Rackham Auditorium
Ariel Quartet with
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
folk•lore
$15-20 student tickets available
For centuries and across continents, folk music has influenced art music. The lines separating the two genres are often blurred, resulting in new sound worlds and revolutionary compositional styles.
This program, entitled folk·lore, explores this gray zone between the two styles through a “dialogue” between solo cello and string quartet, with all five artists performing an uninterrupted suite of traditional folk music from around the world along with pieces dating back to the origins of Western classical music. These works remain unannounced to keep this part of the journey free of expectations, stimulating a sense of community by triggering a novel sense of musical discovery and adventure.
The second half features one of the most essential and influential works in the classical music repertoire: Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major, the last movement of which skillfully weaves together folk and art music through rhythmic and harmonic patterns characteristic of the Romani music of Hungary.
Now on faculty at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, the Ariel Quartet was formed in Israel in 1998, when its members were teenagers at the Jerusalem Middle School Academy of Music and Dance. One of the foremost cellists of our time, Alisa Weilerstein is known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth across the breadth of the cello’s repertoire.
PROGRAM (Thu 12/12/2024: Rackham Auditorium)
Original works and transcriptions arranged by the Ariel Quartet
and Alisa Weilerstein
Franz Schubert Cello Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956
Thank You to Our Sponsors
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- Joel Howell and Linda Samuelson
- Mitchell and Caroline Nussbaum and Family
PATRON SPONSOR
- Catherine S. Arcure Endowment Fund
MEDIA PARTNERS
Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide for more than twenty years. Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. Celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2023, the Quartet serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where they direct the chamber music program and present a concert series in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad.
Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts and concerto collaborations with all the preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide.
“Weilerstein is a throwback to an earlier age of classical performers: not content merely to serve as a vessel for the composer’s wishes, she inhabits a piece fully and turns it to her own ends,” marvels The New York Times. “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,” agrees the Los Angeles Times. As the UK’s Telegraph put it, “Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.”
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