STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The popular Time for Three returns to the Sun Valley Pavilion tonight when the full Sun Valley Music Festival orchestra takes the stage.
And the orchestra will continue its exploration of the music of Schumann and Beethoven during week No. 2 of the 2025 summer symphony season.
The orchestra opened this year’s summer season with Caracas, Venezuela, Grammy Award-winning pianist Gabriela Martinez, who enchanted the audience with the ballerina-like moves of her hands and arms as she played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor.
Picnickers missed out on their charcuterie boards and pasta salads Tuesday and Thursday when the threat of lightning prompted safety personnel to ask them to “Please Leave the Lawn Immediately” in bold yellow on the Jumbotron.
Musicians played on and the threatening storms never came.
Time for Three will perform a new concerto written for them by Mason Bates who, too, is no stranger to the Sun Valley Music Festival.
This piece, which was co-commissioned by the Sun Valley Music Festival, is titled “Silicon Hymnal, and Bates describes it as “an electro-acoustic book of songs.” The triple concerto unfolds in progressively more expansive movements from the opening “Hypnotica” to the finale.
It drifts in and out of focus in a dreamlike manner, serves up a heavy hip hop beat at one point and a fiddle reel inspired by Scottish folk songs. It also contains airy violin textures, a recasting of a 19th century hymn and jazz harmonies. Something for everyone?
The festival orchestra also will perform Hector Berlioz’s “Roman Carnival Overture,” an exuberant 9-minute piece of dashing dance themes inspired by the composer’s time in Italy. Be sure to catch the English horn melody and the folk dance in triple time.
WEDNESDAY, Aug 6
The Gala concert featuring pianist Yuja Wang is the only ticketed performance of the symphony season, designed to raise funds so the remainder of the season can be offered free of charge.
Wang will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Sun Valley Music Festival orchestras as the backdrop.
For tickets, go to https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/svmusicfestival/3977.
THURSDAY, Aug. 7
The orchestra will open with Arturo Marquez’s Danzon No. 2, a hypnotic dance tune made famous by its appearance in “Mozart in the Jungle.”
It’ll follow that up with Beethoven’s Romance No. 2 in F Major with San Francisco Symphony violinist Polina Sedukh’s violin singing the lovely melody. The 8-minute piece shines the spotlight on oboes, bassoons, horns and flute.
Assistant conductor Stephanie Childress will then lead the orchestra as it plays Schumann’s powerful and dramatic Symphony No. 4, which runs the gamut of emotion from darkly brooding and mysterious to tender and melancholic.
Schumann wrote the symphony during a prolific time in his life following his marriage to piano virtuoso Clara Wieck in September 1840. It was considered experimental and unorthodox when it premiered. Schumann revised it 12 years later and in 1853 it met with resounding success.
FRIDAY, Aug. 8
Intermediate and beginning students will perform at 3 p.m. as part of the Prelude String Orchestra, Prelude Choir, Concert choir and Philharmonia Orhestra. They also will present piano duets and woodwind and brass ensembles.
Advanced students and ensembles will perform at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Chamber Singers, Advanced Chamber Orchestra and Sun Valley Youth Orchestra. Count on the concert to be fast-paced, lively and polished, likely with some familiar music you can hang your hat on.
All concerts are at 6:30 p.m. with seats available inside the Pavilion and on the lawn where picnics are allowed.