YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
FESTIVAL FOCUS Supplement to The Aspen Times
Monday, July 16, 2012
Vol 23, No. 5
AFO Plays Copland No. 3, McDuffie Plays Schuman AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor. “Copland liked open intervals, and he liked certain Aaron Copland, sometimes called “the dean of Ameri- types of sequences that give it that Americana sound.” can composers,” wrote many musical works that are said Copland also brought American folk music into the to capture the beauty and spirit of early America, the sim- concert hall, sometimes quoting recognizable tunes of old plicity of an era gone by. and other times inventing them, “as any good composer The Aspen Festival Orchestra will perform the music of will do,” Santourian says. Copland at 4 pm Sunday, July 22, in the Benedict Music The works of the July 22 program were all written durTent, to celebrate the theme ing the 1940s. At the same of the Aspen Music Festival time that Copland was writand School (AMFS) 2012 ing a combination of symseason: “Made in America.” phonies, operas, ballets, and The concert will include film music, Schuman was at a performance of William work trying to write the Great Schuman’s Violin Concerto American Symphony with an by Robert McDuffie, the inentirely different approach. ternationally famous violinist, “Composers were conand Hugh Wolff will conduct. vinced they needed to be The program will open extremely serious in this era with Copland’s much-loved of American music,” Fletcher Alan Fletcher Fanfare for the Common Man says. “Copland was already AMFS President and CEO and end with his Symphony well-established before WilNo. 3, which directly quotes liam Schuman and had an the Fanfare, composed four established interest in the years earlier. AMFS music director Robert Spano says the theater. He was not disturbed by those boundaries and Fanfare “finds its full expression in the Third Symphony.” did not think he had to be restricted to concert music.” Decades after their composition, pieces such as the Schuman’s music never achieved the popularity of CoSymphony No. 3 continue to call to mind a picture of pland’s, but his writing lives on, as well, in ambitious repAmerica’s landscape and spirit. ertoire such as the Violin Concerto. “Just as there was a quest for the Great American Novel, “It’s challenging for the orchestra; it’s challenging for there was a quest for the Great American Symphony, and I the soloist,” Santourian says. think, of Copland’s works, this is the most likely claimant,” Aspen alumnus McDuffie was nominated for a Grammy says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. Award in 1990 for his recording of the Schuman concerto. Fletcher describes the characteristic Copland sound as He has enjoyed worldwide success, performing as a solo“clean, angular, and sweet,” and unlike any of his Euro- ist with major orchestras and founding the Rome ChamALEX IRVIN / AMFS pean contemporaries. ber Music Festival. The Mayor of Rome recently presented The AFO concert this Sunday, July 22, will feature Robert “In technical speak, it is a choice of intervallic distances him with the prestigious Premio Simpatia award for fur- McDuffie performing W. Schuman’s Violin Concerto. Also and harmonic relationships,” says Asadour Santourian, thering the city’s cultural life. on the program are two works by Aaron Copland. GRACE LYDEN
Festival Focus writer
There was a quest for the Great American Symphony and ... of Copland’s works, this is the most likely claimant.
Ingrid Fliter to Perform Beethoven Sonatas Fliter will return to Aspen to perform a recital of Beethoven sonatas, including the famous “Tempest” When Argentinian pianist and 2006 Gilmore Prize- and “Appassionata” sonatas that she recorded on her winner Ingrid Fliter first came to the Aspen Music Fes- latest album, at 8 pm on Saturday, July 21, in Harris tival and School (AMFS), it was Concert Hall. both her first trip to North AmerFor Fliter, playing Beethoven’s ica and her eighteenth birthday sonatas is an emotional experipresent. Her parents wanted her ence. to experience something unique, “They are a journey into huand she says she will never forman life, because Beethoven get it. wrote for the people and think“It was amazing from every ing about the people, about the point of view,” Fliter says. humanity that is inside all of us,” Fliter had only ever studied Fliter says. with her private teacher and fo“When you play a Beethoven cused on her individual practicsonata, you call on your own exing, so the Festival was a breath perience in life.” Ingrid Fliter of fresh, Aspen air. Today, the sonatas offer a “It was an opportunity to open means of understanding how my horizons and open my ears to making music with Beethoven’s music evolved throughout his life, accordother musicians, and listening to so many concerts al- ing to Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for arPHOTO BY GARY HOULDER ways helps to open your appreciation and understandIngrid Fliter will perform Beethoven’s “Tempest” and “Appassionata” sonatas on Saturday, July 21, in Harris Concert Hall. ing of your own self, as well,” she says. See FLITER Festival Focus page 3 GRACE LYDEN
Festival Focus writer
Beethoven wrote for the people and thinking about the people, about the humanity that is inside all of us.
