Alexander Hersh + Victor Santiago Asunción

About the Performance

A passionate multimedia artist and imaginative genre/era-blending concert curator, cellist Alexander Hersh returns to Ravinia on the heels of his debut album Absinthe and the fifth season of NEXUS Chamber Music, the performance series he co-directs at Chicago’s Guarneri Hall and other area venues. His Absinthe goes beyond the recording of pieces by Ravel, Boulanger, Janáček, and more, marrying classical music with short film and comedy across a series of narrative-based videos. In the latest NEXUS concerts, Hersh combined art song with dreamy ambience and the breeziness of jazz with the lavish soundscapes of classical romanticism. Joined by frequent collaborator Victor Santiago Asunción on piano for this program, Hersh traverses “Beyond Borders” through six works that probe familiar and fantastical sonic possibilities across time and tradition.

In sonatas by Debussy and Britten, the composers’ eagerness in writing these pieces shines out from the moment bow touches strings. Debussy, mentally and physically ravaged by wartime, retreated from Paris to “relearn” his passion, which he poured into this first of a planned six sonatas for some bewilderingly unique instrumental pairings. A wry humor and restless energy belie a mind that was ready to overflow with ideas. Britten, on the other hand, had just been bowled over by hearing Mstislav Rostropovich in concert when the cellist approached him to write a piece for the instrument; thus was born this portrait of a growing friendship, quoting the very playing techniques that Britten so admired from Rostropovich.

The quicksilver moods of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke give the cellist the chance to show off his range, from inward exploration to beaming with frivolous spirit, as he then embarks on an awe-filled travelogue of mystical and contemporary Türkiye, unlocking similar emotions along the way. Miniatures for unaccompanied cello adorn each half of the program, from the Microsuites of new Kronos Quartet cellist Paul Wiancko, compressing a lifetime of joyous moments of discovery into a bursting few minutes, to an espresso-rich romp through Gregorian sonorities and gregarious techniques.

Performers

Alexander Hersh, cello #
Victor Santiago Asunción, piano

# Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum