United States Aspen Music Festival (XI): Denk dashes off Schoenberg concerto, Isbin shows pluck, Weilersteins wow in Dvorak and Shostakovich. 6.8.2012 (HS)
Harvey Steiman
Aspen X: Percussion Detonates a Memorable Week
United States Aspen Music Festival X: American String Quartet wows with Beethoven Op. 130; a Weilerstein family recital emphasizes the “chamber” in chamber music; McDuffie and Spano make Brahms sing; and the Percussion Ensemble rattles the walls of Harris Hall. 3.8.2012 (HS)
Aspen IX: Bronfman in Brahms, Dazzling Jackiw and Yang
United States Aspen Music Festival IX: Bronfman finds the soul in Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2; Jackiw and Yang dazzle with Mozart, Strauss, Bartók and Fulmer; and Yang gets crisp with Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2. 30.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen VIII: Sondheim and Mahler Rule
United States Aspen Music Festival (8): Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, plus a stunning Rückert Lieder from Michelle DeYoung, a lively program from Gil Shaham and friends, and lapidary piano playing from Ann Schein. 27.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen VII: Riveting Schuman, Fascinating Ligeti
United States Aspen Music Festival (7): Wolff, McDuffie triumph with Schuman; Fliter delivers impassioned Beethoven; Kahane’s Beethoven more elegant. 23.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen VI: A Startling 21-Year-Old, Regrettable Rachmaninov and Ravel
United States Aspen Music Festival (6): American Brass Quintet debuts colorful new work, The Magic Flute set in New York, and Benabdallah flounders in Rachmaninov. 16/17/18.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen V: Artists on Fire in the New and the Familiar
United States Aspen Music Festival (5): Meyer and Bell in Meyer’s new double concerto; Auerbach’s solo take on Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures’; Trpceski vivid in Tchaikovsky concerto. 13-15.7.2012 (HS)
Aspen IV: The Emerson’s, Hamelin and Weirdly Fascinating Crumb
United States Aspen Music Festival (4): Emerson Quartet wields powerful Shostakovich; Hamelin hammers and caresses the piano; Hope and Kahane mesh smoothly especially in Walton and Schulhoff; and a strange and wonderful program of Crumb and Mendelssohn. 10-12.7.2012 (HS)