{"id":300315,"date":"2026-05-05T04:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300315\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T04:50:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:50:41","slug":"cellist-weilerstein-praises-new-mexican-concerto-set-for-san-diego-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300315\/","title":{"rendered":"Cellist Weilerstein praises new Mexican concerto set for San Diego premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alisa<\/a>Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. (Photo by Evelyn Freja\/courtesy of the artist)<\/p>\n

Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz<\/a>\u2019 brilliant and demanding Dzonot cello concerto \u2014 gaining its San Diego premiere May 9-10 by the San Diego Symphony at Jacobs Music Center \u2014 was made for cellist Alisa Weilerstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Literally, Ortiz, Mexico\u2019s most prominent living composer, said she composed the work with Weilerstein, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in mind. Figuratively, the concerto\u2019s ambition, innovation, difficulty and spirit play precisely to San Diego-based Weilerstein\u2019s many strengths.<\/p>\n

Speaking from Montreal, her 10-year-old daughter Ariadna within earshot, Weilerstein insists that Ortiz\u2019s concerto is destined to join Dvorak and Elgar\u2019s masterpieces among the core cello concertos. \u201cIt\u2019s really going to last and be [part of] the repertoire. I\u2019m struck by how very clear and brilliant her colors are,\u201d Weilerstein said. \u201cEven without knowing any of the social message, it\u2019s so clear what the music is actually expressing and communicating. It\u2019s just a wonderful work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The social message of Dzonot (the Mayan word for \u201cabyss\u201d) is unambiguous. The mysteriously beautiful cenotes \u2014 natural, water-filled sinkholes \u2014 of Mexico\u2019s Yucat\u00e1n are collapsing, partly due to construction. How to musically capture the uncanny grandeur of this unique underground cave system, the world\u2019s largest, and the creatures that dwell in it? <\/p>\n

Ortiz\u2019s tour-de-force four-movement score \u2014 awarded a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition just three months ago \u2014 vividly evokes the interplay of light, water and shadow in the aquatic pits (\u201cLuz Vertical\u201d\/vertical light); communicates the cenote system\u2019s delicate ecological balance via its apex predator, the jaguar, embodied by the cellist\u2019s stalking tread (\u201cOjo de Jaguar\u201d\/Jaguar\u2019s eye); connects the cenotes\u2019 physicality \u2014 the colors, sounds, odors and shimmering refractions of the cave water and limestone chambers \u2014 to the ecologic disaster threatened by the soulless\u00a0 march of the machine (\u201cJade\u201d); and imagines a hopeful future through the mythological symbol of the Yucat\u00e1n\u2019s iconic bird (\u201cEl P\u00e1jaro Toh\u201d\/The Toh Bird), incarnated again by the cellist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From extreme upper-register playing and cadenzas bristling with harmonics and finger-twisting double stops to punishing rhythmic and musical demands requiring guitar-god sawing, percussive bow strokes, and intricate coordination with an orchestra decked out with 29 different percussion instruments, Ortiz imposes every conceivable demand. Her dedication of Dzonot to Weilerstein says everything about the composer\u2019s collegial confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a ton of challenging places,\u201d Weilerstein acknowledges of the score. \u201cTechnically, she pushes everybody to their limits, and, sort of tongue in cheek, I think she enjoys that. She likes to take players out of their comfort zone. So, I had to really take my time with it, learn it, feel it was fully internalized. It\u2019s very virtuosic \u2014 you\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Dzonot is about much more than its environmental message \u2014 it\u2019s also an evocation of sacred nature and a paean to Mexico\u2019s richness \u2014 so its score is much more than a showpiece of wizardly orchestration. As Weilerstein found the human soul at the heart of Unsuk Chin\u2019s unhuggable cello concerto last May, so her 2024 recording of Dzonot continually injects lyrical warmth and emotional accessibility into Ortiz\u2019s potentially abstract ecological sound world. Take her suspended, dissolving cantabile lines in the first movement, the \u201cferal elegance\u201d (Andrew Farach-Colton\u2019s words) she brings to the second movement, or her soaring, long-breathed phrasing in the finale.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that a piece\u2019s intent or message is \u201cextremely important,\u201d when championing new music Weilerstein focuses on something else: \u201cI look for great music that speaks, in my view, more deeply than any one message. I think that [Dzonot] speaks to more universal messages, about bringing us together as human beings and connecting us. That\u2019s what I look for, something that I connect to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weilerstein\u2019s career-long promotion of new music like Dzonot is no judgment on the core concerto repertoire. \u201cThe so-called standard repertoire for cello is very small, five, maybe seven, very beloved cello concertos,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re beloved for a reason. They\u2019re masterpieces. I will never get tired of them. But I\u2019m very restless.\u201d <\/p>\n

She sees the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (for whom she once played at age 21) as a role model for the cellist who honors the core repertoire while never ignoring the music of his own time.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s a great example for me to remain curious and to develop relationships with composers of our time, to really create a solid twenty-first-century repertoire,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That interest in new music always involves risk. \u201cYou\u2019re approaching a score that\u2019s never been touched by anyone. It involves a tremendous amount of trust,\u201d said Weilerstein, noting that the composer \u201chas to trust me to bring it to life, to do well by it, to devote time and care to it. From my side, I have no idea what [the composer] is going to actually do, what direction she is going to go in. There is the risk that maybe I\u2019ve completely misinterpreted what she wanted or don\u2019t get the language or whatever. Thank God that was not the case here . She was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, a video exists of Ortiz telling Weilerstein after Dzonot\u2019s first rehearsal the words every first-performer longs to hear: \u201cI heard things that, honestly, sounded better than what I had in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even for Weilerstein, there\u2019s a limit to how much new music she embraces. In 2025, she premiered three new concertos (Dzonot, Thomas Larcher\u2019s Returning into Darkness, and Richard Blackford\u2019s The Recovery of Paradise), and for her groundbreaking multimedia FRAGMENTS project she premiered another fifteen shorter pieces by prominent composers to connect Bach\u2019s cello suites. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt culminated in my doing the complete FRAGMENTS project, which is six hours of music, at the Spoleto Festival USA in one week. Three of the programs were being played for the first time. It was kind of insane,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of a breather between this explosion of commissions.\u201d But, she quickly adds, \u201cI\u2019m happy to say I\u2019m going to give the European premiere of the Wynton Marsalis concerto this November.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the May 9 -10 performances of Dzonot (only the eighth and ninth ever worldwide), San Diegans can feast on a true meeting of minds between a composer and musician who place rhythm at the very center of their music-making. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cIf somebody speaks to you with just total emotion \u2026 you won\u2019t even understand what they\u2019re saying. Rhythm is what gives everything structure, emotion and purpose,\u201d Weilerstein explained. \u201cThink about pieces that truly move you and make sense at the same time. The rhythm gives it. You have to know where the phrase is beginning and where is the peak and valley. That\u2019s rhythm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But investing emotionally in music is not one of Weilerstein\u2019s\u00a0 concerns. In performing a piece, \u201cthere are many things I have to think about, but that\u2019s one I don\u2019t have to think about. Music always hits me in a very visceral way. Expressing that, channeling that, has been my life challenge, marrying heart and head. This is what I always work on with anything that I\u2019m shaping for the first time. But emotional investment happens\u00a0quite naturally \u2014 automatically.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. (Photo by Evelyn Freja\/courtesy of the artist) Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz\u2019 brilliant and demanding Dzonot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[127069,70920,7974,127070,127071,74,76,75,25937],"class_list":["post-300315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alisa-weilerstein","tag-cello","tag-classical-music","tag-dzonot","tag-gabriel-ortiz","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-symphony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}