June 30

This musical hour from Santa Fe includes virtuosic interpretations of three distinct and deeply innovative compositions. There came a time during the 19th century when the cello escaped its identity as an accompaniment instrument playing a base line and became more of a starring member of an ensemble. In his Serenade for Two Cellos and Piano, the Italian composer and cello virtuoso, Carlo Alfredo Piatti, shows off just what a skillful cellist can do. Here, Mark Kosower and Nicholas Canellakis shine, along with pianist Juho Pohjonen, as the trio performs Piatti’s dazzling gem. Under the longtime artistic direction of composer Marc Neikrug, the Festival continues to perpetuate the chamber music art form through the commissioning of new works. The renowned Escher String Quartet gives the U.S. premiere of the String No. 4 by Julian Anderson, one of today’s most compelling composers. Cellist Brook Speltz describes Anderson’s sound world as “very new yet very familiar. The sounds, the harmonies, the sort of jagged rhythms, the intensity at times, is very fresh and it sounds completely unique to his own language.” The powerhouse program comes to a close as violinist Yura Lee and pianist Gilles Vonsattel play the Sonata in A Minor for Violin and Piano, a fiery work brimming with the feeling of Romanian folk music as envisioned and specified by the remarkable musical imagination of George Enescu.