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FESTIVAL FOCUS: Your Weekly Classical Music Guide
Page 2 | Monday, July 16, 2012
Supplement to The Aspen Times
Ukrainian Piano Student Was Homeless Before AMFS after that initial concert in September 2006. They got in touch with Bukhartseva later that year, telling her Dasha Bukhartseva, nineteen, was living in a one- they wanted to make the AMFS a reality for her. When room hostel with her mother in Odessa, Ukraine, when Dan Levinson returned to the Ukraine in April 2007, Bukhartseva and her mother, an excellent chef, invited she played the concert that would change her life. She was already a well-known young pianist in the him over for their Easter meal. Levinson was so shocked Ukraine at the age of thirteen and had been asked by a by their living conditions, he bought them a house. “It was really like a fairy tale,” Bukhartseva says. “We travel agent to play a concert for visitors from around couldn’t believe something like that would ever happen the world. Two of the international audience members were Colorado residents Dan and Lynne Levinson, and to us. I don’t remember the exact feelings we had at that the couple came up to her after the performance to period of our life, but we just felt this stability and safety that we never had before.” ask if she had heard of the Bukhartseva attended the Aspen Music Festival and AMFS in the summers of School (AMFS). She had not 2007 and 2008 and studied and thought the cost of travel with artist-faculty member and attending would be out Ann Schein. She moved to of the question. Bukhartseva the United States after her dismissed the idea. second summer to study Bukhartseva and her at the Juilliard School Premother were struggling to get College Program and then the by. The hostel was a welcome Peabody Conservatory, where reprieve from the six months Dasha Bukhartseva she will be a senior in the fall. in 2002 when the pair was AMFS Piano Student, Aube Tzerko Memorial Scholarship Recipient She has received numerous homeless and living in a scholarships, but when the piano practice room at a local Juilliard School could not school. They had been in an apartment, but the owner sold it when they went away cover all her costs, the Levinsons went to work recruiting friends to sponsor the young pianist, again making her on vacation to someone who would pay more. The two of them had to hide every day of those six dreams reality. This is Bukhartseva’s first time back at the Festival months. Bukhartseva says she still doesn’t really know how to explain the fear she felt at that time, the feeling since 2008. She is a recipient of the Aube Tzerko Memorial Scholarship and is in Schein’s studio again. of not knowing what was going to happen to them. The Levinsons did not give up on Bukhartseva, though, Bukhartseva says that she developed a bond with GRACE LYDEN
Festival Focus writer
It was really like a fairy tale. We couldn’t believe something like that would ever happen to us.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DASHA BUKHARTSEVA
Schein, as she always does with her teachers in both the Ukraine and the United States. “With Ann Schein, it was more than a teacher; we were kind of like friends,” Bukhartseva says. “I was friends with all my piano teachers. They were like grandmothers to me. I could just call them, anytime, and talk about something not even musically related. They’re wonderful people, and I’m very happy and blessed to have them in my life.” See BUKHARTSEVA Festival Focus page 3
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Fliter: Sonatas Show Composer’s Growth Sonata No. 18, op. 31, no. 3, to the “Appassionata,” in which tistic administration and artistic advisor. Fliter hears “desperate passion that makes you think of the “The piano sonata is the most constant musical form cre- force of nature that was inside of him.” ated in his life,” Santourian says. “We have early, middle, late; Fliter says she aims to embody the great composer when she we have thirty-two of them, and each one performs his works. is a laboratory of his thinking at the time “I try to become part of the sonata, part for not only the piano sonata itself, but of his piece in itself,” Fliter says. “I try to other works he was writing, whether it was become as if I were discovering them in rhythm he was experimenting with or harthe moment, or as if I were telling a story monic language or dynamics.” and want to become the main character Fliter says the sonatas also show of the story, and I tell the people listening Beethoven’s multidimensional personality, they can be the main character, as well.” of which many are unaware. When Fliter was a student at the AMFS, Ingrid Fliter “We tend to think that Beethoven was she dreamt of coming back as a performer just unidirectional, maybe a bit dark, and but never thought it would happen. She somehow a tyrant, but he’s not,” she says. says it is an honor to do so. “He’s passionate; he’s always very tender; he has an incredible “I love to come back to Aspen,” Fliter says. “It’s a place where sense of humor; he was an incredible improviser.” I can enjoy nature, which is always very important for me, These different characters are especially apparent in Fliter’s personally. Even Beethoven used to love nature. I am sure he program choices, from the “Tempest,” to the light-hearted would have loved Aspen deeply.”
Continued from Festival Focus page 1
I am sure Beethoven would have loved Aspen deeply.
Monday, July 16, 2012 | Page 3
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Pianopalooza: An Evening with Anne-Marie McDermott and Inon Barnatan 6 pm Thursday, July 19 in the Benedict Music Tent Present for one-time use. No cash value.
