Robert Spano conducts Lieberson and Falla — With Joyce Yang and Kelley O'Connor

Full of Hispanic flair, this concert from the 75th anniversary season of the Aspen Music Festival and School brings together Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor and Van Cliburn Piano Competition medalist Joyce Yang — a proud Aspen alumna! — with the festival's music director Robert Spano and the Aspen Chamber Symphony. First, Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs — written for his wife, the late, great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and championed in recent years by the velvet-toned O'Connor — gives enchanting melody to some of the Chilean poet's most beautiful lines. Two works by legendary Spanish composer Manuel de Falla round out the program: the headily transporting Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), a sort of miniature piano concerto that spotlights Yang's "scintillating energy and imagination [and] fearless, fiery quality" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune); and the flamenco-infused score from the ballet El amor brujo, featuring the famous "Ritual Fire Dance."

Robert Spano and Kelley O'Connor talk about the Neruda Songs in our feature on American music at Aspen; and maestro Spano and Joyce Yang talk about Noches en los jardines de España in our feature on the Aspen Chamber Symphony!

Photo © KT Kim
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