92Y Announces February Concert Series Programming

In the dead of winter, 92Y's February concert programs promise intimacy and warmth, along with some new sounds: world premieres by John Zorn, Natacha Diels, and Marcos Balter form the basis of cellist Jay Campbell's program with pianist Conor Hanick (February 14). Alexi Kenney's solo violin recital includes scores by Du Yun, Kaija Saariaho, Reich, Kurtág, Enescu, and others, interspersed with movements of Bach (February 7).

92Y's new Vocal Series continues to center on Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, the first-ever song cycle and the "series motto." Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke sings it along with two cycles by Schumann (February 13), while bass-baritone Philippe Sly essays An die ferne Geliebte before joining soprano Amanda Majeski in Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch (February 19).

Two leading ensembles round out the month: the famed Vienna Piano Trio, making its 92Y debut (February 25), and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in works by pioneering woman composer Louise Farrenc and by Mendelssohn (February 9). Tickets for all performances are available at 92Y.org.

Friday, February 7 (9 pm): Alexi Kenney, violin

Intrepid violinist Alexi Kenney underlines the connection between Baroque writing, as exemplified by Bach, and present-day solo violin techniques.

Kenney's program interweaves crystalline movements of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin with a stimulating selection of contemporary solo repertoire that expands on 18th century methods of simulating polyphony with a single violin. Purely acoustic works by Enescu, Kurtág, and Saariaho join electroacoustic textures by Du Yun, Steve Reich and Thurídur Jónsdóttir, displaying the sheer variety of techniques used by 20th and 21st century composers to push the limits of solo performance. Kenney has been cited by The New York Times for his "beautifully phrased and delicate playing," as well as his "rich tone."

Sunday, February 9 (3 pm): Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Louise Farrenc was the first woman to win a full professorship at the Paris Conservatoire; appointed in 1842, she was a virtuosic pianist and pedagogue. The undeniable success of her dazzling Nonet seven years later afforded her the leverage to collect a salary equal to that of her male colleagues at the Conservatoire. Here, it precedes Mendelssohn's precocious and beloved Octet, written when the composer was just sixteen years old. Far from impeding its reception, the piece's youthful verve has propelled its lasting legacy.

Thursday, February 13 (7:30 pm): Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Julius Drake, piano

92Y's season-long exploration of the influence of Beethoven on the song cycle continues with works of one of his greatest admirers, Robert Schumann. An die ferne Geliebte, Beethoven's letter to an unnamed distant beloved, is juxtaposed with Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, which sets poems that meditate on love from a female perspective. Following intermission, the bleak beauty of Justinus Kerner's poetry, set by Schumann shortly after his marriage, is yet another view of love from a poet by turns infatuated and desolate. Opera News wrote, "Perhaps no other working mezzo-soprano is as versatile as Sasha Cooke...this is a singer who defies the canon...Thanks to her consistently radiant stage presence and self-possessed drive, it looks like this is only the beginning for the protean mezzo."

Friday, February 14 (9 pm): Jay Campbell, cello + Conor Hanick, piano, with Tara Helen O'Connor, flute, and Sae Hashimoto, vibraphone: world premieres by Balter + Zorn

"Once Jay Campbell wraps himself around the cello," wrote the Washington Post, "you're willing to follow him anywhere." Undertaken with his frequent collaborator, the "brilliant" and "effortlessly elegant" (New York Times) pianist Conor Hanick, this program involves the premieres of new works by iconoclast John Zorn, puckish experimentalist Natacha Diels