Midcentury Modern: Carter, Poulenc, Martinu

For one night only, cellist Isaac Pastor-Chermak teams up with longtime collaborating pianists Miles Graber (Carter, Martinu) and Alison Lee (Poulenc) for a program of epic proportions. Three masterpieces for cello and piano, all composed around the year 1950, show us three sides of the postwar sound in Europe and America.

ELLIOTT CARTER spent his entire life and career in New York City, composing some of the most difficult and abstract modernist music in the entire art form. Isaac and Miles have played his cello sonata many times, including recording it on a recent commercial release.

BOHUSLAV MARTINU's cello sonata dates from his time in America during and after World War II, when he and Elliott Carter would have certainly crossed paths in New York City. In contrast to Carter's modernism, Martinu's postwar compositions embrace a fun, neoclassical sound.

FRANCIS POULENC spent his entire life and career in Paris, crafting a truly one-of-a-kind musical style one generation removed from the great Impressionists: bawdy, irreverant, deeply heartfelt, his cello sonata is among the great works in the repertoire.

PROGRAM

Elliott Carter, Cello Sonata (1948)

Bohuslav Martinu, Cello Sonata No.3 (1952)

Francis Poulenc, Cello Sonata (1948)

THE ARTISTS

Isaac Pastor-Chermak, cello

Miles Graber, piano

Alison Lee, piano

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