Kevin Puts, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák will be featured again tonight
By Peter Alexander Aug. 2 at 12:15 a.m.
The Colorado Music Festival launched into its final weekend of the 2024 season last night (Aug. 1) with a program that had all the hallmarks of the CMF under Music Director Peter Oundjian.
There was a piece by a living American composer—Two Mountain Scenes by Kevin Puts; a sensational soloist playing an audience favorite—violinist Augustin Hadelich and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto; and great piece that is just off the most familiar path—a symphony by Dvořák, but not the “New World” or the Eighth, but the Seventh Symphony in D minor. And the performances were terrific.
The Two Mountain Scenes have a Colorado connection, as they were written for the Bravo! Vail Music Festival and the New York Philharmonic. The first scene evokes an echoing trumpet call sounding against the backdrop of valleys and distant mountain peaks. The CMF trumpet section nailed the treacherous opening, which calls for four trumpets sharing what appears to be a single fanfare with notes dying in the distance.
These calls are answered by sweeping lines in the strings, painting the image of remote mountain ridges. After the tiniest of breaks, the second scene conjures a powerful storm, with a kaleidoscope of orchestral colors cascading down and thrusting forward. Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra gave a stirring performance that asked: why don’t we hear this colorful, evocative score more often?
Violinist Augustin Hadelich. Photo by Suxiao Yang.
Hadelich, who shares an obvious musical bond with Oundjian and has been a soloist on previous CMF seasons, gave a stunning performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto. But don’t be fooled: it’s not as easy as he makes it seem!
The best word to describe Hadelich’s performance might be fluid, but that would not do justice to the brilliant fireworks that he also provided. He has the ability to play tenderly, as at the beginning, and yet penetrate the Chautauqua Auditorium to the back row. In addition to the gentle moments, that were exquisitely played, he has the technique to accelerate cleanly, building speed and volume into the climactic moments.
Handelich’s creamy sound and well crafted restraint in the gentle moments gave more scope for a big buildup, as at the end of the first movement. There, the growing excitement led to spontaneous applause from a normally cultivated audience. Hadelich and Oundjian smiled happily at the crowd before continuing.
One of the pleasures of this performance was seeing knowing glances between Hadelich and Oundjian, who share the experience of having played the concerto. The soaring slow movement and the leap into the brilliant finale were impeccably performed. After a second outburst of enthusiasm from the audience, Hadelich came back to play an encore of “Orange Blossom Special” on steroids that had the audience alternately chuckling and gasping in appreciation. A second standing ovation followed.
The performance of Dvořák’s sometime turbulent, sometimes lyrical Seventh was marked by sleek transitions in and out of the score’s darker moments. Oundjian managed the many tempo shifts and thematic contrasts handsomely, always profiling the drama inherent in the music.
Dvořák can build to an exciting ending as well as any composer I know. He appears to do that in the first movement, but suddenly pulls back in a surprise fading away that was handled eloquently. The finale builds without holding back, leading to the powerful close that was expected before. With its command of a wide dynamic range, the Festival Orchestra created the climax Dvořák asks for.
Horn solos in the first two movements were exceptionally well played, earning a solo bow. Similarly the woodwind solos were as usual outstanding throughout, leading to more solo bows at the end. It was a special pleasure to hear this symphony, both for the quality of the playing and because the Seventh is not heard as often as it deserves.
The same program will be repeated tonight (Aug. 2) at 6:30 p.m. at the Chautauqua Auditorium. The CMF 2024 season wraps up Sunday with Johann Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus, Ravel’s orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, also at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available from the Chautauqua Box Office.
Guest soloists and a Mahler symphony bring 2024 festival to a close
By Peter Alexander July 18 at 3:20 p.m.
The remaining two weeks of the Colorado Music Festival (CMF) will see a series of guest artists—soloists, conductors and chamber musicians—and culminate with a Mahler symphony.
Peter Oundjian, artistic director of the Colorado Music Festival. Photo by Geremy Kornreich.
Ending the summer with Mahler has become a tradition at CMF. “It’s quite conscious,” artistic director and conductor Peter Oundjian says. “We did the Third (Symphony), we did the Fifth. The season of ’21 we ended with Beethoven, because couldn’t have a Mahler symphony”—due to onstage seating restrictions during COVID—but otherwise, Oundjian has made Mahler the preferred festival finale.
