{"id":694,"date":"2018-08-30T21:04:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T21:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=694"},"modified":"2019-07-13T21:07:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T21:07:50","slug":"alisa-weilerstein-releases-transfigured-night-on-pentatone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/alisa-weilerstein-releases-transfigured-night-on-pentatone\/","title":{"rendered":"Alisa Weilerstein releases Transfigured Night on Pentatone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alisa Weilerstein and Norway\u2019s Trondheim Soloists have released\u00a0Transfigured Nigh<\/em>t on the Pentatone label. The new disc comprises three masterworks of the First and Second Viennese Schools \u2013 Haydn\u2019s First and Second Cello Concertos and Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht<\/em>, from which the album takes its title; two Scandinavian performances of the album repertoire with the same ensemble follow soon after. It was under Weilerstein\u2019s leadership that Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht<\/em>\u00a0was hailed as an \u201cabsolutely gorgeous half-hour: a mesmerizing traversal\u201d (Seen and Heard International<\/em>) at the 2015 Aspen Music Festival. Likewise, on an extensive U.S. tour with London\u2019s Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2013, her account of Haydn\u2019s C Major concerto prompted the\u00a0San Diego Story<\/em>\u2019s critic to conclude that \u201cI will never again hear this work played so well.\u201d Now the composers are brought together on\u00a0Transfigured Night<\/em>, the first release in Weilerstein\u2019s new exclusive multi-album contract with the Pentatone label, which specializes in high-end, five-channel surround sound. The album also marks her first collaboration as Artistic Partner (a new, multi-year role) with Norway\u2019s celebrated string orchestra, the Trondheim Soloists, led by Artistic Director and concertmaster Geir Inge Lotsberg. Besides their Sweden and Denmark concerts in September, Weilerstein and the ensemble are planning tours of Europe and the U.S. in seasons to come.<\/p>\n

Critical Acclaim for\u00a0Transfigured Night<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Faced with the Trondheim Soloists\u2019 gutsy fervour as they beaver through the late romantic paroxysms in the string orchestra version of Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht,<\/em>\u00a0a casual listener might wonder: \u201cWhat do they put in the water in Trondheim? How come the musicians have such zing?\u201d Well, the players are young, which always helps, but aside from the water, or the Norwegian air, another reason must be the galvanising presence of the always exciting American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the ensemble\u2019s new artistic partner. She gives us an immediate demonstration of her powers as the soloist in two Haydn cello concertos, music of an earlier Viennese age, although delivered with such volatile passion and flying fingers that no trace of dust remains. Even so, the interpretation that makes this album essential is the electrifying account of Schoenberg\u2019s pivotal early piece (1899), based on Richard Dehmel\u2019s enraptured poem about two lovers, a moonstruck forest and another man\u2019s baby in the woman\u2019s womb. Here, Weilerstein is largely embedded in the ensemble, but she springs up for achingly soulful solo spots as the musical voice of the male lover, who hastens the night\u2019s transfigurations by saying (although much more poetically): \u201cIt\u2019s OK by me.\u201d Yet this truly is a group triumph. In the singing lines of this hypnotic work, the Trondheim ensemble manage the wonderful feat of being throbbingly intense and meticulously exact at the same time, and this performance knocked me flat. If it\u2019s something they do put in the water, I\u2019d like to get it bottled.”
\nThe Times (UK)<\/a><\/p>\n

The Best New Classical Releases of August 2018:\u00a0Transfigured Night<\/em>
\n<\/strong>\u201cSchoenberg\u2019s music is put into even starker relief on\u00a0Transfigured Night<\/em>, a collaboration between cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists, a Norwegian chamber orchestra\u2026 Even by Haydn\u2019s sunny standards, his two cello concertos effuse a particular joie de vivre, sharpened by Weilerstein\u2019s bright tone and brisk tempos. From heights this high, it\u2019s difficult to prepare for a drop as precipitous as Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht<\/em>\u2026 Schoenberg\u2019s setting is accordingly grim, but Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists work hard to pad the blow, rewarding with finely-calibrated dynamics and resonant ensemble playing.\u201d
\nWQXR<\/a><\/p>\n

“The disc cements the ongoing partnership between Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists, an orchestra of around two dozen mostly twenty somethings. It\u2019s a cliche to talk of such a young orchestra offering youthful exuberance, but let\u2019s do it anyway \u2013 their playing has a buoyancy and energy that in the Haydn form the ideal springboard for Weilerstein\u2019s playing as it leaps and dances in and out of the larger texture. The finales are so fast as to be at times a bit of a scramble, but Weilerstein\u2019s tone rings easily when she wants a melody to sing out. The orchestra is an equal partner, setting up a mood of understated tenderness in the slow movements.\u201d
\nThe Guardian<\/a>
\n<\/em>
\n“Alisa Weilerstein\u2019s first album for Pentatone\u2014brilliant performances of Haydn\u2019s two cello concertos with an appropriately starry-eyed recording of Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht<\/em>\u2014marks the first recorded fruit of her new multi-season role as artistic partner of Norway\u2019s celebrated Trondheim Soloists. The Haydn concertos alone make this essential listening: Both in command of thrills and a genuine understanding of what Haydn in the 21st century can be if it is spontaneous and free, her performances of the two concertos are without equal in the catalogue.”
\nStrings Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

“Only a cellist who paired Elgar and Elliot Carter on her concerto debut album could have devised this left-field programme that confronts unsullied Enlightenment optimism with the fin de si\u00e8cle Vienna of Freud and Klimt. Yet, in performances of such freshness, verve and chamber transparency, the concept works. It reminds us, too, that Schoenberg always protested that he was not subverting but merely perpetuating the great Austro-German tradition from Bach and Haydn onwards. You\u2019d go far to find performances of the Haydn concertos that match Alisa Weilerstein\u2019s mix of stylistic sensitivity, verve and spontaneous delight in discovery. Weilerstein is a risk-taker by nature; and the helter-skelter finale of the C major takes impetuosity to the edge. But such is her technical prowess, and the mingled eagerness and skill of the young Trondheim Soloists, that she carries it off, brilliantly. She brings a puckish glee to the lightning passagework in thumb position, yet never short-changes Haydn\u2019s brief moments of lyrical eloquence.”
\nGramophone<\/a><\/p>\n

Preview the album here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alisa Weilerstein and Norway\u2019s Trondheim Soloists have released\u00a0Transfigured Night on the Pentatone label. The new disc comprises three masterworks of the First and Second Viennese Schools \u2013 Haydn\u2019s First and Second Cello Concertos and Schoenberg\u2019s\u00a0Verkl\u00e4rte Nacht, from which the album takes its title; two Scandinavian performances of the album repertoire with the same ensemble follow … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}