Festival Focus Week 7

FESTIVALFOCUS YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE

SUPPLEMENT TO THE ASPEN TIMES

MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2021

VOL 31, NO. 7

Yang, Cox Breathe Music into Motion JESSICA MOORE

AMFS Director of Marketing

Once an alumnus of the AMFS, always an alumnus of the AMFS. Whether it’s a professional debut, or an anticipated yearly return, there is a certain energy that surrounds a performance by a former Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) student. And so, the Aspen Chamber Symphony performance on Friday, August 13 has the makings of a truly spectacular concert with the return of the sparkling pianist and season regular, Joyce Yang, and the professional Aspen debut of globally in-demand conductor Roderick Cox. Last year’s pandemic put the brakes on another trip to Aspen that Yang, now 35, describes as “the heart of my summer since I was 19.” Initially planned for last season, Yang will at last get to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, a piece she describes as “truly like a roller coaster. You never know where Liszt is going to take you.”

A piano virtuoso himself whom Yang describes as the “keyboard version of Paganini, a Michael Jackson of that time,” Liszt began sketching out the concerto as early as the 1830s although it wasn’t premiered until years later in 1855. In this work, Cox says “we see him already toying with the form. The orchestra and the piano are certainly very much intertwined in this specific concerto and they play off each other quite a bit.” He explains, “This is still revolutionary for this time where the orchestra typically is very much in the backdrop and the piano is the lead voice.”

“You can really feel Joyce’s presence on stage as a conductor. You can hear her breathing the music into motion and that is what makes her an incredible artist to work with.” Roderick Cox Conductor and AMFS alumnus

CARLIN MA

Joyce Yang often exudes sheer delight during her performances, as she did on Opening Sunday 2019 with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Yang echoes this, saying that this first concerto shows the composer “bending the rules of traditional piano concerto form and testing the boundaries of piano technique and virtuosity.” She continues, “Nestled in between big and flashy bravura moments are poetic melodies and bold recitatives where one instrument suddenly pops out of the texture like a character that just appears.” It’s in the close interaction between orchestra and soloist where Yang and Cox see the potential for a great collaboration. Says Yang, “This is the kind of piece that—because it’s so

Roderick Cox conducts the Aspen Chamber Symphony featuring pianist Joyce Yang on Friday, August 13.

interactive—could very well take on a new life depending on how it gets interwoven with different musicians.” Although this performance will be their first of the Liszt concerto, the two artists have worked together in the past and eagerly look forward to melding their interpretive visions together to bring this work to life. Of her past performance with Cox, Yang recalls being struck by “the waves that he could create from the orchestra.” It is this memory that makes her feel that “with this piece, where there’s a storm at sea on the left and the right, he will really be able to navigate it and bring it to its heights.” For his part, Cox says “you can really feel Joyce’s presence on stage as a conductor. You can hear her breathing the music into motion and that is what makes her an incredible artist to work with.” He continues, “She really leaves it all out on the stage and gives herself, all of herself, to the audience.”

See Cox, Yang, Festival Focus page 3

James Ehnes to Perform Final Beethoven Sonatas SHANNON ASHER

Festival Focus Writer

Violinist James Ehnes concludes his survey of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas on August 11.

This week, internationally renowned violinist James Ehnes returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School stage for two concerts showcasing Beethoven: a recital with pianist Andrew Armstrong on August 11, and with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and conductor Jane Glover on August 15. It’s not just audiences looking forward to these events. Says Ehnes, “Both the setting and the history of the Aspen Music Festival are incredibly inspiring. It’s a rare opportunity to make music for incredibly passionate audiences in one of the world’s most spectacular locations.” The AMFS’s Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor Asadour Santourian says, “James Ehnes is one of the

most self-effacing, friend-next-door violin stars you will ever meet. He is the loveliest, most easy-going person. Then, when he puts the violin under his chin and puts bow to string, he’s a star. He’s just a star.” Ehnes started playing music around the age of five. With a father who was a professional musician (trumpet) and a mother who was a ballet dancer, he was surrounded by music and artists his whole young life. “It was natural for me to get involved in music,” Ehnes says. “I don’t remember why I specifically chose the violin, but it was very much my choice. I’ve always been drawn to the sound, but also to the incredible breadth of the repertoire for the violin.” In preparation for Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebrations in 2020, Santourian asked

Ehnes to survey all 10 of the composer’s violin sonatas. In this summer’s recital, Ehnes will conclude a musical endeavor that he and Armstrong—who Santourian calls “a phenomenal partner”—began in 2018. When they first began the project, the Aspen Times praised their “gold standard performances [for] technical precision and keen musical insight.” “Beethoven is such a central figure in music; it’s a great privilege as a violinist to have so many of his greatest works for my instrument,” Ehnes says. “The program concludes with his most famous sonata of the set, the so-called ‘Kreutzer’ sonata—one of the most celebrated pieces in the entire literature.”

See Ehnes and Armstrong, Festival Focus page 3

ONLY 14 DAYS LEFT! HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE TENT YET? FESTIVAL ENDS AUGUST 22.