STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The 2023 Sun Valley Music Festival’s summer season got off to a rollicking start Sunday night as pianist Orli Shaham pounded out Ravel’s “Concerto in G Major for Piano along with nearly three dozen festival musicians.
Shaham’s fingers were mesmerizing as they zoomed up and down the keys with grace and expressiveness.
Shaham, born in Jerusalem to two Israeli scientists, will perform another Ravel piece—Trio in A Minor For Piano, Violin and Cello--on Thursday. She will perform with Festival violinist Juliana Athayde and cellist Born Ranheim.
This week’s highlights:
TONIGHT, TUESDAY, AUG. 1—SIEGFRIED IDYLL AND BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY
The Festival Chamber Orchestra will perform Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 2 in D Major.”
Wagner composed the symphonic poem for his wife after the birth of their son. It was first performed on Christmas morning in 1870, originally named “Triebschen Idyl with Fidi’s birdsong and the orange sunrise.” Fidi was the family’s nickname for Siegfried.
Meant to be a private piece, he eventually sold the score to meet financial obligations.
Beethoven wrote his symphony as his deafness was becoming more pronounced. One Viennese critic wrote that it was “a hideously writhing, wounded dragon that refuses to die, but writhing in its last agonies and, in the fourth movement, bleeding to death.”
More recently, musicologist Robert Greenberg described the opening motif as “a hiccup, belch or flatulence followed by a groan of pain,” according to Wikipedia.
One wonders what was going through their heads, as the symphony is joyful, playful and utterly uplifting.
THURSDAY, AUG. 3—CHAMBER CONCERT
Orli Shaham will perform Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess.
She, Athayde and Ranheim will follow that up with Reena Esmails’ Saans (Breath). The three will also perform Ravel’s Trio in A Minor for Piano Violin and Cello.
FRIDAY, AUG. 4—MOZART AND GINASTERA
The Festival Orchestra will perform Wolfgang Mozart’s Concerto in C Major for Oboe featuring guest oboe player Erik Behr. This is the only piece Mozart ever composed for the oboe; it also is scored for two horns and strings. It’s one of the most important concertos in the oboe repertoire.
The orchestra will follow that up with Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones concertantes.” Ginastera is an Argentinian composer who is considered one of the most important 20th century classical composers of the Americas.
The Festival’s new associate conductor, Stephanie Childress, will make her first appearance with the baton before a Sun Valley audience at this concert.
The free concerts start at 6:30 p.m. at the Sun Valley Pavilion.