Stefan Jackiw is one of America's foremost violinists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. This work features Bruch's crowd-pleasing Scottish Fantasy, a piece featuring actual Scottish folk melodies which the composer probably borrowed from a popular collection of tunes curated by Robert Burns and Stephen Clarke in the late 18th century. Bruch also makes liberal use of the harp in the score to subtly evoke Scottish traditional music.

Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family, upon his father's advice, he became a Protestant in order to take full advantage of opportunities in increasingly anti-Semitic Germany. Aware that the year 1830 was to be celebrated as the tercentennial of the Augsburg Confession submitted by Luther to the Emperor Charles V in 1530, he felt drawn to write a symphony commemorating the occasion. The work had a rough beginning. While battling a case of the measles, Mendelssohn raced to finish it in time. Then, with political tensions rising across Europe, the tercentennial celebrations were canceled. A subsequent Paris performance was also canceled after the musicians declared the work unplayable. When Mendelssohn finally conducted the premiere with the subtitle "Symphony to Celebrate the Church Revolution," he promptly withdrew it from publication, later saying this was the one score he wished he could destroy. Fortunately he didn't. This stirring work with its splendid finale that quotes Bach’s great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" finally came into its own as one of Mendelssohn's most frequently performed works.

The program opens with the US premiere of the fully orchestrated version of Thomas Adès' 1994 short work, The Origin of the Harp. This evocative and melodious score, based on a Celtic myth, depicts a lovelorn water nymph being changed into a harp by the gods.

Hear the inaugural program of this summer's Aspen Chamber Symphony in a program overflowing with orchestral color!