Versatile Cellist and MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein Releases New Shostakovich CD, Plays Complete Bach Suites and Premieres Pintscher Concerto in 2016-17
“A mature, top-flight musical force.” – Chicago Symphony on Alisa Weilerstein
Versatile cellist Alisa Weilerstein – a MacArthur “genius grant” winner described by the Daily Telegraph as “truly a phenomenon” – displays all facets of her remarkable range in the 2016-17 season, playing everything from standard repertoire to world premieres in settings from symphonic to solo. An exclusive Decca recording artist since 2010, and the first cellist to be signed by that prestigious label in more than 30 years, Weilerstein releases her fifth Decca album this fall, playing Shostakovich’s two cello concertos with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado. For the first time in her career she gives public performances of all six of J.S. Bach’s suites for unaccompanied cello, and continues to prove herself “a champion of contemporary music” (San Francisco Chronicle), giving the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Cello Concerto in March with the co-commissioning Boston Symphony Orchestra. In a return to Carnegie Hall, she joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to play Schumann’s Cello Concerto, which impressed The Guardian as “thrillingly realized” in one of her recent performances, and then tours the same piece with the orchestra to Italy and Spain. In January she embarks on a nine-city U.S. tour with longtime recital partner Inon Barnatan and clarinetist Anthony McGill, and tours Europe with Barnatan later in the spring.
Weilerstein’s new disc was recorded both live and in the studio last season with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, a longstanding collaborator who conducted her in Shostakovich’s second concerto two years ago in Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. This season the two also reunite to perform the Schumann concerto with the San Francisco Symphony. It was after a performance of Shostakovich’s first concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2013 that the Los Angeles Times marveled: “Weilerstein’s cello is her id. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same.”
Marking the milestone of her first public performances of all six of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites, Weilerstein devotes four concerts to the set this season: at Caramoor, the Westchester arts center where she served as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence in 2014-15; in Washington, DC for Washington Performing Arts; at New York’s 92nd Street Y; and at London’s St. John’s Smith Square. Individual Bach suites have long been a common feature of her programming; her third Decca recording, Solo, comprises unaccompanied cello music of the last hundred years, and she often balances live performances of that material with one of Bach’s immortal contributions to the genre. For a series of recitals in Japan this season, the cellist uses Bach’s third cello suite to complement Britten’s Tema Sacher and two pieces from Solo: Osvaldo Golijov’s Omaramor and Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, of which the New York Times found the cellist’s recorded performance “staggering.”
Committed to expanding and enriching the cello repertoire, Weilerstein is recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of new composition for her instrument. Her premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Cello Concerto with the Boston Symphony this season, under the baton of François-Xavier Roth, marks the second time in two years she has premiered a new concerto commissioned expressly for her from a major European composer. Last season she gave the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Outscape, which she performed with the co-commissioning Chicago Symphony under Cristian Măcelaru before giving its first European performances with the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra. As the Chicago Tribune observed: “The CSO commissioned the piece for the extraordinary cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who gave it the kind of debut most composers can only dream of achieving.” She and Pintscher previously collaborated on the New York premiere – heralded as a “rhapsodic, compelling performance” (New York Times) – of his Reflections on Narcissus, during the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Biennial.
Weilerstein premieres another new piece during her January trio tour with the dream team of Barnatan and New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinetist Anthony McGill. Their program juxtaposes Beethoven’s Op. 11 Trio in B-flat and Brahms’s Op. 114 Trio in A minor with the world premiere of short stories by the Grammy-nominated young American composer Joseph Hallman. Weilerstein has long championed Hallman’s works, and his DreamLog, composed “in bits and pieces” between 2013 and 2015, was written for her and Barnatan and will be featured during their spring duo performances. Weilerstein’s most recent Decca release – built around the Rachmaninov and Chopin Cello Sonatas – also featured Barnatan. A glowing review in Voix des Arts praised the pair as having “a level of musical symbiosis that transcends casual partnership,” and for having produced “a ravishing recording of fantastic music.”
Besides releasing the two Shostakovich concertos on disc, Weilerstein performs both pieces live this season, playing the second concerto with the Ulster Orchestra and the first with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, and National Symphony, for whose late former Music Director Mstislav Rostropovich the piece was composed. Among an enormous number of other concerto appearances across the season are Britten with the New World Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas; Schumann with the San Francisco Symphony; Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony and Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Orchestra; two performances of William Walton’s concerto with Amsterdam’s Residentie Orkest as part of the eight-day Amsterdam Cello Biennale; and the Elgar concerto with Staatskapelle Weimar under Cristian Măcelaru, who conducted last season’s Dusapin premiere. The Elgar was the vehicle for Weilerstein’s London Symphony debut last season, as well as being featured on her Decca debut, which was named 2013’s “Recording of the Year” by BBC Music. She also plays the Dvořák Concerto multiple times this season, with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, Sydney Symphony under Brett Dean, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin led by Vladimir Jurowski, and Tokyo Symphony under Simone Young, in three Japanese cities just before her recital tour. Dvořák’s beloved concerto was featured on yet another of Weilerstein’s Decca releases, her second, earning her praise from the New York Times for a “take-no-prisoners emotional investment … evident in every bar.”
High-resolution photos may be downloaded here.
