Fortas Chamber Music Concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and the K-L-R Trio

January 30, 2012, 9:00 pm

Last January, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosted a three-week long festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the center's namesake, President John F. Kennedy.  A special recreation of the Casals White House performance was presented by the Kennedy Center's Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, and featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma, along with renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

On a Monday night in November, 1961, the renowned cellist Pablo Casals performed for President John F. Kennedy at the White House.  The recital was remarkable not only because of Casals' eighty-four years, but because, as an impassioned champion of human rights, Casals had, since 1939, refused to concertize in any country that recognized the Franco regime, including the United States.  

In the new young American president, Casals found a kindred spirit, and as such, agreed to return to the White House to play--the first time since his command performance for President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904!

Featured performances:

Recorded live in the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, January 25, 2011.

COUPERIN Pièces en Concert for Cello and Piano (arr. Paul Bazelaire)
    Yo-Yo Ma, cello
    Joseph Kalichstein, piano

SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano, Op. 70
    Yo-Yo Ma, cello
    Emanuel Ax, piano

MENDELSSOHN Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano in D minor, Op. 49
    The K-L-R Trio

BEETHOVEN Sonata for Cello and Piano in A major, Op. 69 
    Yo-Yo Ma, cello
    Emanuel Ax, piano

CATALAN TRADITIONAL arr. CASALS: El Cant des Ocells (“The Song of the Birds”)
    Yo-Yo Ma, cello
     Emanuel Ax, piano
     The K-L-R Trio