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The incomparable Inon Barnatan returns to Aspen for Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor. The Evening Standard called him “a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer recognized his “breathtaking charisma that comes from gorgeously turned-out technique, a masterly sense of color, and an expressiveness that can question, weep, or shout joy from the rooftops.”

The illustrious Michael Rusinek and Nancy Goeres will join the Aspen Chamber Symphony to play Strauss’s Duet-Concertino. Strauss wrote the piece near the end of his life with an old friend in mind—the former principal bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic who had emigrated to New York. Originally, Strauss considered basing the piece on a Hans Christian Andersen story in which a prince (the bassoon) pretends to be a pig handler in the palace of the princess (the clarinet) in order to court her. When the concerto was completed, Strauss jokingly wrote to his friend suggesting a different program: “A dancing princess is alarmed by the grotesque cavorting of a bear in imitation of her. At last she is won over to the creature and dances with it, upon which it turns into a prince. So in the end, you too will turn into a prince and live happily ever after...” Take your pick, pigs or bears, or just enjoy this lovely work as a purely musical experience.

Two Haydn symphonies bookend the program. The “Hornsignal” gets its nickname from the prominent role given to the four horns. In the second movement of the “Military” Symphony, a march turns into something scarier, at least to the audience of Haydn’s day. A battery of percussion including bass drum, triangles, and cymbals, associated at the time with Turkish military music, enters with a loud crash. The effect may seem almost whimsical to our ears, but at the time, one reviewer described “the clash of arms, the groans of the wounded, and what may well be called the hellish roar of war increase to a climax of hellish sublimity… though other composers might conceive such a thing, [Haydn] alone has effected these wonders.” The audience went wild, and Haydn had yet another hit on his hands.

Savor the sounds of Haydn and Strauss at this delightful concert conducted by the irrepressible Nicholas McGegan!