MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein’s Summer: with New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail, Solo Recital at Ravinia, Residency at Grand Teton, and More
The summer season offers ample opportunity to hear MacArthur fellow Alisa Weilerstein in music on which she has already made her mark. Both as Artist-in-Residence at the Grand Teton Music Festival (July 17 & 18) and with the Copenhagen Philharmonic at Germany’s Kissinger Sommer festival (July 5), she revisits Dvorák’s Cello Concerto, of which her recording topped the U.S. classical chart last summer. With her brother, conductor Joshua Weilerstein, and the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail (July 25), and then on a four-nation European tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra (Aug 8–16), she reprises Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations, the work with which she made her Cleveland Orchestra debut at just 13. The vehicle for her engagements with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (July 2-4) and at Aspen (July 26) is Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante, which she recently performed to acclaim with the Chicago Symphony. And for her return to the Ravinia Festival (July 27), Weilerstein gives a recital of unaccompanied 20th-century cello works by Kodály, Cassadó, Bright Sheng, and Osvaldo Golijov, as featured on her most recent recording, Solo; marking her third release as an exclusive Decca Classics artist, the album received a five-star review in BBC Music, and offers an “uncompromising and pertinent portrait of the cello repertoire of our time” (ResMusica, France).
At Ravinia, as on Solo, Golijov is represented by his 1991 composition Omaramor, of which the cellist’s live rendition drew raves at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival in May; the Post and Courier concluded: “One could not help admire her utter command of the cello. Composers can rest assured that they have a capable player who can do just about anything, however unorthodox, they might ask of her.” Click here to see Weilerstein playing Golijov’s Omaramor.
Her residency at the South Carolina festival crowned a season of successes for Weilerstein, who was a nominee for Gramophone’s coveted “2014 Artist of the Year” award. The Guardian pronounced her performance of Shostakovich’s Second Concerto with England’s Hallé Orchestra “exceptional,” and the Telegraph agreed: “Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.” Similarly, when she launched the New York Philharmonic’s “Dohnányi/Dvorák” festival with an account of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto, the New York Times observed:
“With her knack for inhabiting a work, she always seems to invest whatever she plays with freshness and directness of expression. An impassioned simplicity of gesture and spare modesty of phrasing marked an elegant, understated, essentially flawless performance.”
Click here for high-resolution photos.
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Alisa Weilerstein: summer engagements
July 2–4
Berlin, Germany
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia concertante
Konzerthausorchester Berlin / Juraj Valcuha
July 5
Bad Kissingen, Germany
Festival Kissinger Sommer
DVORÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra / Lawrence Foster
July 17 & 18
Teton Village, WY
Grand Teton Music Festival
Artist in Residence
“Triumph & Fanfare”
DVORÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Festival Orchestra / Cristian Macelaru
July 21
Aspen, CO
Aspen Music Festival & School
TCHAIKOVSKY: Souvenir de Florence
SCHOENBERG: Verklärte Nacht
(with Daniel Hope, violin; Alexander Kerr, violin & viola; Eric Kim, cello)
July 25
Vail, CO
Bravo! Vail
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
New York Philharmonic / Joshua Weilerstein
July 26
Aspen, CO
Aspen Music Festival & School
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia concertante
Aspen Festival Orchestra / Ludovic Morlot
July 27
Highland Park, IL
Ravinia Festival
Solo recital
KODÁLY: Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8
GOLIJOV: Omaramor
CASSADÓ: Suite for Cello Solo
SHENG: Seven Tunes Heard in China
Aug 8–16
European tour with European Union Youth Orchestra / Xian Zhang
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Aug 8: Grafenegg, Austria
Aug 11: Berlin, Germany
Aug 13: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug 14: Rheingau, Germany
Aug 16: Bolzano, Italy
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© 21C Media Group, June 2015