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Artist Spotlight | Jennifer Koh
"this work with its delicate pulsation holds the heartbeat of the artist that Bach will become."
Violinist Jennifer Koh, wearing a face mask for this Lincoln Center performance, has been a champion for contemporary composers and musicians during the Covid crisis. With continued cancellations of live performances, Jennifer and her non-profit organization arco collaborative found a new way to bring musicians and audiences together through the virtual concert series, #AloneTogether.
Jennifer has also advocated for new works and commissions on her Cedille releases such as 2019’s Limitless and her Bach & Beyond series, pairing contemporary composers with historically significant Bach violin works.
To celebrate the finale of the Bach & Beyond recording series, Jennifer Koh presents a video performance of the third movement from Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A minor. She also reflects on her own personal history with the piece, and returning to Lincoln Center for its performance:
I programmed Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A minor as the first work in the first program that I performed for a live audience since the beginning of the pandemic’s sweep through the United States and Europe and the cancellation of live performances.
For me, this work is the beginning of an evolution in Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and I believe that the third movement of this work with its delicate pulsation holds the heartbeat of the artist that Bach will become.
I chose this Sonata for my return to performing because that concert at Lincoln Center was the chrysalis of my heartbeat and life emerging into a new world.
Recommended
From Chicago-based composter Stacy Garrop comes INVICTUS, Latin for “unconquered.” The work unfolds across four movements and an interlude, moving between lyrical introspection, fierce determination, and triumphant resolve, with Grammy-nominated pianist Marta Aznavoorian and the Chicago Philharmonic under the direction of Artistic Director Scott Speck. Available 5/8.
Haymarket Opera Company presents early-18th-century master Leonardo Vinci’s rare operatic gem, Artaserse (1730). A prominent figure of the Neapolitan School of opera, whose work influenced composers such as Johann Adolph Hasse and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Vinci’s three-act opera seria centers on the Persian prince, Artaserse, who must bring his father’s murderer to justice amidst betrayal, deceit, and mistaken identity.
To celebrate Stacy Garrop‘s piano concerto, INVICTUS (5/8 release), based on a poem about perseverance and resilience in adversity, a playlist of Cedille tracks that represent struggle against prohibitive odds — explicitly in words or as program music, or inherently in their musical nature.
Enjoy Cedille’s Weekly Featured Release.