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The Aspen Music Festival and School announces its winter music lineup of classical music and Live in HD productions.
Live in HD
In conjunction with the Wheeler Opera House, it brings a curated series of The Metropolitan’s Live in HD productions to Aspen’s historic opera house.
Cherubini’s Medea, 5:30 p.m. Feb. 14
Having triumphed at the Met in some of the repertory’s fiercest soprano roles, Sondra Radvanovsky stars as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing in her quest for vengeance, kicking off the 2022–23 Live in HD season. Joining Radvanovsky in the Met-premiere production of Cherubini’s rarely performed masterpiece is tenor Matthew Polenzani as Medea’s Argonaut husband, Giasone; soprano Janai Brugger as her rival for his love, Glauce; bass Michele Pertusi as Medea’s father, Creonte, the King of Corinth; and mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Medea’s confidante, Neris.
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Verdi’s La Traviata, 5:30 p.m. Feb. 28
Soprano Nadine Sierra stars as the self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta — one of opera’s ultimate heroines — in Michael Mayer’s production of Verdi’s tragedy. Tenor Stephen Costello is her self-centered lover, Alfredo, alongside baritone Luca Salsi as his disapproving father, and Maestro Daniele Callegari on the podium.
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Kevin Puts’s The Hours, 5:30 p.m. March 7
Soprano Renée Fleming makes her return to the Met in the world-premiere production of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts’ The Hours, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s acclaimed novel. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and made a household name by the Oscar-winning 2002 film version starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, the story follows three women from different eras who each grapple with their inner demons and their roles in society. The premiere radiates with star power, with soprano Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato joining Fleming as the opera’s trio of heroines. Phelim McDermott directs this drama, with Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct Puts’ score.
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Winter Music
Aspen Music Festival and School also presents Winter Music at Harris Concert Hall. All performances start at 6:30 p.m.
Pacifica Quartet, Feb. 16
Since its appointment to lead the AMFS’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies in 2017, this multiple Grammy Award-winning quartet has been a fixture at the festival with performances and instruction. Pacifica Quartet kick offs its Aspen recital with Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 2. Next, the ensemble showcases its musicality with a work from its recent Grammy-winning album: Shulamit Ran’s Third String Quartet, “Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory.” Ran pays tribute to the artwork of German-Jewish painter Felix Nussbaum in this four-movement work. The program concludes with Dvořák’s “American” Quartet.
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Alexander Malofeev, Feb. 23
Since winning his first major international competition at age 13, pianist Alexander Malofeev has captured the world’s attention. Still only 20, he regularly performs with top orchestras around the world, garnering critical praise for his technical prowess and emotional maturity. Following his debut with the Aspen Festival Orchestra during the 2022 festival, the young star returns to Aspen for a solo recital of wide-ranging piano sonatas.
Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata opens his winter program. A dynamic sonata from a lesser-known Polish composer and friend of Shostakovich, Mieczsław Weinberg, follows. Though his music was largely disregarded during his lifetime, many of Weinberg’s works have been rediscovered posthumously. The program closes with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2.
Liudmila Malofeeva
Joyce Yang piano, March 16
AMFS alumna and pianist Joyce Yang takes audiences on a musical journey as she plays works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky.
In a number of selections from Tchaikovsky’s Les saisons, Yang musically represents the passage of time and the changing seasons over the course of a year. The program continues with a hand-picked assortment of works from Rachmaninoff’s Thirteen Preludes. Then comes three movements from Stravinsky’s first ballet, The Firebird. The “Danse infernale” kickstarts the work; “Berceuse” presents a hypnotic musical lullaby; and the “Finale” completes the journey.
Single tickets go on sale Jan. 17. For more information, visit aspenmusicfestival.com.