance, serving as the connective tissue between story and song.
Slack, who grew up in the northern part of Philadelphia, credits her introduction to classical music and her ultimate path to opera to a time when arts programming existed in most major city classrooms. It was at Baldi Middle School that a teacher noticed her gift of voice and encouraged her to seriously consider singing. Slack describes her voice back then as “loud and unruly,” but special.
“Back in the ’80s, arts in the schools was not a rare thing like it is now,” Slack said. “When I grew up, music was always play-
AMFS Music Director Robert Spano will conduct Bach’s Mass in B minor on August 8 in Harris Concert Hall—the first time the work has ever been performed at the Music Festival.
DIEGO REDEL
Soprano Karen Slack presents African Queens, a curation of works by acclaimed Black composers, on August 7 in Harris Concert Hall.
Sara Erde and conducted by Matthew Aucoin.
Bronfman Embodies Spirit of Beethoven
BY JESSICA MOORE
Internationally renowned pianist Yefim Bronfman, lovingly called “Fima” for short by friends and colleagues, is no stranger to Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) stages and audiences. On Friday, August 9 he will join the Aspen Chamber Symphony under the baton of another familiar face, conductor David Robertson, to play Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in G major.
“If there were ever a pianist to hear perform any work by Beethoven, it would be Bronfman,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. “Bronfman is one of those people that, when you hear him play, you don’t hear Fima, you just hear the spirit of Beethoven.”
Having recently performed this same piano concerto with Bronfman with great success, Robertson says he will never turn down an opportunity to work with the beloved pianist. The two have developed a multi-decade friendship, and Robertson says Bronfman’s “degree of focus, commitment, and seriousness is one that I hold as the high watermark, something we all aspire to.”
That’s not to say that it’s all work and no play. According to Robertson, Bronfman “has a very well-developed sense of humor” and the two often find themselves joking around backstage, but “when he’s at the keyboard and I’m on the podium, it’s intensely focused.”
Robertson himself is someone that, “brings the right balance of an analytical sort of intelligence, but also emotion and passion to his work,” says Chamberlain. Known for his thought-provoking programs, the lauded conductor had
“the brilliant idea of ending with the concerto and then doing work that showcases the different sections of the orchestra, both by really important 20th-century composers,” explains Chamberlain.
The instrumentation of the second movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto calls for only strings and piano. From that starting point, Robertson continued
down the path of splitting up the orchestra. Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments features only woodwinds and brass, yet “really shows where colors come from in an orchestra,” he explains. Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, is grounded in the simplicity of folk music, yet is “tremendously fun, incredibly virtuosic, and sort of the perfect music for David,” says Chamberlain.
When combined with the piano concerto, Robertson says “all three of these pieces are contrasted in such a way that everyone can connect with something that is probably a discovery for them.”
That sense of discovery is something that Robertson seeks to nurture and bring out of the student musicians who make up the Chamber Symphony, explaining that “where the actual work takes place is less about proficiency, I think, than about the notion of understanding what this music requires.”
A regular at the AMFS since 1994 and this year the father of a current student at the Festival, Robertson says “the wonderful thing about the Aspen model is that you do have the professionals giving guidance and, to some extent, a notion of what the level should be, so that if you’re playing second to a world-renowned wind player or you are sitting close to one of the country’s finest string players, your sense of what it is that you should be providing is already very high.”
As an in-demand conductor performing around the world, Robertson has a front-row seat to many full-circle moments with AMFS connections. Recently he says he performed with violinist Ray Chen who, after the performance, “came up to me and said, ‘you know, it was my dream when you conducted me in Aspen as a section violinist to somehow, someday be able to play a concerto with you and here I am!’”
This Friday’s performance offers a new opportunity to forge connections between today’s young generation of musicians and established artists such as Bronfman and Robertson through musical discovery!
ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT! HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE TENT YET?
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
Yefim Bronfman, known as one of the titans of the piano, returns to Aspen for an August 9 performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.
BLAKE NELSON
A Viola Evening and Two Young Stars in Recital
BY EMMA KIRBY
This week at the Aspen Music Festival and School showcases the return of three artists who never fail to delight: acclaimed violist Lawrence Power on Saturday, August 10 and a duo recital of Romantic favorites on piano and cello by Tony Siqi Yun and Zlatomir Fung on Tuesday, August 13. Curious what a solo viola sounds like? You’re not alone. Violas are “the redheaded stepchildren of instruments,” jokes AMFS Vice President of Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain, acknowledging that the viola is often overshadowed by the cello and violin, particularly as a solo instrument. Although the viola typically takes on a supportive role, its unique timbre and impressive, wideranging tone make for a compelling argument that the viola is just as exciting as its close string relatives.