Before the season-ending concert Aug. 4, CMF still has intriguing programs of both orchestral and chamber music. Next Tuesday (7:30 p.m. July 23; full programs listed below), the Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues with a concert by members of the Festival Orchestra. The program will include one of the most loved pieces by Mendelssohn, his String Octet in E-flat, written when the composer was only 16.
Danish String Quartet. Photo by Caroline Bittencourt.
One week later on July 30, the guest chamber group the Danish String Quartet closes the chamber music series with a diverse program of pieces and movements both familiar and unfamiliar. The Danish Quartet, known for creative programming, was originally scheduled in 2021, but due to COVID restrictions had to wait for the 2022 festival.
This summer’s program opens with the minuet from Joseph Haydn’s late quartet Op. 77 no. 2, followed by Three Pieces for String Quartet by Stravinsky and Three Melodies by the 17th-century blind Celtic harpist Turlough O’Carolan. An early divertimento by Mozart and the Third String Quartet by Shostakovich complete the program.
Awadagin Pratt
Pianist Awadagin Pratt will be the guest soloist for the Festival Orchestra concerts July 25 and 26. The first African-American pianist to win the Naumburg International Piano Competition, Pratt has had a protean career, performing with most major American orchestras, appearing on six continents, at the White House by invitation from presidents Clinton and Obama, and on Sesame Street.
Described in the Washington Post as “one of the great and distinctive pianists of our time,” Pratt is known for highly individual artistry and concert dress. A pianist of prodigious technique, he plays a wide ranging repertoire. For his appearance with Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra, Pratt will play a Keyboard Concerto by J.S. Bach and Rounds for piano and string orchestra by Jessie Montgomery. The program will also feature a staple of the large orchestra repertoire, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
Gemma New. Photo by Anthony Chang.
Two guest artists and a guest conductor will be featured on the Chamber Orchestra concert July 28. Conductor Gemma New, hailed as “one of the brightest rising stars in the conducting firmament” by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, is a native of New Zealand where she leads the New Zealand Symphony. She comes to Colorado on her way to conduct the BBC Proms in London Aug. 16.
The program will feature the piano duo of Christina and Michelle Naughton as guest soloists, performing Mozart’s Concerto in E-flat Major for Two Pianos, K365. Other works on the all-Mozart program are Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the “Haffner” Symphony, No. 35 in D major.
The next Festival Orchestra concert brings another outstanding soloist to Chautauqua: violinist Augustin Hadelich, who has become a CMF favorite since his first appearance at the festival in 2018. He appeared from Oundjian’s home by live stream during the COVID-canceled 2020 season, and returned as artist-in-residence in 2021.
Augustin Hadelich. Photo by Suxiao Yang.
This season he will play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Aug. 1 and 2) on a program that also includes Two Mountain Scenes by Kevin Puts and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor. The latter, Oundjian says, “is for a lot of people Dvořák’s true masterpiece.
“Obviously the Ninth Symphony (the ‘New World’) is fantastic and the Eighth is so exquisitely beautiful, but Seven is the piece that made him famous. The premiere in London (1885) was kind of an epic moment for him. I have conducted it in a lot of different places, and orchestras love to play it. They know how magnificent it is.”
Puts’s Two Mountain Scenes was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Bravo Vail! “It’s a real showpiece for orchestra, quite original but not forbidding,” Oundjian says. “You’d think living in Colorado it would be performed more often. It’s a wonderful piece!”
The final concert of the 2024 festival, Sunday, Aug 6, features the final guest artist, soprano Karina Gauvin. A Canadian soprano who has performed with orchestras from San Francisco to Rotterdam, she will sing Ravel’s Shéhérazade and the final movement of the festival-closing Fourth Symphony of Mahler. And in another form of delight, the concert will open with Johann Strauss Jr.s spirited Overture to Die Fledermaus.
Karina Gauvin. Photo by Michael Slobodian.
Following the pattern of ending the festival with Mahler, it was the Fourth that generated the rest of the program. Oundjian says that work “is in some ways the most fascinating narrative of all (of Mahler’s) symphonies. It’s like poetry. It also has a chamber quality that is very different from all the other Mahler symphonies.
“There’s something both playful and heavenly about the first movement, and something devilish about the second movement, with its falsely tuned violin that represents the devil. And typical of Mahler scherzo movements, where you have trio sections that are very beautiful and elegant. And then a slow movement, you think, ‘OK, this is the most beautiful music that’s ever been written’!”
