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Violinist Chee-Yun and cellist Alisa Weilerstein graced the stage in Minsky Hall to perform a set of complicated classical compositions on Friday night. Chee-Yun is an award-winning musician who has performed all over the world. Weilerstein is also an acclaimed instrumentalist who has performed at the White House.
The finale of the evening was by far the most enjoyable performance. Maurice Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello was a joy to listen to. The second movement, as explained by the violinist, is a tribute to Ravel’s love of toy stores and the sounds that one would hear within them. The music was so well composed and played that you could actually hear the different sounds that toys make coming from the instruments on stage. The performers rose to the occasion and tackled the fast tempo and string plucking like the pros they are. The entire sonata, all four movements, was exciting.
The first half of the performance consisted of pieces composed by J.S. Bach. Chee-Yun started the evening by playing a beautifully emotional piece. She introduced her first piece as the first composition Bach wrote after the death of his first wife. The composition was aggressive at times but was full of raw emotion. It was helped along by the subtle facial expressions of the violinist herself. The audience was captivated throughout the entire performance only daring to move once it over.
Weilerstein concluded the first half, but her performance left something to be desired. The cellist’s Bach piece was aggressive and striking to listen to, but it was hard to concentrate on the music because of her dramatic bobbing and weaving during the performance, along with the shiny red dress that she was wearing. It was hard to enjoy her performance.
Chee-Yun started with another beautiful violin piece composed by Fritz Kreisler. It was a grave piece that showed off his immense talent. Weilerstein followed suit with an equally difficult composition by Osvaldo Golijov. Her second piece was far more enjoyable than her first, although there was still the distraction of her dramatic movements.
After the scheduled program was finished the performers, with urging from the audience, continued onto an amazing duet encore. Together they played a passacaglia, an upbeat Italian composition, and couldn’t have finished the evening in a better way. At one point it felt as though the music had changed from a harmonious duet to an antagonistic battle between violin and cello, which was quite entertaining to watch.
