-Funding for this program has been provided by... the FS Foundation... ♪♪♪ ...Reno Tahoe... ♪♪♪ ...the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe... Laurie Harden and Silvio Ricardi... Alvaro and Linda Pascotto... Madylon and Dean Meiling.

♪♪♪ -Welcome to "Classical Tahoe."

My name is Jake Heggie, and I'm delighted to share some concerts we performed recently in one of the most spectacular settings in America.

Today's program features music by Beethoven, Mozart, Gluck, and Brahms.

-"Classical Tahoe" is a magical combination of wonderful music and fantastic people in a ridiculously beautiful location.

-Since the first time here, like, I fell in love with the space, obviously, with its people, and with the whole mood of the festival, which is really relaxed but also very serious in the music-making.

-There's a lot of camaraderie between the musicians.

It's a good combination of high-level music-making and enjoyment of the outdoors.

-I have had the most wonderful time the entirety of Lake Tahoe, both in Nevada and in California, the surrounding mountains, this ocean in the mountains.

It's just unbelievable.

-What we're trying to do is keep our intimate experience, but be able to broadcast it so that people can have a front-row seat to both this beautiful place and this kind of quality musical experience.

-The pavilion is all lit up like a fairyland.

-It's magical.

It's it's one of a kind.

-It's like a block party.

Everybody knows each other in the audience.

And over the course of time, they've gotten to know us.

-After every performance, somebody always comes to me and introduces themselves.

-They're so personal and enthusiastic.

-We've made this community together, so that makes it like family here.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -So, we also performed Mozart's "Harp and Flute Concerto" yesterday, and it's always really beautiful when you can feature the musicians from the orchestra, because in this orchestra, you have the best players from all over the country, so it's nice to get to highlight two of them at the same time.

-This piece by Mozart was my first introduction to music when I was 6 years old.

It was love at first listen for me.

It actually is the reason why I chose the harp.

My mother, apparently, when she was pregnant with me -- she had to lay in her bed for six months out of nine because of medical reasons, and she listened to a lot of music and especially this piece of music by Mozart.

The question is, did I recognize it when I was 6 years old or was it, like, you know...

So, for this time in "Classical Tahoe," I had the pleasure to share the stage with Erik Gratton, who is the principal flute of the Nashville Symphony.

I actually met with Erik at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

And the good thing also is that he is French Canadian.

So for me, it was very convenient to have someone to speak to in French.

He phrases beautifully on the flute and he has a very beautiful sound, too, and his attention to intonation is great.

I really had a great time playing with him.

I think when you define it well, it's really a crowd-pleaser, and for me, once again, it was one of the piece that made me choose the harp and play it for my whole life, so it's powerful.

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But this is a very touching moment in the opera where, actually, Orphée, who plays the flute, uses it to touch the heart of the wife of the master of the underworld, Hades.

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-Oh, Brahms -- that was great to play.

As a bass player, we work on Brahms all the time, especially the 2nd.

Those are, like, the excerpts we studied in college, you know?

-Brahms' "2nd Symphony" is definitely my favorite of the four.

I really enjoyed last night, especially because the audience here is very committed.

I think they feel some ownership of the orchestra, so playing a piece like Brahms' "2nd Symphony" for this audience is really special because we really have them and we can hold them, and a piece like that, that it spells things out so beautifully.

There's no extraneous writing in that piece.

It's just -- It's, from beginning to end, just this incredible journey into, like, the cosmos or something like that.

-When I came here, when I saw this landscape, it reminded me a little bit of the landscape where Brahms wrote his "2nd Symphony," at Woerthersee in Austria.

There are all these parallels between nature and music and composers being inspired by nature.

-It's a piece that I know very well.

It's a piece that I love, one that I never grow tired of.

There's always something new to find in it and also something special about collaborating with musicians that I don't play with very often.

It was just a really gratifying experience.

-It's truly one of my favorite pieces of music in the entire repertoire.

It's extraordinarily lyric.

It's extraordinarily contrasting movement to movement.

And, you know, some of the most memorable moments in this symphony for me are places when I'm actually not playing, where I just get to sit to listen to the cello section playing their melodies or the horns.

And, you know, it's a magnificent piece.

-It's a summer-festival piece.

It's almost the seminal summer-festival orchestral work.

I love the Brahms' symphonies because they express emotions that are difficult to express verbally, difficult to express in ways that we can put our fingers on.

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