Welcome classical rock star Lang Lang in his Aspen debut! Described in 2000 by the Chicago Tribune as "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals," he has now matured into an artist who Herbie Hancock says "never ceases to touch your heart."

This crowd-pleasing recital opens with Faure's popular Pavane, originally written for piano and later arranged for orchestra with optional chorus. Schumann's early work Kreisleriana was inspired by Johannes Kreisler, a half-mad musical genius created by E.T.A. Hoffmann, whose story Nutcracker and the Mouse King was immortalized in Tchaikovsky's ballet. It was the composer's own favorite piece, written in only four days during his clandestine courtship of Clara Wieck. It's partly a love letter in disguise for her. "Play my Kreisleriana sometimes!" he told her. "There's a very wild love in a few movements, and your life and mine and many of your looks."

The rest of the program features seven of Chopin's 59 mazurkas, love letters to the ex-pat composer's native Poland and the temperament of its people. These dances are full of elegance, sophisticated harmonies, and rhythmic drive. Topping things off is another Polish dance, the polonaise, heard here in an especially passionate and heroic rendering.

Don't miss a rare opportunity to hear an icon of the piano world as Lang Lang takes the stage in the Klein Music Tent!