Takács Quartet, composer John Adams will be among the featured artists
By Peter Alexander Jan. 19 at 3 p.m.
The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) announced its 2022 festival season last night (Jan. 18) in an event live-streamed from the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.
During the hour-long event, music director Peter Oundjian introduced the concerts that are scheduled during the festival, planned for June 30–Aug. 7. “Every festival should be a celebration,” he said by way of introduction. “This is no exception. It’s a very eclectic series of programs.”
Also speaking remotely from his home in California was composer John Adams, who will be composer in residence during the festival. He will conduct parts of two concerts that feature his music, and he also helped Oundjian curate the “Music of Today” week, July 11–17, which will feature works by contemporary composers most of whom are still living.
The announced programs for the summer make good on Oundjian’s intention to make the festival a lively event that both honors the great works of the past and recognizes the music and composers of today. There have been times in the past when the CMF seemed unfocused and unadventurous, but under Oundjian’s leadership that has changed. Through thoughtful programming, the participation of figures like Adams and some remarkable young performers, the CMF is becoming an event worthy of broad attention.
As part of the emphasis on music of today, this year’s festival will include three premieres: the world premiere of a commissioned work by Timo Andres (July 14); the world premiere of Wang Jie’s Flying on the Scaly Backs of Our Mountains (Aug. 4); and the Colorado premiere of a work co-commissioned from Wynton Marsalis (Aug. 7).
Introducing these works, Oundjian noted that “We always love to have premieres at the festival. It’s so important for us to hear new ideas and to give opportunities to composers.”
In addition to Adams, other composers featured during the “Music of Today” series include Steven Ellison (known as Flying Lotus), Anne Müller, Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, Stacy Garrop, Valerie Coleman, Osvaldo Golijov, John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse, among others (see the full summer program below).
In addition to the Music of Today, interest in the 2022 festival will be generated by the inclusion of composers who are outside the standard repertoire. African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor will be represented by his Fantasiestücke for String Quartet (July 5) and Solemn Prelude for orchestra (July 21–22); and African-American composer Florence Price will be represented by her Violin Concerto No. 2 (also July 21–22). Starburst by the young American composer Jessie Montgomery will be played on July 31, outside of the Music of Today programs.
Concerts of chamber music on Tuesday nights will form the second Robert Mann Chamber Music Series, named for the founding first violinist of the Juilliard Quartet. The series will feature the Takács Quartet playing music by Haydn, Dvořák and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (July 5); the Attacca Quartet in a wide-ranging program of contemporary pieces during Music of Today (July 12); and the Danish String Quartet in a creative program that includes a collection of folk music from Britain. Other chamber concerts will feature members of the CMF Orchestra.
The Takács Quartet will also be featured on opening night, marking their return to the Chautauqua stage for their first live performances at CMF since 2004. They will be soloists with the CMF Orchestra in a performance of Adams’s Absolute Jest. Other works on the opening night program are Fate Now Conquers by Carlos Simon and Dvořák’s Symphony “From the New World.”
Other featured soloists during the summer will include pianist Jan Lisiecki performing all of Beethoven’s piano concertos in programs that also honor the 150th birthday of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (July 7, 8 and 10); pianist Jeremy Denk playing Adams’s Must the Devil have all the Good Tunes? (July 17); violinist Randall Goosby playing Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (July 21–22); pianist Simone Dinnerstein on an all-Mozart program (July 24); pianist Gabriela Montero playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor (July 28–29); and clarinetist Anthony McGill (Aug. 4).
Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, former music director of CMF, returns to lead two programs (July 28–29 and 31). The award-winning young American conductor Ryan Bancroft will also lead the orchestra in two programs (July 21–22 and 24).
Reverting to past patterns, there will be three pairs of Festival Orchestra concerts with the same program on Thursday and Friday nights, with the Thursday performance at 7:30 p.m. and the Friday performance at 6:30 p.m. (June 30–July 1; July 21–22; July 28–29). The annual Family Concert will be Sunday, July 3, with Tubby the Tuba and Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
The 2022 Festival ends on Sunday, Aug. 7, with the Colorado premiere of a fanfare by Wynton Marsalis and Mahler’s massive Fifth Symphony, which Oundjian described last night as “virtuosic for the orchestra, incredibly entertaining for all of us.
“The final moments of Mahler 5 are as exuberant as music can possibly get. There is no greater way to witness a symphony orchestra than to come and listen to a Mahler symphony!”
