United States Colorado Music Festival 2024 [1] – Various: Olga Kern (piano), Kabin Thomas (narrator), Colorado Festival Orchestra / Gemma New (director). Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder, Colorado, 19.7.2024. (DS)
Vivien Fung – ‘Prayer’
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No.2, Op.18
Grieg– Selections from Peer Gynt Suites 1&2
It was not just another busy travel day in July. I was waiting, hour after hour, to see if my flight would ever lift off during the recent global Microsoft technology crash so that I could make it for the anticipated third weekend of concerts at Boulder’s Colorado Music Festival. Many flights, including those of other folks hoping to hear Olga Kern’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2, were canceled with no imminent chance of rebooking. Sadly, they would miss out on a fantastic concert.
But something mysterious (and totally independent of any modern technology) must have intervened on my behalf. Because I made it – by running down the jetway, hailing a Lyft and speeding along the open roads of Colorado to pull up moments before the performance began at Boulder’s beautiful Chautauqua Auditorium.
While much composition these days incorporates computers, software, electronics and, sometimes, AI, Vivien Fung’s ‘Prayer’ is an interesting testament to a time when we were relieved to have new technology around us. She wrote the work during the isolation of COVID-19 to bring physically separated musicians across Canada together with recorded parts. It was intriguing to hear this ‘pandemic work’ in a concert hall now, with a full orchestra under one baton.
It transitions beautifully to the stage – this time with the unwavering expertise of conductor Gemma New. Based on a prayer by Hildegard von Bingen, Fung’s short work is a balm for the soul. ‘Prayer’ opened with the grounding sound of several basses as other sections slowly joined in, until a sonorous, multi-textured blend wafted into the vast wooden auditorium. I could not help but envision Fung writing the piece in isolation while wanting to capture a sense of the majestic profundity of spirit. She succeeded, skillfully and with stunning aesthetics – which would play as well on Zoom as on a mountain. At the close, the piece returns to a place of quiet introspection and then ends with a poignant, single ring from the percussion section. Fung’s composition captured the audience’s attention and proved that technology has not made it impossible to focus on one experience at a time.
With technology on the mind, I watched the Steinway lid open for Olga Kern’s performance of Rachmaninoff. Though we may take their existence for granted, instruments are also technological innovations of their time. Like any other invention, they can work well or break down and, like software, they work best with skilled, creative users. Kern is one such technological master of the piano. Just as a savvy Wall Street analyst might elegantly manipulate an Excel spreadsheet, Kern tears into the piano to demonstrate what it truly has to offer. And, of course, this is a lot more scintillating than a spreadsheet!
Kern performed with endless energy, powering through the Rachmaninoff concerto with a magnetic excitement. From my seat in the second row, I saw the instrument shake and jump on the stage, showing its strong Steinway backbone. But this was not just piano showmanship – it was a truly individual approach to a piece that audiences love and might expect to hear in a standard interpretation. Kern had other plans.
She lit a fresh fire under this behemoth work. At times her phrasing was jazzy, and sometimes she had a Chopinesque style. Glimmers of early Brahms flowed from her fingers. The concerto’s emotional content was putty in Kern’s hands: she accentuated anxious and nervous undertones with a fingering technique that emphasized her interpretation, and she turned passages into tender expressive moments without falling into the mainstream pit of nostalgic shmaltz. And every climax – of which Rachmaninoff is the master – she approached with an intriguing variety. For some, she used a sweeping gesture, and for others she would jump on with surprise or creep up on them with deliberate hesitancy. Kern made me fundamentally curious about and deeply drawn to this concerto again – not an easy feat.
Though in every way a soloist with a confident presence, Kern is also an ensemble player and fully engaged with the orchestra. Her rapport with conductor New (who stepped in for Rune Bergmann who had been scheduled) was far from hidden – they paired well and led the festival orchestra together. Their working relationship was evident and elevated the experience. In the second movement, there was a testament to Kern’s connection with the orchestra when she and the principal oboe played the opening of alternating voices as if next to each other in an intimate space rather than at a distance across the stage. It was heavenly.
The best summer festivals are often places of camaraderie where musicians separated by their seasonal jobs return to old friends in splendid settings like Boulder. Kern comes annually to the Colorado Music Festival and, after shouts of bravo from the audience, she beamed and announced her encore choices. One had the feeling that she was excited to share an intimate secret with us, as if she were playing a favorite piece alone at midnight. She gave a rendition of Prokofiev’s Etude No.4 in C minor that entwined the silly, serious and macabre magnificently. Kern finished with an audience favorite, Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, at such a rollicking speed that she out-paced any bee that might have tried to keep up.
The evening ended with selections from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites. Kabin Thomas of CPR Classical Radio joined in to tell Peer Gynt’s story between each movement, and he had a real knack for freshening up an old tale. He framed Peer Gynt as ‘the Homer Simpson of Norway’, which amused the audience, and he demonstrated listening expressions as he sat in front of the orchestra – a boon for those who want to approach classical music. Thomas modeled how to enter the space of listening through demonstration.
The orchestra performed with what struck me as a vintage radio style – vivid, perfectly balanced tone and dynamics, tight phrasing – all with the aim of sending a clear message to audiences of all kinds. Under New, who held the orchestra together with ease, they played especially engaging, sultry versions of ‘Anitra’s Dance’ and ‘Solveig’s Song’. Everyone could feel how each musician loved being part of the festival’s music-making.
By the end of the evening, thoughts of a four-hour flight delay were long gone. Technology has always been marching forward, with its benefits and its detriments. Along the way, music has been part of the journey of human creation. Once again, the music did not let anyone down, regardless of any global software crashes, and it brought exceptional artists and an inspired audience together.
Daniele Sahr