The finale the gives the whole symphony the character of childish delight. A setting of a poem describing life in heaven, with everyone living “in sweetest peace” and enjoying endless banquets, it is one of Mahler’s most beguiling movements. It is, Oundjian says, a “wonderful image of heaven in this child-like voice, speaking to us from another place.
“I wanted to put (Ravel’s) Scheherazade with the Fourth Symphony. I think Scheherazade is staggering, with orchestration, the colors, harmonies, the way he uses the vocal line and shapes the vocal line. It’s just magnificent. And then to start it with Fledermaus is pure heaven!”
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Colorado Music Festival, Peter Oundjian, music director Remaining concerts, July 23–Aug. 4, 2024 All performances in Chautauqua Auditorium
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Colorado Music Festival musicians
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in C Major, op. 20 no.
Claude Debussy, Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Felix Mendelssohn, String Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 23
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Awadagin Pratt, piano
J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto in A major, S1055
Jessie Montgomery: Rounds for piano and string orchestra (2022)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 26
Festival Chamber Orchestra Concert Chamber Orchestra, Gemma New, conductor With Christina and Michelle Naughton, piano duo
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K525 —Concerto in E-flat Major for Two Pianos, K365 —Symphony No. 35 in D major, K385 (“Haffner”)
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Danish String Quartet
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet, op. 77 no. 2: III, Andante
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Turlough O’Carolan: Three Melodies
Mozart: Divertimento in F major, K138
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 in F major, op. 73
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 30
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Augustin Hadelich, violin
Kevin Puts: Two Mountain Scenes (2007)
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, op. 70
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2
Festival Finale Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Karina Gauvin, soprano
Subscriptions now available; single tickets on sale March 5
By Peter Alexander Feb. 4 at 4 p.m.
The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) has announced its 2024 festival season, July 5 through Aug. 4 at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder.
Chautauqua Auditorium. Photo by Jeremy Kornreich
This year’s festival will present 19 performances in 31 days—between four and five weeks and slightly shorter than recent previous festival seasons. In addition to the Festival Orchestra made up of musicians from around the country, it will feature the world premiere of a new piece by Gabriela Lena Frank; four Tuesday evening concerts on the Robert Mann Chamber Music Series, performed by members of the Festival Orchestra and the visiting Danish String Quartet; and guest artists including the CU-based Takács Quartet, cellist Alisa Weilerstien, and returning CMF favorites pianist Olga Kern and violinist Augustin Hadelich.
Performances by the full Festival Orchestra will be most Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30 and 6:30 p.m. respectively. Orchestral concerts at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday will generally feature a smaller ensemble. The full festival schedule is listed below.
Gabriela Lena Frank
A highlight of the season will be the premiere of a new orchestral work with string quartet by Franks on July 21 (see details below). The summer’s only world premiere, the performance will feature the Takács Quartet. Other works by living composers will be featured throughout the summer, including Masquerade by Anna Clyne; Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams, who was CMF composer-in-residence in 2022; Two Mountain Scenes by Kevin Puts, a work that was commissioned by the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and the New York Philharmonic in 2007; and Joan Tower’s Concerto for Orchestra.
Anton Bruckner
On July 14 conductor Peter Oundjian and the CMF Orchestra will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner with a performance of his Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”). On the same program CMF will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth with a performance of his late Romantic work for strings Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night).
The annual CMF family concert at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, July 7, will feature some shorter standard classical overtures by Mikhail Glinka and Mendelssohn, as well as a performance of composer Rob Kapilow’s setting of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. Also on the program is Three Fun Fables, a setting for narrator and orchestra of three of Aesop’s fables by Daniel Dorff, who is known for numerous works that introduce music and musical instruments to young audiences.
Alisa Weilerstein. Photo by Marco Borggreve
Outstanding guest artists have always been a feature of the CMF. This summer’s guest soloists will be: —Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a member of a renowned musical family, playing the Dvořák Cello Concerto on the opening night program, July 5 and 7; —the playful ensemble Really Inventive Stuff, a favorite on past CMF summer schedules, and the mezzo-soprano Jennifer DeDominici for the family concert July 7; —violinist Vadim Gluzman playing the Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto July 9; —pianist Olga Kern playing the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto July 18 and 19; —Colorado Public Radio personality Kabin Thomas narrating Greig’s music for for Henrik Ibsen’s verse play Peer Gynt, alsoJuly 18 and 19; —the Takács Quartet playing the world premiere of Gabriel Lena Frank’s new work July 21; —pianist Awadagin Pratt, playing J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in A major and Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds for piano and string orchestra July 25 and 26; —the Danish String Quartet, who last appeared at CMF in 2022, playing a varied program that ranges from Haydn to Stravinsky to the 18th-century blind Celtic harpist Turlough O’Carolan July 30; —violinist Augustin Hadelich, returning to CMF to play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Aug. 1 and 2; and —soprano Karina Gauvin to sing Ravel’s song cycle Shéhérazade and the final movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 on the Festival Finale concert, Aug. 4.
