- [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by: the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto,.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Additional support provided by these funders.

(lively instrumental music) - So, Classical Tahoe 2021 is an entirely different experience.

Last year, during the pandemic, we had to come way down from our normal full orchestra, down to chamber ensembles for small audiences about 25, which was what was admissible at the time.

- This year, we have a very different venue.

This beautiful Ricardi Pavilion, which normally it looks like the Sydney Opera House and it's just an elegant, gorgeous thing.

- It's a pop-up concert hall on the campus of Sierra Nevada University.

Normally it's enclosed on all sides to get us the acoustics we want, but again, due to COVID, we decided to not install the back wall.

So the orchestra is under the canopy and our theater seats are out under the trees and the fresh air.

- Music under the pines, literally under the pines.

I mean, how is that?

You have the waft of pine scent, you're listening to some of the most beautiful music in the whole world, the sun is setting, the lights come up inside the pavilion to light the musicians.

It's just really very magical.

- Johann Strauss has a very specific style.

He's a Viennese composer, and Viennese music of that particular time had a certain kind of, for lack of a better term, a certain kind of swing that was very, is very much ingrained in that culture's music making.

And even to this day, when you go to Vienna and you hear the Vienna Philharmonic play this music, they have this really natural feel for the way the swing of this music is.

And so the biggest challenge with doing a piece like Johann Strauss is trying to recreate that and trying to embody that swing, In the "Fledermaus" overture, this is quintessential Viennese drama, so there is lively dancing.

You can imagine dancing in a big ballroom with the ball gowns and everything.

There is overly sentimental dramatic music, and it's meant to be very kind of over the top, schmaltzy dramatic.

And then just these lively bursts of energy with the virtuosic playing in the orchestra.

And so that's kind of the thing that I find really nice about the overture is that there's this kind of this gamut of different sounds and different, but all quintessentially sort of Viennese.

(lively music) (soft instrumental music) (lively music) (soft instrumental music) (light music) (lively music) (soft instrumental music) (pleasant music) (lively music) (suspenseful music) (cheerful music) (gentle music) (lively music) (light music) (suspenseful music) (cheerful music) (lively music) (audience cheers) (audience applauds) - Emmanuel Ceysson, who is familiar to our audiences, he was even part of the 2020 Chamber Series.

There is no one who can get an audience going with that red harp as he can.

And this is a particularly challenging piece by Rodrigo.

- Joaquin Rodrigo composed a concerto for the harp itself.

It was dedicated to a famous Spanish harpist who lived in the second half of the 20th century, his name was Nicanor Zabaleta.

And he was Spanish, Nicanor Zabaleta, and so of course Joaquin Rodrigo being a Spanish composer and being well known in his country, asked Nicanor if he would be interested in playing a new piece by him.

And of course, Nicanor Zabaleta accepted and here was born the "Concierto Serenata" that I am playing here.

(gentle instrumental music) (upbeat music) (suspenseful music) (light music) (gentle music) (pleasant music) I like the fact that it was composed for a male harpist, played and created and premiered by a male harpist in Spain and the fact that I am a male harpist also, European, not Spanish, but European.

And I am playing on the harp that was designed by a Basque harpist, French harpist, but close to Spain so there is all of these things that are meeting and reuniting there.

- He's been working on it for one year.

- It's really exploring all the capacity of the harp in a difficult, technical way, so it's a challenge for me, it was a challenge for me to learn it.

- And he's a brilliant player, so when he says it's a challenging piece, I think that that's actually very, very, very true.

(gentle harp music) (soft instrumental music) (gentle harp music) (soft instrumental music) (gentle music) (light instrumental music) (pensive music) (light harp music) (lively music) (gentle harp music) (soft instrumental music) (gentle harp music) (lively music) (light dramatic music) (light instrumental music) (lively music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (lively music) (light music) (upbeat music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (upbeat music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (audience cheers) (audience applauds) - And as a very short, very short encore that I dedicate to the past Joel Revzen that we are still honoring this year because we are playing his ultimate programmation.

I dedicate him this short piece by Francois Couperin called "Les Baricades Misterieuses."

The Misterieuses Fences.

Thank you very much.

(audience applauds) (light harp music) (audience applauds) - Our repertoire this summer is chock full of pieces that are very familiar to the public.

When we play Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, everybody out in the audience, whether they walked in knowing it or not, will be like "Oh, right, that's where that comes from."

You know?

- He's truly like Tchaikovsky inside out.

Tchaikovsky's feelings, conflicts and emotions.

Anybody that would listen to that, I'm sure that is gonna be able to feel it into understanding.

(light dramatic music) (pleasant music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (suspenseful music) (dramatic music) (soft music) - The third movement ends very very quietly.

You have these string pizzicatos that end really, really, really softly, and then out of nowhere, there's this crash with really fast virtuosic strings, bombastic brass playing.

It's tons and tons of fun and I like to think of that as just being very celebratory.

It's kind of indicative of where we've been and where we hope to be.

This idea of just celebration and enthusiasm and fun and togetherness.

(dramatic music) (light music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (soft music) (light dramatic music) (soft music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (soft music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (light dramatic music) (light music) (playful music) (light dramatic music) (dramatic music) (audience cheers) (audience applauds) (light dramatic music) (light music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by: the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Additional support provided by these funders.