Well, the Music Festival has officially started, although I feel like I’ve been working my butt off for three weeks already. Oh wait. I have. I’ll tell you, interviewing famous musicians isn’t as easy as it sounds. But I do admit it's fun, I’m learning a lot, and it’s going to be a great experience this summer.
So by “officially started” I mean that last night was the first concert, and this is the big opening weekend. Joshua Bell is performing tonight, and there’s all sorts of cool world premiere music happening at the Sunday concert. There are music students all over campus, rushing to rehearsals and lessons. The two buildings next to me are for private lessons, so every time I walk past I get to hear strains of violin concerti and such. Instead of finding practice rooms, many of the more mobile music students will just set up a music stand in a grove of trees and play. I can’t say I blame them one bit.
>>Fast Forward to the end of the weekend>>
Well I am happy to report that I’ve attended my first Aspen Music Festival and School concert. I caught the Friday night concert with Jeffrey Kahane playing and conducting, and Joshua Bell performing. The concert was really fabulous! They played Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, which has always been a favorite of mine. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve heard Joshua Bell perform live, and he was really phenomenal. The programming choice was interesting… rather than performing a concerto, he had two concert pieces, by Chausson and Ravel. Chausson’s Poeme was very elegantly executed, and it was a nice change from the normal repertoire. The Ravel Tzigane was nice and showy, everything you expect from the closing piece on a program, and everybody was very appreciative.
This evening will be concert number two for me… David Finckel (cello) and Wu Han (piano) are in recital tonight, and are premiering a new cello sonata that sounds very interesting. And then they’re performing the Grieg sonata as well, which is in my top five cello sonatas… I actually have a recording of them doing the Grieg, so it should be nice to hear it live tonight.
More excitement and concerts to follow this summer!