Edward Stephan News Today

In a possible high-stakes test for the Albanese government, the case of Gregor Haas, father of NRL star Payne, has the making of a three-way diplomatic tangle.

In a possible high-stakes test for the Albanese government, the case of Gregor Haas, father of NRL star Payne, has the making of a three-way diplomatic tangle.

Over the past few days concert goers at the Aspen Music Festival heard a Chinese composer’s piece for piano and orchestra that swerved from celestial beauty to agonizing noise, a saxophonist who delineated music by composers from Baroque to Björk with a pop artist’s flair, Wynton Marsalis’ delightful jazz-infused version of a Stravinsky classic and a 45-minute rumination of the history of time that spread sections of the orchestra around the perimeter of the music tent.

The Aspen Music Festival rewarded pianist Anton Nel with a recital all his own to mark his 25th year as a member of the festival school’s faculty. In typical fashion Nel turned Harris Hall into a celebration of collaboration.

Opening weekend for the Aspen Music Festival leaned heavily into this year’s theme, “Adoration of the Earth,” from Sea Interludes to the Rite of Spring. The most musically compelling aspect, though, was a chance to compare and contrast piano soloists such as the fiery Daniil Trifonov, the elegant Joyce Yang and the mercurial Alexander Malofeev.

Concert pianist Anton Nel loves to breathe the thin mountain air on daily dawn walks, dine in fine restaurants and cook with friends when he comes to Aspen every summer. But his biggest motivation is to teach promising young talent and play chamber music with musicians who share his passion for the art form.

Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, the composer’s darkest work, made a tempestuous comeback in Davies Symphony Hall. 

Each of the program’s three pieces ran an impressive length, but under the guidance of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the orchestra pulled off the feat with intricate execution.

Lost at Sea: How the USS Grayback Disappeared into the Pacific Seventy-five years later, a privately funded expedition set out to find Grayback’s lost wreck. Heres What You Need to Remember: The crew of the Grayback, and those of her victims, sacrificed their lives for their countries in a pitiless war of unsurpassed scale and violence. Her rediscovery three-quarters of a century later is a unique opportunity to commemorate the bravery of the eighty souls that remain entombed within her. O...

Under guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein, the orchestra played a snippet of music by Florence Price.