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Alisa Weilerstein’s upcoming performances
Sep 23
Belfast, UK
Ulster Orchestra / Rafael Payare
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 2
Oct 5-6
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic / Rafael Payare
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
Oct 15
Katonah, NY
Caramoor Center for Music & Arts
J.S. BACH: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
Oct 16
Washington, DC
Washington Performing Arts
UDC Theater of the Arts
J.S. BACH: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
Oct 19, 20, 21, 22
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony / Pablo Heras-Casado
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto
Oct 27, 29
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdamse Cello Biennale
Oct 28, 29
Amsterdam and The Hague, Netherlands
Residentie Orkest / Nicholas Collon
WALTON: Cello Concerto
28: The Hague (Zuiderstrandtheater)
29: Amsterdam (Musiekgebouw)
Nov 3
Kawasaki, Japan
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra / Simone Young
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191
Nov 5
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra / Simone Young
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191
Nov 6
Niigata, Japan
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra / Simone Young
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191
Nov 8
Tokyo, Japan
Oji Hall
Recital
BRITTEN: Tema Sacher
GOLIJOV: Omaramor
J.S. BACH: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009
KODALY: Unaccompanied Cello Sonata, Op. 8
Nov 10
Nagoya, Japan
Recital
BRITTEN: Tema Sacher
GOLIJOV: Omaramor
J.S. BACH: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009
KODALY: Unaccompanied Cello Sonata, Op. 8
Nov 12
Hyogo, Japan
Hyogo Performing Arts Center
Recital
BRITTEN: Tema Sacher
GOLIJOV: Omaramor
J.S. BACH: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009
KODALY: Unaccompanied Cello Sonata, Op. 8
Nov 13
Tokyo, Japan
Recital
BRITTEN: Tema Sacher
GOLIJOV: Omaramor
J.S. BACH: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009
KODALY: Unaccompanied Cello Sonata, Op. 8
Nov 16, 17, 18
Sydney, Australia
Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Brett Dean
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191
Dec 12, 13
Lausanne, Switzerland
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
Dec 16
Geneva, Switzerland
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra / Rafael Payare
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op 107
Jan 8, 2017
Naples, FL
Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto
Jan 9, 2017
Sarasota, FL
Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto
Jan 13-14
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto
Jan 18-29
Trio tour with Inon Barnatan & Anthony McGill
BEETHOVEN: Clarinet Trio in B-flat, Op. 11
JOSEPH HALLMAN: short stories
BRAHMS: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
Jan 18: Princeton, NJ (McCarter Theatre Center)
Jan 19: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center, Fortas Chamber Music Concerts)
Jan 21: Durham, SC (Duke Performances)
Jan 22: Baltimore, MD (Shriver Hall Concert Series)
Jan 23: University Park, PA (Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State)
Jan 24: New York, NY (Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall)
Jan 26: Urbana, IL (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
Jan 27: Kalamazoo, MI (Fontana Chamber Arts)
Jan 29: Ann Arbor, MI (University Musical Society)
Feb 2, 3
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
Feb 8
London, UK
St. John’s Smith Square
Bach Solo Recital
Feb 16
Lisbon, Portugal
Gulbenkian Orchestra / Giancarlo Guerrero
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
Feb 26, March 7
European recitals with Inon Barnatan
BEETHOVEN: Sonata in C for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 1
BARBER: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
BEETHOVEN: Sonata in D, for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 2
CHOPIN: Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 6
Feb 28: Salzburg, Austria (Mozarteum Salzburg)
March 7: London, UK
March 9 & 10
Washington, DC
National Symphony Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 107
March 12
Newport News, VA
National Symphony Orchestra/ Christoph Eschenbach
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 107
March 18
Carnegie Hall
New York, NY
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto
March 23-25
Boston, MA
Boston Symphony Orchestra / François-Xavier Roth
PINTSCHER: Cello Concerto (world premiere)
National Symphony Orchestra tour of Russia
March 29 & 30
Moscow, Russia
Moscow Rouse Phaethon
National Symphony Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1
March 31
St. Petersburg, Russia
St. Petersburg Rouse Phaethon
National Symphony Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach
ELGAR: Cello Concerto
April 6
Paris, France
Opera de Paris
DUSAPIN: Cello Concerto
April 22
New York, NY
92nd Street Y
J.S. BACH: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
April 26
Stanford, CA
Stanford University
Bing Concert Hall
Recital with Inon Barnatan
DEBUSSY: Sonata for Cello and Piano
CHOPIN: Cello Sonata, op. 65
HALLMAN: DreamLog
RACHMANINOFF: Cello Sonata in G Minor, op.19
April 29
Stamford, CT
Palace Theatre
Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Recital with Inon Barnatan
April 30
Bergen Performing Arts Center
Englewood, NJ
Recital with Inon Barnatan
Works by BEETHOVEN, BRITTEN, STRAVINSKY, RACHMANINOFF, BRAHMS, BERNSTEIN, DE FALLA, and BRITTEN.
May 6, 7
Miami Beach, FL
New World Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra
May 13, 14
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / Joshua Weilerstein
SHOSTAKOVICH: Concerto for Cello No. 1, Op. 107
June 11, 12
Weimar, Germany
Staatskapelle Weimar / Cristian Măcelaru
ELGAR: Cello Concerto
June 29
Berlin, Germany
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Vladimir Jurowski
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 104
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© 21C Media Group, September 2016