Subscription tickets are currently available for the Colorado Music Festival. Tickets to individual concerts will go on sale through the Chautauqua Box Office March 5. More information on CMF tickets, including discounted youth and student tickets, is available HERE.
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Colorado Music Festival, Peter Oundjian, music director Summer 2024 All performances in Chautauqua Auditorium
Opening Night Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Anna Clyne: Masquerade (2013)
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major (“Italian”)
6:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday, July 5 and 7
Family Concert: Green Eggs and Ham Festival Orchestra, Jacob Joyce, conductor With Really Inventive Stuff and Jennifer DeDominici, mezzo-soprano
Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla
Daniel Dorff: Three Fun Fables
Mendelssohn: Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Rob Kapilow: Green Eggs and Ham
10:30 a.m. Sunday, July 7
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Colorado Music Festival musicians
Ernst von Dohnányi: Sextet in C Major
Beethoven: “Duet with two Obligato Eyeglasses” in E-flat major for viola and cello, WoO 32
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 47
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 9
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Vadim Gluzman, violin
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
7:30 p.m. Thursday July 11 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 12
Bruckner Bicentennial Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor
Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured night”), op. 4
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”)
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 14
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Colorado Music Festival musicians
Carl Nielsen: Wind Quintet, op. 43
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D956
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 16
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Rune Bergmann, conductor With Olga Kern, piano, and Kabin Thomas, narrator
Vivian Fung: Prayer
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 18
Edvard Grieg: Suites from Peer Gynt
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 19
Festival Chamber Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With the Takács Quartet and Gabriela Lena Frank, composer
Florence Price: Adoration
Gabriela Lena Frank: World Premiere
Joan Tower: Concerto for Orchestra
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 21
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Colorado Music Festival musicians
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in C Major, op. 20 no. 2
Claude Debussy, Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Felix Mendelssohn, String Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20
7:30p.m. Tuesday, July 23
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Awadagin Pratt, piano
J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto in A major, S1055
Jessie Montgomery: Rounds for piano and string orchestra (2022)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 26
Festival Chamber Orchestra Concert Chamber Orchestra, Gemma New, conductor With Christina and Michelle Naughton, piano duo
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K525 —Concerto in E-flat Major for Two Pianos, K365 —Symphony No. 35 in D major, K385 (“Haffner”)
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28
Robert Mann Chamber Music Series Danish String Quartet
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet, op. 77 no. 2: III, Andante
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Turlough O’Carolan: Three Melodies
Mozart: Divertimento in F major, K138
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 in F major, op. 73
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 30
Festival Orchestra Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Augustin Hadelich, violin
Kevin Puts: Two Mountain Scenes (2007)
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, op. 70
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2
Festival FInale Concert Festival Orchestra, Peter Oundjian, conductor With Karina Gauvin, soprano
Johann Strauss: Overture to Die Fledermaus
Ravel: Shéhérazade
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G major
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4
Information on Subscription tickets is available HERE. Single concert tickets will go on sale March 5.
NOTE: A correction was made Feb. 10. An earlier version of the story said that the 2024 festival would last four weeks. The correct length is 31 days—between four and five weeks.
Festival premieres a work for our times, gives a driven Beethoven performance
By Peter Alexander July 2 at 12:40 a.m.
The 2021 Colorado Music Festival got off to a splendid start last night (June 1).
After the two-year pause from the pandemic, both the audience and the players on the Chautauqua Auditorium stage were clearly thrilled to be sharing music together again. That joy was briefly expressed by CMF executive director Elizabeth McGuire, and then music director Peter Oundjian strode out to get back to business.
Peter Oundjian and the CMF Orchestra.
The concert opened with the world premiere of the strings, harp and timpani version of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Elegy (to those we’ve lost). Originally written for piano, the music came from a deep well of personal experience on the part of the composer, who contracted COVID-19 himself and lost several friends. (You may hear the piano version together with a film by Esther Shubinski here.)
