Cellist Alisa Weilerstein is one of the classical music world’s fastest-rising stars. And she’s quickly becoming a Spoleto favorite. In the month of May, she played concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic, LA Phil, and Halle Orchestra, and recitals in such far-flung locales as Omaha, Nebraska, and Williamsburg, VA. For the first two weeks in June, you’ll find her playing Chamber Music at the Dock Street Theatre in Charleston. From her debut CD, recorded when she was 18, we listen to Alisa and her mother, pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, play a cello-and-piano version of the Suite Populaire Espagnol by Manuel de Falla.
De FALLA: Suite Populaire Espagnole
Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano
[NOT available for on-demand streaming]
Benjamin Britten was commissioned in 1946 to write music for an educational film called Instruments of the Orchestra. But the piece was so brilliantly composed that conductors – and audiences – determined long ago that despite the Britten’s music wasn’t just for Young Persons. We’ll hear it played by the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jose-Luis Novo, in a performance at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro.
BRITTEN: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra, Jose Luis, conductor
Barnatan Breaks OutTel Aviv-born pianist Inon Barnatan is a freshly-minted recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant…a prize that’s gone to the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Andre Watts, and Murray Perahia. Barnatan won the prize partly on the strength of his Schubert performances and recordings, which includesan account of the Fantasy in C, D. 934. with violinist Liza Ferschtman.
SCHUBERT: Fantasia for Piano and Violin in C Major
Inon Barnatan, piano; Liza Ferschtman, violin
[NOT available for on-demand streaming]
Two Italian favorites: the lovely Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, and La Danza by Rossini. This little Italian sorbet came as a midsummer cooler at the Brevard Music Center, from a concert last summer led by Stephen Smith.
MASCAGNI: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
ROSSINI: La Danza
Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Stephen Smith, conductor
Prutsman Plays MacDowell
Spoleto Chamber Music director Geoff Nuttall flatly declares, “Stephen Prutsman should be a major star. He’s amazing.” We’ll hear the Talented Mr. Prutsman play in a setting you don’t hear in the Dock Street….playing the Piano Concerto No. 2 by American composer Edward MacDowell.
MacDOWELL: Piano Concerto No. 2
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Arthur Fagan, conductor
[NOT available for on-demand streaming]
Mozart in Love
Flutist Paula Robison, a veteran of Spoleto Summers past, joins the Charleston Symphony Orchestra for a performance of the Adagio from Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G, K. 313.
MOZART: Flute Concerto in G, K. 313, Adagio
Paula Robison, flute
Charleston Symphony Orchestra
[NOT available for on-demand streaming]
