Artists new to Aspen are making a splash this year, and the list keeps growing.<\/p>\n
On Friday, conductor Courtney Lewis led the Aspen Chamber Orchestra in persuasive performances of Ives, Beethoven and a charming rarity by the Swiss composer Frank Martin. On Sunday, Seong-Jin Cho, the Korean pianist who has been creating buzz since he won the Chopin International competition in 2015, executed the piano part of the familiar Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with precision and restraint.<\/p>\n
Both concerts were among the best of the season so far, and both Aspen newbies had help from regulars. Most notably on Sunday it was conductor Leonard Slatkin, whose history with Aspen goes back to 1964<\/a> as a student. His regular appearances here have been memorable, and this one demonstrated how a conductor can bring things together for memorable music-making.<\/p>\n First Slatkin spoke of his long history with this music festival, the diversity represented in the participants and how their intent on the music can give us all a collective refuge from the challenges of the world around us. He then opened the program with Colorado-born composer Conor Abbott Brown\u2019s \u201cHow to Relax With Origami,\u201d a deceptively carefree title for a piece bubbling with dark undertones and sharp humor.<\/p>\n Having conducted the world premiere in 2017 in Detroit, where he was the orchestra\u2019s music director, Slatkin brought Brown\u2019s cheeky seven short scenes to life with swagger. Dissonance contrasted with skippy little tunes (and a brief but funny sledgehammer war in the percussion section).<\/p>\n In the concerto Cho started out strong, building intensity and power with ringing chords in the opening pages, then settled into carefully shaped playing through the rest of the score. He avoided excess flamboyance of tradition interpretations \u2014 as the composer did in his performances \u2014 but Cho\u2019s efforts to rein things in came at the expense of diminishing Rachmaninoff\u2019s Russian flavor. Some of the many details in the piano part went missing.<\/p>\n The slow movement was best, when Cho\u2019s interplay with flutist Brook Ferguson and clarinetist Joaquin Valdepe\u00f1as flowed smoothly. In the turmoil of the outer movements, Cho\u2019s unwillingness to let \u2019er rip seemed to spur Slatkin to encourage the orchestra to cut loose at climaxes. He usually avoided covering Cho\u2019s careful workings, and if sometimes it overshadowed the piano the overall effect was uplifting. The work got a standing ovation.<\/p>\n Cho seemed more at home in his encore, Chopin\u2019s Nocturne in C sharp minor. The minor-key tune emerged through exquisitely balanced filigrees and trills, creating four minutes of sheer beauty.<\/p>\n Slatkin concluded the concert with a magnificent performance of one of his signature pieces, Elgar\u2019s \u201cEnigma\u201d Variations. A depth of understanding from all hands combined with clarity and shifting expressiveness. Slatkin brought out details of the score not always heard in live performance \u2014 overlapping lines, counter melodies, unexpected balances \u2014 which made for a fresh and vital half-hour. Crisp playing overall, and solo moments from principal violist Choong-Jin Chang, cellist Eric Kim and Valdepe\u00f1as were standouts.<\/p>\n The centerpiece was, as always, the noble \u201cNimrod\u201d variation. The slowdown and quieting at the end of the graceful variation that preceded it allowed a moment to breathe before the Adagio began at a whisper. Slatkin and the orchestra let the sound blossom and the nobility intensify to a sumptuous climax before subsiding gently. It\u2019s hard to avoid a catch in the throat when it\u2019s played that beautifully.<\/p>\n On Friday, the outstanding veterans were harpist Anneleen Lenaerts, pianist Anton Nel and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour in Martin\u2019s \u201cPetite symphonie concertante,\u201d essentially a triple concerto for those instruments with strings.<\/p>\n Martin\u2019s work softens the harmonies of 12-tone music and uses the unusual combination of instruments to create a sound that might have inspired the soundtrack for the \u201cAddams Family\u201d TV show. The harpsichord rattles against a string orchestra and the richer sound of piano and harp. Some of the musical segments pick up a jaunty rhythm. The swirl of sounds never lost its fascination. In the central slow section the three soloists have a long moment all to themselves, and they seemed to enjoy reinventing chamber music right before our ears, a unanimity of approach among them creating finely intertwined lines.<\/p>\n Lewis, once assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and currently music director of the fast-rising Jacksonville Symphony, opened Friday\u2019s concert with subtly shaped work in Charles Ives\u2019 short, moody \u201cThe Unanswered Question.\u201d He laid down a bare murmur of strings for principal trumpet Edward Stephenson\u2019s offstage statements of the question and a quartet of flutists in the chorus wing above the stage chattering their quarreling responses.<\/p>\n After intermission, the relatively brief 90-minute program concluded with a juicy performance of Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 2. Lewis kept the rhythms light on their feet and the phrasing cogent. The opening movement made its point without fuss or bombast, the slow movement kept momentum alive without rushing, and the Scherzo tossed the ball back and forth among the sections with welcome unanimity of purpose.<\/p>\n The finale took off at a rapid clip and dropped no apparent notes in keeping the pace \u2014 and clarity of playing \u2014 vibrant and spicy. Even the shifts into more lyrical playing kept things moving forward, completing a refreshingly zippy concert.<\/p>\n NOT TO MISS IN COMING DAYS<\/p>\n In its annual Aspen recital Wednesday the American String quartet fudges slightly on the \u201cAmerican\u201d theme, programming Dvor\u00e1k\u2019s \u201cAmerican\u201d String Quartet and a new piece by Canadian composer Vivian Fung, \u201cInsects and Machines.\u201d<\/a> Star cellist Alisa Weilerstein shares the stage Thursday with pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Philip Quint and three percussionists in an intriguing arrangemenet of Shostakovich\u2019s spooky Symphony No. 15. Barnatan returns for Friday\u2019s Aspen Chamber Orchestra concert to play Barber\u2019s piano concerto.<\/p>\n Harvey Steiman has been writing about the Aspen Music Festival for 24 years. His reviews appear Tuesdays and Saturdays in The Aspen Times.<\/p>\n