US cellist Alisa Weilerstein brings Dvorak to the Proms
![Cellist Alisa Weilerstein](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77096000/jpg/_77096514_weilersteinresized.jpg)
The
Dvorak Cello Concerto is one of the most performed, and most recorded
pieces for the instrument. Since its premiere in 1896, it has drawn some
of the world's greatest instrumentalists into its orbit.
So what gives this work
its enduring appeal? Ahead of her performance of the Dvorak at the Proms
on 24 August, US cellist Alisa Weilerstein explains the concerto's
continuing attraction.
"I think every cellist is drawn to the Dvorak."
Weilerstein has just stepped off an aeroplane, but is not short of energy to talk about the concerto.
"It's arguably the best-written major work for cello, it's
completely epic and symphonic in scope. It has every range of emotion
you could ask for," she says.
"It's like reading a really great novel and having every character incredibly developed."
And she says, from the point of view of the performer, it's a piece that sits well on the instrument.
"It slides beautifully in the hands, even though it's quite challenging and very virtuosic.
"But most importantly I think it's just an incredibly touching, moving work.
"I think it's one of Dvorak's best."
![Conductor Jiri Belohlavek and cellist Alisa Weilerstein](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77096000/jpg/_77096037_weilersteinbelahlovekcrop.jpg)
With memorable themes that have become familiar even to
non-aficionados, and its thrilling orchestral sweep, the concerto has
established itself as one of the pillars of the cello repertoire, and is
a huge favourite with concert-goers.
It's been performed dozens of times at the BBC Proms alone.
"I think what resonates with the public - and actually with
me as a listener - is its incredible lyricism," says Weilerstein, whose
career has developed rapidly in the past 18 months with a series of
recordings for Decca.
"And Dvorak has such a uniquely natural way with melody - it just appears to be flowing right out of him.
"This is something... very captivating I think, and very seductive."
Pivotal work
But until he wrote the piece, Dvorak had shown little interest
in applying his talents to the cello, complaining it whinged in the
upper register, and grumbled down below.
And he had previously written only two other mature concertos, for piano and violin.
In the final decade of his life though, the composer had a change of heart.
"I've just finished the first movement of a concerto for the
cello!! Don't be surprised," Dvorak wrote to a friend in autumn 1894.
"I was surprised myself, and I still wonder why I chose to embark upon something like this."
It was to become a pivotal work for the instrument, reinventing it as a vehicle for solo writing.
![Composer Antonin Dvorak](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77107000/jpg/_77107220_77107219.jpg)
"The cello had not really come into the fore as a solo
instrument in the 19th Century it was still thought of more as a chamber
music instrument, not something that was equipped to project over an
orchestra," Weilerstein says.
"But it's my opinion that the Dvorak really broke down the last barriers."
Weilerstein recorded the Cello Concerto last year with
conductor Jiri Belohlavek and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, putting
her own interpretation out there alongside iconic recordings by the
likes of Pablo Casals, Mstislav Rostropovich and Jacqueline du Pre.
But she refuses to be daunted by holding her own playing up against such giant figures of the cello world.
"If all today's musicians of my generation... thought that way, we would have no more recordings," she says.
"Of course no-one will ever take away these iconic
interpretations, and I love them dearly. I grew up with them and still
return to them.
"But I think that doesn't mean there isn't room for other ideas. I think it's the natural evolution of things."
Every new generation of musicians is asked how they will
better the recordings of the masters that have gone before them,
Weilerstein believes.
But the idea is not to top them, she says, or "take anything away, it's just to add and to expand."
Weilerstein made her professional debut with the Cleveland
Orchestra at the age of 13, and has gone on to work with some of the
world's most respected ensembles.
She now divides her time between the US and Europe,
performing the Dvorak along with another giant of the repertoire, the
Elgar Cello Concerto, which she has also recorded.
But her next album, Solo, to be released in October, is a
collection of works for unaccompanied cello, charting its development as
a solo instrument over the course of the past century.
"I wanted to create an album which shows that kind of survey,
saying where we've come from and where we're going," says the cellist.
![Cellist Alisa Weilerstein](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77107000/jpg/_77107221_975d6fc5-83ca-4dbc-9172-40b40fe93724.jpg)
The 20th Century saw "plenty of ideas and many, many different
styles of writing," she continues, "I wanted to show the whole wide
spectrum of it."
With works by Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly and
Chinese-American Bright Sheng, a folk element runs through the seven
pieces Weilerstein chose for the album.
And she was keen to record "just the voice of the cello", without an orchestra behind it.
There is though, one obvious paragon of the solo cello
repertoire that is conspicuous by its absence from Weilerstein's
forthcoming collection - the cello suites written by that titanic figure
of classical music, J S Bach.
Weilerstein laughs at the idea that having knocked down the
Dvorak and the Elgar concertos, the Bach suites are the only big beast
left for her to slay.
She has other projects on the go, she says - including more recordings - but the Bach will have to wait.
"Most cellists... would tell you that the Bach suites are the ultimate mountain to climb," she says.
"I perform them all the time... but I want to live with them a little bit longer before I put them down on disc."
Alisa Weilerstein performs the Dvorak Cello Concerto at the BBC Proms on 24 August.
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