Aaron Jay Kernis
Elegy is music of relative simplicity and comfort, one that recalls other pieces played for memorial occasions. It is consoling throughout except for a brief moment just before the end, when a tumultuous passage briefly evokes the anguish of the pandemic. Oundjian elicited a sweet and flexible performance that captured well the consoling nature of Kernis’s score which has all the ingredients of a work for these times.
After Kernis took a bow with Oundjian, the conductor introduced violinist Augustin Hadelich for a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor. An increasingly celebrated soloist, Hadelich does not overwhelm with volume or sheer flash, but rather with the beauty, precision and delicacy of his playing.
In a wonderfully modulated performance, Hadelich took an overtly Romantic approach to the concerto. He used tempo, dynamics and tone quality to evoke all the kaleidoscopic moods of the score, and he gave the most dramatic and magically captivating reading of the first movement cadenza I have heard. Throughout the concerto, he brought out the sweetness and delicacy of the solo part to an extraordinary degree.
Augustin Hadelich
In the lyrical second movement, Hadelich showed his ability to sustain attention and the tension of the longest melodic lines. The finale was quite fast, with no loss of accuracy on the soloist’s part. There was one moment of imprecision with the wind players at the very beginning, but otherwise the movement was exceptionally brilliant, as is intended.
For an encore, Hadelich showed that his skills extend well beyond the Classical/Romantic repertoire, playing the “Louisiana Blues Strut” by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson with an idiomatic and raucous sense of fun that was well appreciated by the CMF orchestra as well as the audience.
The concert concluded with a driven performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony—a holdover from the planned 2020 festival that would have coincided with the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Wagner called the Seventh “the apotheosis of the dance,” and indeed every movement is based on strongly rhythmic ideas. Oundjian—conducting without a score—and the CMF orchestra gave a performance that was always bustling, even if it did not always quite dance.
The pace was brisk from the beginning of the slow introduction, which was precise and efficient, leading to a rushing allegro movement that happily observed the repeats Beethoven expected to hear, but that are often omitted today. Changes of volume or dynamics were used to great effect in the slow movement, although for my taste it has more suspense and pays off better at a slower tempo.
The same was true of the Scherzo and Finale, where the very fast tempos contributed to a loss of detail. Both would dance better with a slightly slower tempo and cleaner texture. The massive ritard in the middle of the Scherzo only emphasized how fast the rest of the movement was. The dynamics were well handled in these movements as well, with one exception.
Near the end of the finale, for the first time ever Beethoven calls for three f’s in the orchestra, a moment underlined by the full brass section. Clearly intended as the climax of the entire symphony, this moment should startle with its impact. But Oundjian had driven the entire movement so powerfully that Beethoven’s triple-f was just more of the same.
This was an early-summer performance—great players coming together for the first time in nearly two years, playing with great skill and precision, but not yet quite coalescing into a totally polished product. Clearly, the audience caught the excitement of the fast tempos and the joy the players felt at being back on stage. With a little more time together, I expect even more.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that the “Louisiana Blues Strut” is by the Black English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. That is incorrect. The composer is American Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.
On the program: Beethoven, Kernis world premiere, Hadelich plays Mendelssohn
By Peter Alexander June 29 at 11:30 p.m.
There will be much to celebrate when the 2021 Colorado Music Festival gets underway Thursday and Friday (July 1 and 2) at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder.
Peter Oundjian and the CMF Festival Orchestra. Photo by Michael Ensminger.
The return to the stage of CMF music director Peter Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra would be special in any music lover’s calendar. Imagine, being at a concert again—in person! with live performers!—after the past 15 months.
But there’s even more to love. There will be the world premiere of music in memory of those we lost to the pandemic, Elegy (to those we’ve lost) by Aaron Jay Kernis. And there will be a rising superstar performer, violinist Augustin Hadelich.
What more do you want?
Kernis wrote his Elegy, not from a commission but out of his own experience with COVID-19. CMF artistic director and conductor Peter Oundjian says, “He wrote to me and said ‘I’ve written this elegy to those we’ve lost.’ He got COVID and got pretty sick, and he lost friends. I said I’d love to open the festival with it, I think it’s just so perfect. It’s very beautiful, sad but in a way uplifting as well, because it’s so tender.”
The rest of the program will be Hadelich playing the much-loved Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, always among the top two or three orchestral works in popularity.
Augustin Hadelich
Hadelich gets asked to play the Mendelssohn Concerto often, but he can’t imagine ever saying no “Mendelssohn is a concerto where the violinist is really in charge,” he says. “You start playing right away and it’s a very dramatic role. And also very virtuosic.
