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| The Aspen Music Festival announces its summer lineup The Aspen Music Festival and School announced its 2011 summer lineup yesterday, and this year's eight-week festival, running June 29 to Aug. 21, will focus on the theme "art inspires art." It will feature music inspired by other artistic mediums, from the visual to the performing arts. "We really like themes that are both over-arching and that can be pulled tightly on a string when necessary, " said AMFS Artistic Director Asadour Santourian. "I was thinking about many things that transcribe and translate themselves into music, whether it's art, whether it's poetry, whether it's literature." The late, great bard Shakespeare will find himself front and center for two weeks this summer with AMFS' Shakespeare mini-festival, running July 30 through Aug. 14. Orchestral works, opera, chamber music and more will be highlighted, including: Verdi's "Falstaff" (opens July 30); Robert Spano will lead the Aspen Festival Orchestra in Sibelius's overture from "The Tempest" and John Knowles Paine's overture to "As You Like It" (July 31); Shostakovich's incidental music to "Hamlet" will be conducted by John Mauceri (Aug. 3); Berlioz's overture to "Beatrice and Benedict" will be led by Larry Rachleff (Aug. 5); Walton's music from "Richard III" will be conducted by David Robertson (Aug. 7); Prokofiev's scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" will be danced by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (Aug. 8); and more. The full summer program includes a wide array of standard orchestral repertoire, including the music of Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Strauss, Stravinsky, Rouse, Pintscher, and recognition of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's death with many works representing the output of this important composer. Major Mahler works scheduled include "Songs of a Wayfarer" (July 3), "Symphony No. 1 in D major" (July 13), "Symphony No. 4 in G major" (July 29), "Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor" (July 31), "What the Wild Flowers Tell Me" (Aug. 17), and Mahler's "Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Resurrection, " in the season's closing concert (Aug. 21), led by maestro Robert Spano and featuring the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Other festival highlights include: recitals with Edgar Meyer and Gabriel Kahane; and an opening weekend featuring a co-presentation with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra; and violinist and AMFS alumnus Gil Shaham. "The 2011 summer festival represents Aspen's cultural and intellectual heritage at its best, exploring the close ties between music and other art forms and revealing commonalities in artistic genius, " AMFS CEO and President Alan Fletcher said in a press release. "The season simply overflows with works of spectacular layered artistry, from Mahler's monumental "Resurrection Symphony, " to the unparalleled complete Beethoven quartet cycle, to Leonard Bernstein's electric "West Side Story." write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |