Wu Han and Rita Sloan open the Salida Aspen Concert series Saturday, July 9th at the John Held Auditorium.
The 35th season of Salida Aspen Concerts opens Saturday, July 9 with performances by two established pianists, Wu Han and Rita Sloan, who teach at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Wu Han’s daughter Lillian Finkel and another Aspen student Brian Ge.
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. at John Held Auditorium, 10th and D Streets.
Pianist Wu Han normally plays with her noted husband, cellist David Finckel, but this time will perform with their daughter Lillian. They will play an original version of “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin for one piano, four hands. Arranged for orchestra, the work was an instant success when it premiered in New York in 1924.
“Sonata in C Major, K. 19d,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be played on the same piano by Wu Han and Brian Ge. Mozart wrote and played the composition with his sister in 1765 while they were on tour through Europe as musical prodigies. The piece is considered the one of the best of Mozart’s early period.
Wu Han and Rita Sloan will perform American composer Samuel Barber’s “Souvenirs, suite for piano, 4 hands, opus 28.”
Finckel and Ge will perform Francis Poulenc’s “Sonata for Piano Duet” of 1918. This is one of several pieces Poulenc wrote for the four-hand piano repertoire.
The composer of the encore selection is being kept secret until the night of the concert. It will be a remarkable work for one piano, eight hands, requiring seating for four people at the piano.
Tickets cost $15.00 (students $3.00) at the door or online at www.salidaaspenconcerts.org.
A pre-concert talk with the artists is scheduled for 6:30-7 p.m.
The Salida Aspen Concert series of six concerts is made possible by contributions and sponsorships mostly from the local community in the Upper Arkansas River Valley.
The next concerts in this year’s series are scheduled as follows:
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