“I would say that the Mendelssohn is harder than people think it is. You can’t underestimate it, but it’s very much worth it. Mendelssohn wastes no time, not a single second. It’s just so compact, because it’s not that long as a piece, but every second there’s something exciting or very beautiful going on.”
The Seventh Symphony is the first of several Beethoven pieces on the summer’s program. Later Oundjian will conduct the Third (Aug. 5) and Fifth (Aug. 7) symphonies, there will be a program of Beethoven chamber music (Aug. 7) and Hadelich will return to play the Violin Concerto (July 29 and 30). Oundjian has contributed his own arrangement of the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131, to the program on July 22.
Oundjian admits that Beethoven is hardly slighted by classical musicians around the world, but the celebration of his 250th birthday planned for 2020 was canceled by the pandemic. “Poor guy, he was going to have about a million performances last year, and they were all cancelled,” he says. Laughing, he adds “nobody knows who he is.
“But the truth is that he’s not 251 until December, so he’s still 250 this year.”
Between his two appearances, Hadelich will spend two weeks in Boulder as CMF artist-in-residence. Not all of his activities have been decided yet, but Hadelich says “I’m going to be doing whatever they have me doing—a masterclass and then some other activities. As long as I’m there I go wherever {the CMF] decides.”
He was in Boulder once before during the 2018 festival, and looks forward to having more time here. “It’s nice to come back and just enjoy for longer,” he says. “It’s a beautiful place, [and] I thought it was a wonderful hall. It sounds really good. I felt great on stage and I really enjoyed it.”
Several other events in the opening two weeks are noteworthy (see full listing below). One that is dear to Oundjian’s heart as a former violinist in the Tokyo String Quartet is the launching of a new Tuesday evening chamber music series named in honor of Robert Mann, founding violinist of the Juilliard Quartet.
That concert series will open July 6 with a program of string quintets by Mozart and Brahms, played by members of he CMF orchestra, followed by the current iteration of the Juilliard Quartet on July 13. Other chamber performers will appear on Tuesdays through Aug. 3.
Pianist Olga Kern, always a CMF audience favorite, returns to play concertos by Haydn and Shostakovich, the latter also featuring CMF principal trumpet Jeffrey Work playing the prominent trumpet solos (July 15 and 16). Pianist Conrad Tao, scheduled for the cancelled 2020 festival and a soloist with the Boulder Philharmonic in 2015, will play a concerto on an all-Mozart program July 18.
But the collaboration between Oundjian and Hadelich would be the highlight of any season. “I’m thrilled, he’s absolutely remarkable on every level,” Oundjian says of the violinist. “He’s an inspiration, he really is. He’s so thoughtful and he’s also a wonderful teacher and very generous.”
Hadelich is equally complimentary to Oundjian. “I’m thrilled to come back,” he says. “I always love playing with Peter because he’s such a great collaborator and musician, and always so sensitive. He’s just such a great character.
“I can’t wait to come to Boulder again.”
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Colorado Music Festival Schedule through July 18 All concerts in Chautauqua Auditorium
Peter Oundjian. Photo by Michael Ensminger.
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 1 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 2 Opening Night Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Augustin Hadelich, violin
Aaron Jay Kernis: Elegy (to those we’ve lost) (world premiere)
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92
11 a.m. Saturday, July 3 Family Concert: The Story of Babar Really Inventive Stuff, Erina Yashima, conductor
Leopold Mozart: Toy Symphony
Francis Poulenc: The story of Babar, the Little Elephant
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 6 String Quintets CMF Orchestra Members
Mozart: Viola Quintet in G minor, K516
Brahms: Viola Quintet in G major, op. 111
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 8 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 David Danzmayr, conductor, with Stewart Goodyear, piano
Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 22
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11 David Danzmayr, conductor, with Angelo Xiang Yu, violin
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Novelletten for string orchestra, nos. 3 and 4
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”)
Juilliard Quartet. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 13 Juilliard String Quartet
Ravel: String Quartet in F major
Henri Dutilleux: Ainsi la Nuit (Thus the night)
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (“American”)
7:30 Thursday, July 15 6:30 Friday, July 16 Ludovic Morlot, conductor, with Olga Kern, piano
Dvořák: Legends, op. 59 (6, 7 and 9)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, op. 25 (“Classical”)
Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, op. 35
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 18 Ludovic Morlot, conductor, with Conrad Tao, piano
Mozart: Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K367
Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major, K488
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550
The full calendar for the 2021 CMF season can be seen here. Tickets may be purchased through the Chautauqua Web page. Because health restrictions are subject to change over the summer, be sure to check the CMF 2021 tickets FAQ page.
