“Not by accident is Mark Kosower the featured soloist on next week’s Cleveland Orchestra program with guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno,” writes Zachary Lewis in last Thursday’s (10/11) Plain Dealer. “The principal cellist is … not just a champion of Alberto Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 2…. He’s an artist chosen by the composer’s wife to perform it.… The first significant fruit of Kosower’s interest in Ginastera was a recording of the composer’s complete music for cello and piano … His partner on that disc was his wife, pianist Jee-Won Oh. That then led him to Aurora Natola, Ginastera’s wife…. Kosower sent a copy of the recording to the composer’s spouse … who at the time was serving as a gatekeeper and advocate of her husband’s music [after his death, in 1983]…. She [gave] him a copy of the Cello Concertos and her blessing…. Kosower has remained an active proponent of Ginastera’s music…. Each of the [second concerto’s] four movements … stems from a line of poetry, one of which references and even depicts her namesake, the goddess Aurora…. ‘It’s really quite magical,’ Kosower said. ‘There’s just so much fun in his music. In a way, it’s rather intoxicating.’ ”
Posted October 19, 2018
