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Aspen Music Festival Features Gershwin, Andrew Norman, Bernard Rands, George Benjamin & More

Jun. 28, 2012

Aspen Music Festival Features Gershwin, Andrew Norman, Bernard Rands, George Benjamin & More

The 2012 Aspen Music Festival is underway with Robert Spano joining the festival for his first year as music director. The season’s theme, “Made in America,” provides a unique spotlight for several Schott/EAM works to be performed against the backdrop of Aspen’s majestic mountain landscape.  

The Festival kicked off with A Gershwin Celebration on June 28. The all-Gershwin program comprised the composer’s three major works for piano and orchestra: Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue, and his Second Rhapsody. Pianists Inon Barnatan, Marc-André Hamelin, and Conrad Tao performed with the Aspen Festival Big Band Ensemble led by Robert Spano. Additionally, the festival’s Fourth of July Concert included a selection from the Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture and on August 8, George Manahan conducts the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra in An American in Paris.

On June 30, Sydney Hodkinson led the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble in a performance of George Benjamin’s Olicantus for chamber ensemble. A mellow work of stark and pensive beauty, Olicantus was written in 2002 as a surprise tribute for Oliver Knussen’s 50th birthday. On July 2, Bernard Rands’ trio for flute, viola and harp, Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix, was performed by flutist Nadine Asin, violist James Dunham, and harpist Deborah Hoffman. The Emerson Quartet joins the festival on July 12, performing Thomas Adès’ The Four Quarters which was written for them in 2010 on commission by Carnegie Hall. Hodkinson returns with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble on August 4 to perform Andrew Norman’s probing work for chamber orchestra, Try.

The festival concludes on August 19 with a not to be missed performance of Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 8, subtitled Symphony of a Thousand, with Spano leading the Aspen Festival Orchestra. The performance also features a brilliant line-up of vocal soloists backed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Kantorei chamber choir, and the Colorado Children’s Chorale.

More on George Benjamin and Thomas Adès can be found at www.fabermusic.com.

Further info on the music of George Gershwin, Bernard Rands and Andrew Norman is located at www.schott-music.com.

For more information on Gustav Mahler, please visit www.universaledition.com.

Details on the Aspen Music Festival are at www.aspenmusicfestival.com.

George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue (1924 arr. 1926)
original jazz band version for Paul Whiteman
arranged by Ferde Grofé
for piano and jazz band
0.1.2(2.bcl).2asax(1.ssax, 2.barsax).tsax(Ebcl).0-2.2.2.1(db)-timp.perc-banjo.cel.orchestral pno-violins
16’

Second Rhapsody (1932)
for orchestra
pic.3.2(2.ca).2.bcl.ssax.asax.tsax.barsax.2-2.3.3.euph.1-timp.perc-hp-string bass
13’

Piano Concerto in F Major (1927)
for piano and orchestra
pic.2.2.ca.2.bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp-4perc-str
33’

Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture (1935)
for orchestra
pic.2.2.ca.2.bcl.2asax.tsax.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc-banjo.2hp-str
24’

An American in Paris (1928)
for orchestra
3(3.pic).2.ca.2.bcl.asax.tsax.barsax.2-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-cel-str
16’

George Benjamin
Olicantus (2002)
for ensemble
2fl.2bcl(1.cl)-2hn-2perc-cel.hp-str(1.1.1.1.1)
4’

Bernard Rands
Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix...(2004)
for flute, viola and harp
12’

Thomas Adès
The Four Quarters (2010)
for string quartet
20’

Andrew Norman
Try (2011)
for chamber orchestra
1.1.1.1-1.1.1.0-2perc-pno-str(1.1.1.1.1)
14’

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 8 (1906)
for orchestra
6.5.6.5-8.4.4.1-2timp.3perc-4hp.cel.pno.harm.org-mand-str
fernorchester: 4tpt.3tbn
90’

 

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