Season will offer 22 performances at Chautauqua Auditorium July 1–Aug. 7
By Peter Alexander March 29 at 10 a.m.
The Colorado Music Festival’s 2021 summer season will include both live in-person performances at the Boulder Chautauqua Auditorium, and live streams you can view from home.
Chautauqua Auditorium
These will be the first in-person CMF performances at Chautauqua since the end of the 2019 season. Last year, the planned summer season was cancelled and replaced with a series of intimate performances featuring selected guest artists and interviews by the CMF Music Director, Peter Oundjian.
In a release from the festival, CMF executive director Elizabeth McGuire is quoted saying “After moving to a virtual festival in 2020, we look forward to offering safe, socially-distanced concerts, alongside streaming options for several of this season’s concerts. We want these performances to be available to as many people as possible.”
CMF Music Director Peter Oundjian
Oundjian is quoted in the same news release: “In our 2021 season, we wish to commemorate the challenges of the pandemic, while celebrating the return to live, communal music-making.”
The summer’s schedule will parallel previous summers in many ways: Major orchestra concerts will be played on Thursdays at 7:30 (July 1–Aug. 5); four of the six Thursday concerts will be repeated on the following Friday, this year at 6:30 p.m.; chamber concerts featuring renowned guest artists and CMF musicians, will be Tuesday nights (July 6–Aug. 3); and there will be concerts on Sunday evenings featuring smaller orchestral forces (July 11–Aug. 1).
The annual family concert, this year with Really Inventive Stuff performing Francis Poulenc’s Story of Babar, will be at 11 a.m. on the opening Saturday of the season, July 3. And the season will conclude at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7. Oundjian will lead orchestra concerts the first week of the festival, and weeks three through six, with guest conductors David Danzmayr and Ludovic Morlot picking up weeks two and three (see full schedule below).
Joan Tower. Photo by Bernie Mindich
There will be some notable innovations this year. The Tuesday chamber concerts will be known as the Robert Mann Chamber Music Series. Named for Robert Mann—composer, conductor, founding first violin of the Juilliard String Quartet and mentor to CMF Music Director Peter Oundjian—the series will feature CMF orchestra members, as well as three string quartets making their CMF debut appearances.
The first, on July 13, will be the Juilliard Quartet, which retains Mann’s legacy. The St. Lawrence String Quartet, once coached by Mann, will perform July 20, and the Danish String Quartet will present a strikingly original program, including a collection of dances, loosely modeled on the Baroque dance suites and assembled by the quartet from works by different composers, on Aug. 3.
The 2021 Festival will include four world premieres: commissions from Hannah Lash (July 22), Joan Tower (July 25) and Joel Thompson (Aug. 5), and a new work from Aaron Jay Kernis on opening night that will commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert on July 25 will be devoted entirely to works by Tower, who plans to attend the performance.
Summer artist-in-residence will be violinist Augustin Hadelich, who appeared at the festival in 2018, and was scheduled for the 2020 Festival. When the latter was canceled, he made a solo appearance from Oundjian’s home as one of the summer’s online presentations. This year he will play Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Oundjian and the Festival Orchestra on opening night, Thursday, July 1, and Friday, July 2; and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Thursday, July 29, and Friday, July 30.
Olga Kern, pianist, photographed by Chris Lee at Steinway Hall.
There will be other Beethoven performances through the summer: Symphony No. 7 on the opening concert (July 1 and 2); an orchestration of String Quartet No. 14, op. 131 (July 22); the Quintet for piano and winds, op. 16 and the Septet, op. 20 (July 27); Symphony No. 3 (Aug. 5) and Symphony No. 5 on the final concert (Aug. 7). Other traditional Classical repertoire will be represented through works by Haydn, Mozart, Brahms and Mendelssohn scattered through the summer.
Other solo artists during the summer will include CMF favorite Olga Kern (July 15–16), pianist Stewart Goodyear, violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, pianist Conrad Tao, marimbist Ji Su Jung, pianist Christopher Taylor, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and saxophonist Steven Banks. Boulder resident and longtime CMF supporter Chris Christoffersen will narrate Copland’s Lincoln Portrait (Aug. 1).
