Haydn’s exuberant and life-affirming oratorio The Creation tops off the summer’s theme “The Adoration of the Earth.” During his first visit to London, Haydn attended one of the Handel festivals held in Westminster Abbey. He was so overwhelmed by Messiah and Israel in Egypt that he determined to compose an oratorio himself that could stand alongside Handel’s supreme masterpieces in the genre. The work was an immediate success and received many performances all over Europe. As in opera and most oratorios, The Creation has named characters. Soloists represent the archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, and later Adam and Eve. Parts One and Two describe the six days of Creation. In Part Three, Adam and Eve make their appearance and celebrate the newly created world and their happiness together.

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Festival Orchestra: Final Sunday! Haydn's Creation

Aspen Meadows Resort

Gil Shaham returns! His impeccable technique, radiant stage presence, and infectious joy in music-making have made him one of the foremost violinists in the world and a perennial Aspen favorite. Hear him in Korngold’s brilliantly orchestrated, richly romantic, and technically challenging Violin Concerto. With themes drawn from the composer’s film scores, the piece showcases the highest range of the instrument where it sings with a pure, ethereal voice.

Festival Orchestra: Gil Shaham, Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel

In a list of works exemplifying the season theme of “The Adoration of Nature,” Mahler’s 3rd Symphony would be near the top. This gigantic and glorious six-movement hymn to Nature is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire. It’s also one of Mahler’s most optimistic, extroverted works. For Mahler, Nature wasn’t just the natural world; it was the entire world. Just as Nature overflows with astonishing colors and breathtaking beauty, Mahler’s universe of a symphony teems with brilliant orchestration and stunning melodies. It’s a 99-minute visceral and emotional rollercoaster with shifts of mood and surprising contrasts. The first movement, “Pan Awakens – Summer Marches In” bursts into life with a confident march. The second, “What the Flowers and Meadows Tell Me’’ is a charming minuet. Next comes the bustling scherzo, “What the Animals of the Forest Tell Me,” followed by the dark stillness of “What the Night Tells Me.” This movement features mezzo-soprano Kelly O’Connor, known for her “ravishingly velvet vocal tone” (San Francisco Chronicle). Night breaks into sunshine with “What the Morning Bells Tell Me,” opening with the angelic sound of a children’s chorus. The final movement, “What Love Tells Me” is a gorgeously grand slow movement expressing Mahler’s belief that “God can only be comprehended as Love.”

Festival Orchestra: Spano Leads Mahler's Third Symphony

Yes, there is a second Mendelssohn piano concerto. Mysteriously, it’s become eclipsed by the first one, even though it’s comparable in merit both pianistically and musically. Mendelssohn had a long and reciprocal love affair with England, and he wrote the piece for the Birmingham Music Festival. When he premiered it himself, the audience must have been delighted by both the craftsmanship and heartfelt lyricism of their German hero. His performance was equally impressive, causing one British critic to write: “In forcible and impetuous passages, there was a force and an élan which almost took one's breath away. His touch was exquisitely delicate, his fingers sang as they rippled over the keyboard." The charismatic Lise de la Salle has garnered similar praise: “For much of the concert, the audience had to remember to breathe... the exhilaration didn’t let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard.” (Washington Post)

Festival Orchestra: Conlon Conducts Mendelssohn, Mahler

In this Aspen Festival Orchestra concert, charismatic pianist Lise de la Salle performs Mendelssohn's lesser-known but equally as evocative Second Piano Concerto. Conductor James Conlon leads the orchestra in a performance of Gustav Mahler's six-movement orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Thrill to the artistry of Lise de la Salle and be moved by Mahler’s most personal work sung by a pair of internationally renowned soloists

Aspen Festival Orchestra: Conlon Conducts Mendelssohn, Mahler

The Milwaukee Shepherd Express conjectured that he “well may be the best violinist in the world. [His] gorgeous sound is ample and rich always. Every detail is played with perfectly clear intent.” Augustin Hadelich’s astonishing technique, eloquent phrasing, and seeming effortlessness inspired Donnacha Dennehy to compose his first multi-movement concerto especially for him. In Dennehy's words, “The first movement especially zooms in and out of various perspectives. I think of this aerial zooming as being essential to its nature. The second movement feels redolent of the sea to me. The sea always emerges in my music it seems. Maybe it has to do with growing up in Ireland, surrounded by water on all sides. There is a real feeling of yearning to this movement. It was written during the first lockdown of the pandemic, and I feel that a kind of desire to transcend the conditions of everyday life permeates this movement. The final movement is more earthy and cheeky. A strange, splintered, fierce jig eventually appears, and then abstractions of that start to eat away at the very fabric of the music, when the violin threatens to spiral everything out of control leading to a fierce conclusion on the very edge of what is possible!

Aspen Festival Orchestra

Aug 20, 2023

Festival Orchestra: Final Sunday! Haydn's Creation

Aug 6, 2023

Festival Orchestra: Gil Shaham, Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel

Aspen Festival Orchestra