There’s always an air of excitement accompanying a season opening performance. The electricity was certainly evident at the Folly Theater Friday, October 9 when the Harriman-Jewell Series began its 62nd Season with the superb duo of Alisa Weilerstein, cellist, and pianist Inon Barnatan.
Weilerstein is undoubtedly one of the world’s premier cellists, with a thriving international career as a soloist with many of the finest orchestras. She appeared with the Kansas City Symphony in 2024 as part of director Matthias Pintscher’s inaugural season. Barnatan also travels the world as an orchestral soloist, chamber musician and solo recitalist. He will return to town in February 2027 to perform with the KC Symphony. Barnatan quipped from the stage that “our first performance together was in 2008, which officially makes our partnership an adult.” He also mentioned that they performed at the Folly in their initial year touring together.
The best chamber music performances feature not only excellent playing and repertory, but also a sense of musical intimacy and understanding, where the totality of the performers is somehow greater than the sum of their parts. Weilerstein and Barnatan demonstrated this “hands down” throughout the duo recital. They also programmed the performance particularly well, with each half beginning with a shorter piece, followed by a weightier sonata.
They opened the evening with Manuel De Falla’s Suite Populaire Espagnole, a charming work that originated as a group of songs set to piano accompaniment and that reflected folk traditions from his native Spain. It was arranged in 1925 for solo instruments by Maurice Maréchal and championed by the composer’s friend and iconic cellist Pablo Casals.
The work contained six movements differing in tempo and flavor. From the outset, Weilerstein’s warm, luxuriant and singing tone was outstanding. Barnatan played with style and panache, but I wished throughout the piece that he had played louder to balance better with the cello. The first movement, “El Paño moruno” (“The Moorish cloth”) was attractive and filled with Spanish flavor, while the second selection, “Nana,” was a lullaby that featured an expressive cello line over a bell-like piano part. The finale, “Jota” was a fast and passionate dance played with hammered piano passages and vibrant cello lines.
Frédéric Chopin is best known for his solo piano works, but he also composed several chamber works for cello and piano. Weilerstein and Barnatan presented an exquisite performance of his Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65. Weilerstein mentioned from the stage that they performed it in their prior visit to the Folly, and they also released a recording of the work on the Decca label in 2015.
The Chopin sonata featured the performers at their romantic peak of the evening, with the performance filled with lyrical beauty and technical brilliance. Barnatan played with an elegant and highly expressive touch, while Weilerstein’s warm tone was breathtaking.
In was in the first and third movements that it was most evident just how well the players “read” each other. The expressive pauses, the rhythmic stretching of phrases and crescendos and decrescendos were perfectly in sync. The slow but short third movement featured a simple but poignant and emotionally charged melody that went back and forth between the instruments. The blending and way each instrument went from foreground to background was seamless and highly impressive. The finale capped off the work with technical brilliance.
The second half opened with selections from Preludes, Op. 34 by Dmitri Shostakovich, originally written for piano, but arranged for cello and piano by Lera Auerbach. While the original contained 24 brief selections, Weilerstein and Barnatan presented what the cellist described as “our favorites.” The most convincing was the fifth, (Prelude No. 15), a waltzlike piece that was rhythmically propulsive near the end.
The performance concluded with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 19. The work alternates technically brilliant sections with dreamy, rhapsodic playing. Weilerstein and Barnatan again played with consummate technique and passion. The second movement, an allegro with a sinister theme, was playful and satisfying. The third movement, “Andante,” showed the composer wearing his heart on his sleeve, and the players responded in kind. The finale, “Allegro mosso” was exciting at times, though not as memorable melodically. Barnatan and Weilerstein played expansively and with musical pyrotechnics.
The Harriman-Jewell Series features a variety of performances in the months ahead, including “Stars of American Ballet,” actor Patrick Page and Les Arts Florissants with William Christie and Paul Agnew. For more information, visit their website: www.hjseries.org.
This concert was reviewed on Friday, October 9, 2026.