Tickets for the 2021 season will be for sale on the CMF Web page beginning April 20. The CMF release also noted that “guidance for safe social distancing practices will be observed closely in the months to come and will most likely include limiting the number of orchestra members on stage.“The event’s venue, Chautauqua Auditorium, will implement a COVID-19 safety plan throughout the 2021 season, including the latest guidelines for spacing between seats, distance between performers and audience members, and mask requirements for all.” Information and updates to the Chautauqua safety plan will be posted on the venue’s Web site.
CMF is offering a remote viewing experience for the 2021 Colorado Music Festival with a selection of the performances available via live streaming. For a full list of live-streaming performances and to purchase tickets beginning April 20, click here.
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Colorado Music Festival 2021 Season programs All performances in the Chautauqua Auditorium
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 1 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 2 Opening Night Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Augustin Hadelich, violin
Aaron Jay Kernis: Elegy (to those we’ve lost) (world premiere) Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64 Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92
11 a.m. Saturday, July 3 Family Concert: The Story of Babar Really Inventive Stuff, Erina Yashima, conductor
Leopold Mozart: Toy Symphony Francis Poulenc: The story of Babar, the Little Elephant
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 6 String Quintets CMF Orchestra Members
Mozart: Viola Quintet in G minor, K516 Brahms: Viola Quintet in G major, op. 111
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 8 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 David Danzmayr, conductor, with Stewart Goodyear, piano
Jessie Montgomery: Strum Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 22 Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11 David Danzmayr, conductor, with Angelo Xiang Yu, violin
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Novelletten for string orchestra, nos. 3 and 4 Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216 Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”)
Juilliard String Quartet
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 13 Juilliard String Quartet
Ravel: String Quartet in F major Henri Dutilleux: Ainsi la Nuit (Thus the night) Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (“American”)
7:30 Thursday, July 15 6:30 Friday, July 16 Ludovic Morlot, conductor, with Olga Kern, piano
Dvořák: Legends, op. 59 (6, 7 and 9) Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, op. 25 (“Classical”) Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11 Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, op. 35
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 18 Ludovic Morlot, conductor, with Conrad Tao, piano
Mozart: Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K367 Mozart: Piano Concerto in A major, K488 Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 20 St. Lawrence String Quartet
Haydn: String Quartet in D major, op. 20 no. 4 John Adams: String Quartet No. 1 Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, op. 10
Ji Su Jung
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 22 Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Ji Su Jung, marimba
Hannah Lash: Forestallings (CMF Co-commission) Kevin Puts: Concerto for Marimba Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14, op. 131 (orchestrated by Peter Oundjian)
7:30 p.m. Friday, July 23 “Kaleidoscope” CMF Orchestra strings and percussion, with Christopher Taylor, piano, and Ji Su Jung, marimba
Nebojsa Zivkovic: Trio per Uno Nico Muhly: Big Time for String Quartet and Percussion Peter Klatzow: Concert Marimba Etudes Derek Bermel: Turning Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert (Part IIC) Leigh Howard Stevens: Rhythmic Caprice William Bolcom: Piano Quintet No. 2
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 25 Music of Joan Tower Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 5 Joan Tower: Made in America Joan Tower: Duets Joan Tower: Cello Concerto (world premiere)
Augustin Hadelich
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 27 Colorado Music Festival Orchestra members
Beethoven: Quintet for piano and winds in E-flat major, op. 16 Beethoven: Septet in E-flat major, op. 20
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 29 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 30 Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Augustin Hadelich, violin
Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to Oberon Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op. 61
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1 Peter Oundjian, conductor, with Steven Banks, saxophone, and Chris Christoffersen, narrator
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man Florence Price: String Quartet No. 2 (Movement 2) Alexander Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, op. 109 Jacques Ibert: Concertino da Camera Copland: Lincoln Portrait
Brooklyn Rider
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3 Danish String Quartet PROGRAM CHANGE: Due to COVID, the Danish String Quartet is unable to travel to the United States. This date will be filled by the Brooklyn Rider string quartet. Their program will be:
Carolyn Shaw: Schisma
Oswaldo Golijov: Tenebrae
Schubert: Styring Quartet No 14 (“Death and the Maiden”)
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5 Peter Oundjian, conductor
Joel Thompson: World Premiere commission Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 55 (“Eroica”)
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7 Festival Finale Peter Oundjian, conductor
Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon septimi toni à 8, arr. R.P. Block Dvořák: Serenade for Wind Instruments in D minor, op. 44 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67
Conductor Peter Oundjian with the CMF Orchestra (2019)
Tickets on sale beginning April 20 on the CMF Web page.
Sharps & Flatirons 