Aspen Times file |
There will be plenty of classical music staples such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms when the Aspen Music Festival launches its 77th season on July 1. Spicing up the calendar, announced Tuesday for the 7 1/2-week festival, will be a tasty combination of fresh new works, new faces, and lots of American music.
As 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this season’s theme is American music. Aside from music by such familiar American composers as Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and Aaron Copland, the season offers works by other composers inspired by things American, among them Antonin Dvořák’s “From The New World” symphony and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (written when the ex-Pat Russian composer was resident in Beverly Hills).
The opening days feature an impressive list of starry American soloists. Pianist Joyce Yang kicks things off with a recital on July 1, followed by the great baritone Thomas Hampson’s recital on July 2. A Chamber Symphony program on July 3 offers a new work by the brilliant opera composer Jake Heggie that features countertenor Key’mon W. Murrah (who made a splash at the festival in recent years), and Sunday’s Festival Orchestra is all-American, with Hampson and soprano Renée Fleming singing excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera Nixon in China. The festival’s music director,r Robert Spano, conducts.
The season finale on August 23 promises more vocal excellence with Spano leading Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, preceded by Bernstein’s glorious Chichester Psalms, featuring Murrah.
As Alan Fletcher transitions to emeritus after 21 seasons as the festival’s president, on paper, this final season might be his best. Fletcher and Patrick Chamberlain, vice president for artistic administration, have assembled an eye-popping lineup of soloists in recitals, chamber music, operas, and orchestra performances, and some creative programs for them.
Piano fans might want to circle the week of July 27 on their calendars, when two of the world’s greatest pianists each perform twice. Yuja Wang, who was a student here in Aspen before she became the superstar she is now, returns to play a program with the Latin percussion group People of Earth on July 29 and the Barber piano concerto with the Chamber Orchestra on August 1. French star Jean-Yves Thibaudot presents an all-Debussy recital on July 27 and tops off the week with George Gershwin’s Concerto in F on August 2.
Other pianists with recitals worth noting include Marc-André Hamelin, Daniil Trifonov, Simone Dinnerstein, Emanuel Ax, and Aspen’s own Anton Nel. In a particularly engaging idea for a program on July 11, Aspen regular Inon Barnatan offers his “Time Traveler’s Suite,” focusing on music that looks back on earlier eras for inspiration.
Among violinists, headliners Augustin Hadelich and Gil Shaham return for both recitals and performances with orchestras.
Hadelich plays Samuel Barber’s violin concerto on July 19, arguably the greatest by an American composer, on a particularly fascinating Festival Orchestra program July 19 that includes the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Symphony No. 1. His recital earlier in the week has him leading Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence sextet, always a crowd-pleaser.
In three August recitals, Gil Shaham plays all nine Beethoven violin sonatas before taking on Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s concerto for violin and piano on August 14 with his sister Orli Shaham at the keyboard. Other notable violin recitalists are Leonidas Kavakos and two new faces to Aspen: Giovanni Andrea Zanon and Maria Dueñas.
Several projects involving the Aspen Opera Theatre and VocalARTS program, headed by Fleming and conductor Patrick Summers, are especially enticing. In July, Britten’s juicy and highly approachable setting of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream tops the list, with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in the scene-stealing role of Puck. No doubt he will be singing Oberon. Jane Glover conducts at the Wheeler Opera House.
In August, a semi-staged production of Mozart’s Magic Flute comes to the Music Tent, Summers conducting. A third opera, Sara Kirkland Snider’s ethereal Hildegarde, which was a sensation in its Los Angeles premiere in November, gets a performance in Harris Hall with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble under Timothy Weiss.
Opera arias also populate lyric tenor Lawrence Brownlee and soprano Erin Morley’s recital on August 4 with Myra Huang on piano. Joyce DiDonato is in recital with Spano on piano on July 15.
Conductors returning include David Robertson, James Gaffigan, Rafael Payare, Cristian Măcelaru, and James Conlon. One highlight should be Leonard Slatkin on August 7, leading the Chamber Symphony in his Schubertiade (and the New World Symphony). Also juicy: Stéphane Denéve on the August 9 program of new works by Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery, plus Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.
Following previous years’ outdoor site performances of music by John Luther Adams comes Caroline Shaw’s Brush, which stations musicians along a trail for the sounds to emerge as one walks. Teddy Abrams, who conducted the 2021 premiere in Oregon, leads the music on July 30.
Tickets for these and dozens of other programs go on sale in April. Fuller details are available in the season calendar on the festival’s website.
Harvey Steiman has been writing about the Aspen Music Festival for more than 30 years.
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