Sixteen Flutes, Fletcher’s Songs on July 21 Bukhartseva: GRACE LYDEN
Festival Focus writer
The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) artistfaculty is composed of approximately 130 teachers from the world’s top conservatories, universities, and ensembles, who gather each summer to guide the Festival’s students in the craft of playing classical music. Many are also performers, and audiences can witness these colleagues collaborate in the AMFS’s semi-weekly Chamber Music concerts. Chamber Music concerts are usually Saturdays at 4:30 pm and Mondays at 6 pm, in Harris Concert Hall. Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice president for artistic administration and artistic advisor, says the works on the programs are almost entirely proposed by the artist-faculty and therefore offer the artist-faculty an outlet for creative expression. “Every fall, when we leave the Festival, Asadour The 2012 Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. The ACE is a group of announces the theme of the next season and leaves it up to students, directed by AMFS artist-faculty member Sydney Hodkinson, the individual faculty to recommend works they would like that is often featured in the Chamber Music series. The ensemble to perform the following summer,” says AMFS flutist and plays the music of our time, from around the world. longtime artist-faculty member Nadine Asin. “To me, that’s a wonderful creative opportunity to look at the repertoire The July 21 program will also include several song and really go crazy with a wish list. That’s one of the most settings of poems by William Butler Yeats, composed by the fun parts of being here.” Festival’s own President and CEO Alan Fletcher. Santourian Asin immediately thought of Steve Reich’s Vermont says Fletcher is “very at ease” with text setting, despite its Counterpoint when she heard that the 2012 Festival would difficulty. be inspired by the theme, “Made in America.” The 2012 “Text setting is extraordinarily demanding of a composer AMFS flute students will perform the work with Asin at 4:30 because the idea is not to interfere with the rhythms of pm this Saturday, July 21, in Harris Concert Hall. the words or the colors of the words, but to underpin, with Reich wrote the work for a solo the music, those characteristics, flutist and eleven prerecorded parts, elements, and components,” but “here at Aspen, we’re going Santourian says. to do it live,” Asin says. There are AMFS artist-faculty members sixteen flute students, so some of Adele Anthony, violin, and Anton the parts will be doubled, and Asin Nel, piano, will play Debussy’s will play the solo. The work will Violin Sonata between Reich’s and be conducted by AMFS Assistant Fletcher’s works, and the concert Conductor Joshua Gersen. will close with Vaughan Williams’s “It’s going to be this incredible, Piano Quintet in C minor. Nadine Asin full, rich flute sound,” Asin says. The Chamber Music concerts also AMFS Artist-Faculty, Flute “That many flutes on stage is a regularly feature the students in sound the audience won’t have the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble heard before.” (ACE), led by AMFS artist-faculty The work has “that propulsive, member Sydney Hodkinson. ACE kinetic energy that is known to minimalist composers,” plays the music currently being composed in the United Santourian says, and it was one of Reich’s first pieces to States and around the world. use a technique called “phasing.” This means the work is Asin says that even the students who aren’t playing, and based on a canon, like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” with who attend the concerts to listen to their teachers, are short, melodic patterns that Reich subtly changes over the learning from the Chamber Music series. four sections of the piece. “Chamber music is every bit as important for an The piece is not played often, and most of Asin’s students instrumentalist as orchestral,” Asin says. “A lot of the skills do not get the experience of playing with this many fellow you learn as a chamber player or an orchestral player flutists at once during the school year. carry over to the other form. In great orchestral playing, “That’s the beauty of Aspen,” Asin says. “There are so you have the sense you’re hearing great chamber music. In many opportunities and possibilities to do things that you great chamber music, there’s the breadth and scope of an don’t have the time or the personnel to do back in real life.” orchestral piece.”
That many flutes on stage is a sound the audience won’t have heard before.
AMFS Pianist Continued from Festival Focus page 2
Bukhartseva says her lessons with Schein are sometimes three hours long. The teacher places importance on the study of music and knowledge of composers’ histories. She drills Bukhartseva with questions about why a piece was written, or why Bukhartseva chose to play it. Often, though, the answer is simple. When Bukhartseva hears a piece she likes, she has to learn it. She’s instinctive that way. She knew she was going to be a pianist by her second lesson, at eight years old. “I have this eternal love for music,” Bukhartseva says. “When you make music, you need to be yourself. There is no hiding; the audience sees what you’re doing. You just have to be yourself and give everything to music that you feel. I just love doing what I’m doing right now. I really could not be happier with my profession.” Bukhartseva used to come home from school and go straight to the piano, her backpack and hat still on. She won her first piano competition two months after starting lessons and since then, she has won numerous International Piano Competitions in Europe. In 2007, she performed ten concerts for the governor of Odessa, and she performed in Moscow and Belgium before moving to the United States, where she has continued her performance career along the East Coast. Bukhartseva was also featured on the NPR radio show, “From the Top” while in Aspen in 2007, and again the next year with a chamber group. Bukhartseva calls the Levinsons regularly and recently had dinner with them here. She also receives support from Hilton Head couple Mieke and Hendrik Smit, who heard her play in the Ukraine four months before the Levinsons. Though she misses her mother, whom she calls her “best friend,” Bukhartseva finds it meaningful to be back among the people who have made her new life possible. “There are so many places for me where my home is,” Bukhartseva says. “But I’m here right now, and I’m doing what I love. This is my home right now, with my friends and my American family.”