Welcome the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra and tomorrow’s conducting stars at their first concert of the season!

Wagner’s graphic portrayal of the lovers’ frustrated passion in Tristan und Isolde was considered scandalous, and his revolutionary harmonic language turned the music world upside down and paved the way for the 20th century. The Prelude and Liebestod bring us both the beginning and the end of the five-hour long opera, and have become concert favorites.

Respighi’s Fountains of Rome gave the composer his first big break, making him famous all over the world. He provided his own notes for the piece in the score, with this introduction: “In this symphonic poem the composer has endeavored to give expression to the sentiments and vision suggested to him by four of Rome’s fountains contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or in which their beauty appears most impressive to the observer.”

As was his habit, Brahms spent the summers of 1884 and 1885 composing in a quiet town in the Austrian Alps. In spite of the season and beautiful surroundings, the symphony which emerged from the 52 year-old Brahms was his darkest. The symphony’s serious mood caused Brahms concern about how it would be received. Joking, he wrote, “I’m really afraid that it tastes like the climate here. The cherries don’t ripen in these parts; you wouldn’t eat them!” Brahms needn’t have worried; from its first performance to the present, audiences have been devouring this magnificent masterpiece.

The run time for this performance is 1 hour 30 minutes.