“When people ask Alisa Weilerstein if she has a favorite among the works written for her instrument, she briskly replies: ‘I’m a cellist—I don’t have the luxury of favorites,’ ” writes John von Rhein in Tuesday’s (5/24) Chicago Tribune. “Like her hero and role model, the great Mstislav Rostropovich, she is committed to enlarging the contemporary cello repertory through creative partnerships with symphony orchestras and composers whose music speaks to her strongly and directly…. In recent years, the fast-rising, 34-year-old American cellist has thrown her clout behind new cello works by Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman. She also has championed … pieces … by … Matthias Pintscher, one of which she will premiere next season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the moment, however, the big new work in Weilerstein’s life is French composer Pascal Dusapin’s ‘Outscape,’ a cello concerto co-commissioned for her by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra [being premiered] at this week’s CSO subscription concerts…. She will return to the Chicago Symphony for a concert at Ravinia on July 16 that will include the Elgar Cello Concerto…. On July 20, she will join … conductor Marin Alsop for Golijov’s ‘Azul,’ at the Grant Park Music Festival.”
Posted May 25, 2016
