In Sunday’s (2/7) Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler writes, “Like many married couples, Mira Wang and Jan Vogler deal with the stresses of maintaining two busy careers. But they also have some unique marital challenges, like for instance expanding the repertoire of double concertos written for the violin and cello. Because, you know, there are days when Brahms just won’t do. Wang, a Chinese-born violinist, and Vogler, a German-born cellist, are the driving force behind the commissioning of a new work written by John Harbison, a double concerto they will premiere this April with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Levine.” The work is dedicated to 99-year-old violinist Roman Totenberg, with whom Wang lived and studied for several years. “The new double concerto is in fact the second foray into this genre for Harbison, his first being the Double Concerto for Oboe and Clarinet, a piece from 1985 that imagined an intensely argumentative musical relationship between the two soloists. This time, said Harbison, knowing the soloists are a married couple inspired him to explore other models of musical dialogue.”
Posted February 8, 2010