Take, for example, the first piece on Power’s program: Garth Knox’s Quartet for One, in which the viola takes on all four parts of a string quartet by itself. Across four movements, Power will put on an impressive display of musical gymnastics, transforming into a cello in the low register, violin in the upper, and back to viola at a moment’s notice.
And if you think you’re ready for more viola—what about a stage-full? The second half of the concert features a work by Schubert arranged for a quintet of strings, plus eight violas standing in for a chorus. Those who are fond of the classical standards will be pleased by the inclusion of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K. 364, for which Power is joined by the 2022 Dorothy DeLay Winner, violinist Yu-Ping Tsai. Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto, co-commissioned by the AMFS especially for Power, rounds out this evening celebrating the viola.
“There’s a whole lot to love in this concert. You can see all the different sides of what the viola can do, and all through the lens of Lawrence’s tremendous artistry,” says Chamberlain. “It was time for the violists to get some love.”
A few days later, two “total hot shots” on their respective instruments will take to the Harris Hall stage. Although pianist Tony Siqi Yun is just 23 and just a year removed from his debut at the AMFS, he has already begun to earn his place as a fixture at the Festival and is collecting accolades across the classical music world, including a debut at Carnegie Hall this year that Chamberlain called a “total sensation.”
He is joined by Zlatomir Fung, who is taking the cello world by storm. The AMFS alumnus is the youngest-ever first prize winner at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition (which he won at age 19) and has already been appointed as faculty at The Juilliard School just a few years after being a student himself. The two perform a delightful evening of classics, including works by Liszt, Britten, and Rachmaninoff’s beloved Cello Sonata in G minor, Opus 19.
“Hear them now. Hear them here first,” says Chamberlain—they’re already well on their way to international renown like countless other greats who got their start in Aspen.
Now–August 18: Daily, 12–4 PM MT, or concert time, or intermission, if applicable.
Slack: Exploring Unsung Voices
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ing in my house, but it wasn’t classical music. I also didn’t grow up in the church like a lot of African-American singers come up. I never developed that chesty gospel sound. I have a high, pure voice, but it was evident that I had a gift.”
It was that gift eventually led Slack to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music. A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, she is the Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and Astral Artists, and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. She has also been named the Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago for the 2024-2025 season as well as the Artist-in-Residence at Babson College. “Karen is a tremendous soprano, amazing singer, thinker, activist, and artist,” says AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration Patrick Chamberlain. “African Queens is an only-in-Aspen event. It’s a chance to experience
“My biggest hope is that people immediately run to Google; that something about a story or a song made them want to do more research.”
Karen Slack Soprano
the freshness and newness of an artist and all these new pieces by a real who’s who of great composers.”
While Slack recognizes that her audiences for African Queens may not know many of the composers or featured queens, it’s the journey of discovery that matters most to her. It’s not about everyone loving her work or thinking that it’s amazing. It’s about planting a seed.
“My biggest hope is that people immediately run to Google; that something about a story or a song made them want to do more research,” Slack says. “I hope that people who don’t know these composers go on to learn more about them and to support them.”
Slack is clear: this is not a history lesson. It’s an invitation to learn and grow and explore stories, music, and composers that may not be familiar.
“I want people to understand that this is just a seed being planted. It is how we water, and support, and love on that seed that is the most important; that makes it really grow and become something bigger.”
Bach: An
Intimate Musical Experience
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Bach with a nod to Aspen’s history, but even to the larger fact of Bach being at the root of the whole Western musical tradition.”
“If you haven’t seen the B-minor Mass, it is a spiritual experience,” says Quigley. “It’s like spending five days at a yoga retreat. If you like music, you have to go and do this once in your life. Even if you just go to watch the investment of the musicians, for the show, to see the teamwork that is going on the stage, it’s really just a remarkable thing to watch.”
Violist Lawrence Power presents a recital in Harris Concert Hall on Saturday, August 10.
Pianist Tony Siqi Yun and cellist Zlatomir Fung (an AMFS alumnus) return to Aspen for a recital on Tuesday, August 13.
Vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire will join AMFS Music Director Robert Spano and AMFS students for the Aspen Music Festival’s first performance ever of Bach’s Mass in B minor.
ELLE LOGAN
Soprano Karen Slack performs August 7 with pianist Kevin Miller.