Single tickets to the 2022 Festival will be available for purchase on the CMF website beginning March 1. You may also email tickets@comusic.org, or call 303-440-7666. At this time, CMF states that they will follow recommended and required COVID guidelines during the 2022 festival. Any specific rules have not yet been announced.
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Colorado Music Festival 2022
All performances at Chautauqua Auditorium
7:30 pm. Thursday, June 30: Opening Night
6:30 p.m. Friday, July 1
Peter Oundjian, conductor, with the Takács Quartet
- Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers (2020)
- John Adams: Absolute Jest (2012)
- Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”)
11 a.m. Sunday, July 3: Family Concert
Maurice Cohn, conductor, with Really Inventive Stuff
- George Kleinsinger: Tubby the Tuba
- Benjamin Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 5
Takács Quartet
- Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in F Major, op. 77 no. 2
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Fantasiestücke for String Quartet
- Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G Major
7:30 pm. Thursday, July 7
Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Jan Lisiecki, piano
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major
—Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor
6:30 p.m. Friday, July 8
Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Jan Lisiecki, piano
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Overture to The Wasps
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major
—Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 10
Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Jan Lisiecki, piano
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D major
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major (“Emperor”)
——-Music of Today——-
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 12
Attacca Quartet
- John Adams: selections from John’s Book of Alleged Dances
- Flying Lotus: Clock Catcher
—Remind U
—Pilgrim Side Eye - Anne Müller: Drifting Circles
- Louis Cole: Real Life
- Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima”
- Caroline Shaw: The Evergreen
- Gabriella Smith: Carrot Revolution
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 14
Peter Oundjian and John Adams, conductors
With Samuel Adams, composer; Tessa Lark, violin; and Timothy McAllister, saxophone
- Timo Andre: world premiere commission
- Samuel Adams: Chamber Concerto
- John Adams: City Noir
7:30 p.m. Friday, July 15: Kaleidoscope
Timo Andres, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Timothy McAllister, saxophone; and members of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
- David Skidmore: Ritual Music
- Stacy Garrop: Reborn in flames (from Phoenix Rising)
- Osvaldo Golijov: Last Round
- Valerie Coleman: Red Clay & Mississippi Delta for Wind Quintet
- Timo Andres: Honest Labor
- Roshanne Etezady: Recurring Dreams
- John Corigliano: STOMP
- Philip Glass: Etude No. 6
- John Adams: Road Movie
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 17
Peter Oundjian and John Adams, conductors, Jeremy Denk, piano
- Gabriella Smith: Tumblebird Contrails
- John Adams: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
- Christopher Rouse: Symphony No. 6
—————————
7:30 Tuesday, July 19: Flavors of Russia
Members of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
- Borodin: String Sextet in D minor
- Mikhail Glinka: Trio Pathétique in D minor
- Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence Sextet in D Minor, op. 70
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21
6:30 p.m. Friday, July 22
Ryan Bancroft, conductor, with Randall Goosby violin
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Solemn Prelude
- Florence Price: Violin Concerto No. 2
- Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, op. 28
- Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 24
Ryan Bancroft, conductor, with Simone Dinnerstein, piano
- Mozart: Serenade in C minor for winds, K388
—Piano Concerto B-flat major, K595
—Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K543
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 26
Members of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
- Mozart: Flute Quartet in D Major, K285
- Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Movement for String Trio
- Dvořák: Terzetto in C Major, op. 74
- Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op. 115
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 28
6:30 p.m. Friday, July 29
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor, with Gabriela Montero, piano
- Mussorgsky, arr. Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on Bald Mountain
- Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor
- Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31
Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor with Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson and Abigail Nims, sopranos; John de Lancie and Marnie Mosiman, actors
- Jessie Montgomery: Starburst
- Georges Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C major
- Felix Mendelssohn: Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2
Danish String Quartet
- Henry Purcell, arr. Benjamin Britten: Chacony in G minor
- Folk Music from the British Isles, arr. Danish String Quartet
- Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D. 887
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4
Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Anthony McGill, clarinet
- Wang Jie: Flying On the Scaly Backs of Our Mountains (world premiere)
- Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor
- Debussy: Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra
- Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919)
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7: Festival Finale Concerto
Peter Oundjian, conductor
- Wynton Marsalis: Fanfare (Colorado premiere)
- Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor
Sharps & Flatirons 