Acclaimed violinist Geneva Lewis, a BBC New Generation Artist, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award recipient and Avery Fisher Career Grant winner celebrated for performances that "speak from and to the heart," leads a string trio with violist Emma Wernig and cellist Jay Campbell in Dmitry Sitkovetsky's arrangement of Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations. Sitkovetsky, the celebrated violinist who first played his transcription in the 1980s, recast the keyboard masterpiece as a dialogue among three voices, so that each line can be heard with new clarity. Puddingstone audiences already know the family's artistry: his nephew, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, performed here last month.
Wernig, a rising star of the viola, won the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition in 2017 and received the Barbirolli Prize at the 2019 Tertis International Viola Competition. She is now the violist of the Doric String Quartet and a regular guest principal with the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Campbell, praised by The New York Times for his "electrifying performances," is the only musician ever to receive two Avery Fisher Career Grants, one as a soloist and one with the JACK Quartet. Hearing these three artists play Bach's masterwork at close range, in the intimate setting of Rough Point, is a rare opportunity.
Bach's Goldberg Variations, among the towering achievements of the keyboard repertoire, take on new color when reimagined for string trio, while live dance lends the music a physical dimension. Karen Roarke's paintings, in which intricate branches trace lyrical patterns against luminous skies, offer a visual counterpart to Bach's compositional design. Her branching lines recall the independent yet interdependent voices of his polyphony, and their recurring rhythms of growth and repetition parallel the work's structure of continual variation on a single foundation. Together, music, movement and image invite the audience to experience Bach's architecture through the ear, the eye and the body.
Small bites and wine/refreshments included.
Doors open at 7:00 Show starts at 7:30 Show concludes at 9:30
