Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Matt Haimovitz, 21st century cellist

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He is without a doubt the first artist to make the leap to the Celebrity Series from headlining at Central Square rock 'n' roll grotto T.T. The Bear's Place (and for an entire national tour of similar venues) as he did in 2004 (playing Bach, mind you). Cellist Matt Haimovitz will be back in Boston (OK, Cambridge) touring behind his newest release, Goulash, a recording of all things Bela Bartok and Transylvania, that includes a reworking of Led Zepplin's Kashmir for an all-cello ensemble ("I realized there was a Turkish mode in this piece . . . and this fits perfectly on my Turkish-Hungarian-Romanian triumvirate for Goulash!"). Joining Haimovitz on Goulash are guitarist John McLaughlin, pianist Jean Marchand, DJ Olive, the all-cello ensemble UCCELLO, violinist Andy Simionescu, and the ensemble early music ensemble, Constantinople.



Haimovitz and UCCELLO will bring a program of Tod Machover, Gyorgy Ligeti, Zoltan Kodaly, David Sanford, Adrian Pop, Osvaldo Golijov, and Luna Pearl Woolf to Cambridge's Sanders Theatre, Friday, February 3 at 8 p.m.



Haimovitz talked with Steve Inskeep and played Jimi Hendrix's famous Woodstock recording of The Jimiatwoodstock_1 Star-Spangled Banner (arranged by Haimovitz for solo cello) on National Public Radio's All Things Considered (December 27, 2003). Haimovitz talks about how he enjoyed seeing unusual combinations of music fans in his audiences during his groundbreaking tour of rock clubs and other typically non-classical nightspots (think punk rockers and Bach-heads elbowing up to the same bar).
Haimovitz was also heard more recently on NPR's Weekend Edition on December 5th where he talked about the Goulash project.



Physical_graffiti_1Try this comparison for fun: compare a sample of Led Zepplin's original Kashmir here (scroll down to access samples) with Matt Haimovitz and UCCELLO's version here.





Update: Read this more recent post on Matt Haimovitz's Boston itinerary: Cellist About Town



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