The New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival
On July 22, the New York Philharmonic and music director Alan Gilbert open a series of concerts at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. The New York Philharmonic’s opening concert features Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, continuing the Festival’s series, “Beethoven: Architect of Humanity,” a multi-event immersion in the composer’s art. The orchestra’s residency, which continues through July 29, will also feature a star-studded line-up of soloists, including pianists Kirill Gerstein, Alexander Romanovsky, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and violinists Veronika Eberle, Augustin Hadelich, and Gil Shaham. The New York Philharmonic’s music director, Alan Gilbert, will conduct three programs, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (July 23) as the final installment in the Festival’s series “Golden Twilight: Music of Gustav Mahler.”
The Festival’s “Symphonic Tales” series concludes with two performances by the New York Philharmonic: Gilbert conducts Act II from Tchaikovsky’s beloved Nutcracker, based on an E.T.A. Hoffmann fairytale (July 24), and Ludovic Morlot, music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, undertakes Ravel’s famous orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (July 27). Like the original piano suite, this depicts an imaginary tour of a collection by the artist Viktor Hartmann, whose untimely death affected Mussorgsky deeply.
Rounding out the season’s generous programming are a number of “Summertime Classics” – concerts to delight both the connoisseur and the neophyte – which involve Bramwell Tovey, Grammy Award-winning music director of the Vancouver Symphony, conducting the New York Philharmonic in such showstoppers as Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances (July 28) and Gershwin’s suite from Porgy and Bess (July 29). The 24th Annual Gala, comprising a dinner, dance, and auction to the theme of “Through the Looking Glass,” will be held on July 23.
Composer-in-residence Gabriel Kahane arrives in Vail
Representing a new generation of homegrown talent, Bravo! Vail’s 2011 composer-in-residence Gabriel Kahane draws on a vast musical landscape of classical, indie, rock, pop, folk, and musical theater. His “copious talent” impressed the New York Times, while the Wall Street Journal advised: “Something really good is starting to happen here, and it’s well worth checking out.” Festivalgoers will have two evening-long opportunities to do so. On July 19, Kahane presents one of the Festival’s four “Soirées,” at which audience members can enjoy food and drink while Kahane entertains from the piano in the manner of Cole Porter, as he hosts “An Evening with Gabriel Kahane: Music for the Ear, Intellect and Soul.” The following night, he offers “The Artistry of Gabriel Kahane,” supported by the genre-defying yMusic, the composer’s “outstanding band of resourceful players” (New York Times), complete with the world premiere of a new Bravo! Vail commission.
About the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival
The Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival was founded in 1987 by John Giovando, an attorney with a love of classical music, with eminent violinist Ida Kavafian. Through world-class performances, dedicated leadership, and generous support from the community, the Festival has grown from attracting a handful of attendees to an annual audience of more than 60,000. More than 50 distinguished soloists visit the Vail Valley to perform in chamber ensembles and as soloists with the three world-class resident orchestras. Running from late June through early August, Bravo! Vail presents the highest level of music-making in spectacular Vail Valley venues, touching the lives of thousands of people – many of whom come to the area specifically to experience the pleasures of the Festival and the beauty of the majestic Rocky Mountains. As the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns observes, “Few if any classical music institutions west of the Mississippi have flourished as Bravo! has.”
Anne-Marie McDermott, a regular performer at the Festival, took the reigns this season as the third artistic director in Bravo! Vail’s 24-year history. The duo partner of Salerno-Sonnenberg and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, McDermott has been called “one of the great pianists of her generation” (Philadelphia Inquirer). She succeeds flutist Eugenia Zukerman, who explains: “Having often performed with Anne-Marie, I know that her musical insights and creative ideas will be great assets to Bravo!” The Festival’s founder and executive director, John Giovando, confirms that this has already proved to be the case, observing: “What a season she has designed for summer 2011: exciting, innovative, fun, and all to be performed by world-class artists!” McDermott’s season-opening solo recital was the first of her ten Festival appearances, which comprise both orchestral and chamber concerts, and the “Two-Piano Extravaganza” with which the summer concludes (Aug 3).
Tickets for the 24th season are available for purchase. See www.vailmusicfestival.org for further details.
Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival 2011 program details
Friday, July 15 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Dawn of a New Century
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life)
Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2
Philadelphia Orchestra / Stéphane Denève
Saturday, July 16 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
“O Fortuna”
Orff: Carmina Burana
Philadelphia Orchestra / Giancarlo Guerrero
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Colorado Children’s Chorale
Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano
Brian Asawa, countertenor
Hugh Russell, baritone
Monday, July 18 at 6pm
Vail Mountain School, Vail
Joie de Vivre: The Artistry of a New Generation
Ravel: String Quartet in F
Glazunov: Saxophone Quartet
Additional works TBD
Calder Quartet
(Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin; Jonathan Moerschel, viola; Eric Byers, cello)
Mana Saxophone Quartet
(Michael Hernandez, soprano sax; Michael Mortarotti, alto sax; Eric Barreto-Maymi, tenor sax; Dannel
Espinoza, baritone sax)
Jenny Chen, piano
Tuesday, July 19 at 6pm
Home of Jayne and Paul Becker, Arrowhead
Soirée II: An Evening with Gabriel Kahane – Music for the Ear, Intellect and Soul
Gabriel Kahane, singer/pianist/composer-in-residence
Wednesday, July 20 at 6pm
Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek
The Artistry of Gabriel Kahane
Gabriel Kahane, singer/pianist/composer-in-residence, with members of yMusic
Thursday, July 21 at 12pm
Vail Interfaith Chapel, Vail
Free & Easy II: Let Music Swell the Breeze – Sounds of America
Works by Philip Glass, Eric Moe, and Fred Frith
Calder Quartet
(Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin; Jonathan Moerschel, viola; Eric Byers, cello)
Mana Saxophone Quartet
(Michael Hernandez, soprano sax; Michael Mortarotti, alto sax; Eric Barreto-Maymi, tenor sax; Dannel
Espinoza, baritone sax)
Free
Friday, July 22 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Of Peasants and Heroes
Dvorák: Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
New York Philharmonic / Alan Gilbert
Veronika Eberle, violin
Saturday, July 23 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Luminous Magic and a Raging Sea of Sound
Mozart: Violin Concerto in A, K. 219 “Turkish March”
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor
New York Philharmonic / Alan Gilbert
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Saturday, July 23 at 8pm
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, Vail
Through the Looking Glass
24th Annual Gala
Dinner, dance, and auction
Sunday, July 24 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Russian Bravura and Dances of Fairytales
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra
Tchaikovsky: Act II from Nutcracker, Op. 71
New York Philharmonic / Alan Gilbert
Alexander Romanovsky, piano
Monday, July 25 at 5:30pm
Lodge and Spa at Cordillera
Free & Easy III: European Music through the Ages
Bach: Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F, K. 370
Bozza: Andante et Scherzo
Penderecki: Quartet
Von Koch: Miniatyrer
Mana Saxophone Quartet
(Michael Hernandez, soprano sax; Michael Mortarotti, alto sax; Eric Barreto-Maymi, tenor sax; Dannel
Espinoza, baritone sax)
Free
Monday, July 25 at 6pm
Home of Jerri and Steven Nagelberg
Soirée III: A Thing of Great Beauty
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Anne-Marie McDermott, Piano
Calder Quartet
(Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin; Jonathan Moerschel, viola; Eric Byers, cello)
Tuesday, July 26 at 6pm
Vilar Performing Arts Center
Chamber Bluegrass Jam Band
Chris Thile, mandolin
Edgar Meyer, double bass
Wednesday, July 27, 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Mardi Gras, a Beloved and a Friend
Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Walton: Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
New York Philharmonic / Ludovic Morlot
Gil Shaham, violin
Thursday, July 28 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
Tonight We Love à la Russe
Khachaturian: Waltz from Masquerade Suite
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Balakirev: King Lear Overture
Glazunov: Concert Waltz No. 1
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances
New York Philharmonic / Bramwell Tovey
Kirill Gerstein, piano
Friday, July 29 at 6pm
Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail
New York, Paris, and All That Jazz
Rodgers/Porter/Loewe, arr. Bennett: Salute to Broadway
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Gershwin: Catfish Row (Suite from Porgy and Bess)
New York Philharmonic / Bramwell Tovey
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Sunday, July 31 at 6pm
Home of Joan Francis
Soirée IV: Rocky Mountain Trout
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A (“Trout”)
Michelle Kim, violin
Cynthia Phelps, viola
Carter Brey, cello
Edgar Meyer, bass
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Sunday, July 31 at 7:30pm
Brush Creek Pavilion, Eagle Ranch
Free & Easy IV: Brahms and Haydn
Brahms: String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 67
Haydn: String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 33, No. 2
Calder Quartet
(Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin; Jonathan Moerschel, viola; Eric Byers, cello)
Monday, August 1 at 12pm
Little Beach Amphitheater, Minturn
Free & Easy V: A Latin American Encounter
Mana Saxophone Quartet
(Michael Hernandez, soprano sax; Michael Mortarotti, alto sax; Eric Barreto-Maymi, tenor sax; Dannel
Espinoza, baritone sax)
Wednesday, August 3 at 6pm
Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek
4 x 4 – A Two Piano Extravaganza
Works by Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Gershwin
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Stephen Prutsman, piano
Joyce Yang, piano
For tickets and other information, please visit the Festival’s web site at:
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July 2011